The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

Rick Riordan is one of my favorite authors. His books are my absolute favorites, especially his Percy Jackson series. One of Rick's newest fantasy fictions The Lost Hero is the first book of the continuation of the Percy Jackson series. In this new series, Jason, one of the main characters, wakes up to find himself in a bus full of kids. Normal, right? Wrong. He has no idea where he is, who he is, or what the heck the girl next to him is doing holding his hand. It turns out, he was put there for a specific reason, but the question is, what is it? Who is this Percy character that people keep talking about? Why is he missing?
The second main character's name is Piper. Piper thought she finally had a boyfriend. She thought that she finally had friends. But she soon finds out that the whole 2 months she had with her "boyfriend" was fake. On top of that, 3 days previously she had a hellish nightmare. In this nightmare, a dark voice told her to follow certain instructions or her father was going to be killed. If she chose to follow the instructions, her dad would be spared, but her friends would perish, She had no idea what it meant, but her dad had been missing for a while and his "lovely" assistant doesn't know where he is either. After all she goes through, all she really wants to do is die, but she wants so desperately to save her dad and her friends.
The last, but definitely not least, main character is an awesome little dude named Leo. He's super amazing with metal and springs, he can make just about anything you could possibly ask him to. Throughout the book, he's always inventing and fixing all kinds of gadgets and gizmos. He has a killer sense of humor (even when he's so close to death) and is altogether a great guy. Despite his ingeniousness, he has a problem. His abilities end up costing his mother's life and getting him into a lot of trouble. He keeps having dreams of this beautiful ship that he had no idea his mind could dream up. What is this mystery ship? Why is it important?
This amazing story will thrill you, scare you, make you feel joy, sadness, terror, hatred, envy and love. I ran through many emotions while reading this enticing book. Will Jason ever find his memory? Will Piper save her friends or her dad? Where's Percy? These are only a fraction of the questions I had after reading this book. This story definitely taught me all about Greek and Roman mythology (along with many other things). I think that's my favorite part about it. Even though it's a fictional book, it's still jam-packed with adventure stories and legends in mythology that may or may not be fact. I both hate it and love it at the same time. I hate it because there's a HUGE cliffhanger at the end. I love it because Rick Riordan's writing is spectacular and it kept me up all night reading for just one more chapter. There were no dull moments in this book and all the exciting parts were more exciting than ever. If you read this book, you'll know why so many people are so worked up about Jason, Piper, and Leo's adventures. A quick warning though: If you choose to read this book, you MUST read the Percy Jackson series first. Otherwise, nothing will make sense and you'll just end up lost and confused. So, make haste and read Rick Riordan's beautiful works of art before the next one comes out next fall! Grade A.