Jenn's Review: The Titan's Curse

Summary:  When the goddess Artemis goes missing, she is believed to have been kidnapped. And now it's up to Percy and his friends to find out what happened. Who is powerful enough to kidnap a goddess? They must find Artemis before the winter solstice, when her influence on the Olympian Council could swing an important vote on the war with the titans. Not only that, but first Percy will have to solve the mystery of a rare monster that Artemis was hunting when she disappeared—a monster rumored to be so powerful it could destroy Olympus forever.  ~product summary

Review:  I have held off of reading The Titan's Curse because Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series always sucks me in for more than one adventure. The danger of course, is holding off too long and forgetting where you are in all the Greek myths. Luckily, Percy isn't as well versed as he should be in his myths, so the other characters constantly have to explain things for all of us.

Titan's Curse is action packed and hard to put down. It starts with a simple recon and retrieval mission that goes terribly wrong. Percy has some tough decisions to make, and for the most part, he does well and keeps a cool head. He's grown as a demi-god so much in such a short time. But decisions are getting complicated as the lines between right and wrong become blurry, as they often do just prior to an all out war. And on top of it all, Percy needs to sort out his normal teenage feelings for Annabeth... even if those feelings are forbidden.

This one was cover to cover action... it rarely let up.  Between that and the situation, it felt like it was missing a little of the relationship dynamics, but really, that's the only fault I have with it.  The new (and new-old) character's introduced were fascinating and well developed.  I wanted to spend more time getting to know all of them.  There were some bits that were laugh out loud funny, and lots of Rick Riordan's trademark witticism in the dialogue.  Whereas this series gets a lot of play for being a great boy's series, and it is, I think it's also fair to point out that there are many strong women and girls in the series making it equally accessible to girls who crave action and adventure.

Once again, Rick Riordan has done it again, throwing in a classic grabbing twist at the end that is all too compelling. I must read the next book in the series, The Battle of the Labyrinth, because I can't wait to find out where Percy and the rest of the Half-Bloods go from here.

Final Take:  4/5