#1 The Red Pyramid ★★★★☆
#2 The Throne of Fire ★★★☆☆
#3 The Serpent's Shadow ★★★☆☆

“The right choice is hardly ever the easy choice.”

If you've seen my review for The Red Pyramid, the first book in this series, then you already know this trilogy had a brilliant start for me. I spent the entire first book so pleased and delighted, wondering why on earth nobody ever raves about this series like they do with RR's other series! Sadly, about halfway through this book, I began to see why, because it was a pretty big let-down from book 1.

My two complaints about The Red Pyramid were the pacing (certain important pieces of plot feeling very rushed and under-explained) and the forced romances, and both of those issues were just magnified further in this middle installment. On top of that, the parts of this book that weren't rushed created the opposite problem: they were slow and boring. I don't think I was genuinely happy with any of the pacing in this entire installment.

On top of that, the romance takes a big spotlight in this one, whether it's Carter's weird obsession with Zia, a girl he barely knows and who knows him even less, or Sadie and her creepy love triangle with Walt and Anubis, who is not a teen reincarnation in a modern body, but the literal, several-thousand-year-old god. Sure, he's in a 16-year-old boy's body (which is still a bit off — Sadie turns 13 in the beginning of this book), but it doesn't negate the fact that we have a 13-year-old trying to date this ancient, immortal entity. I honestly usually don't point out age gaps in MG or YA books this much, but everything about this ship skeeved me out.

There is still a lot of fun humor and adventure in this installment, and we meet some very lovable side characters, but all in all, I was pretty bummed out and had lost a lot of my enthusiasm for the trilogy by the time this one finished.

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Buddy read with Ellyn! ♥