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

“Fair means everyone gets what they need. And the only way to get what you need is to make it happen yourself.”

I grew up a huge fan of Egyptian mythology and history, plus I loved the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series when I (finally) picked it up a couple of years ago, so it was long overdue that I pick up the Kane Chronicles trilogy. I felt like I'd never heard of people raving about this series nearly as much as any of RR's other series, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but within just a few chapters of the audiobook for this one, I was so impressed! Sadie and Carter had such distinct, entertaining voices, I loved the banter and bickering between the two of them, and more than anything, I absolutely adored how quickly the two of them fell into these protective, caring sibling feelings for each other despite having been apart so much in their childhoods.

While the plot itself felt rushed and convenient more than a few times, that's something I generally expect from a lot of MG books, so it didn't take away from my enjoyment too much. On the other hand, I really loved the casual representation with Sadie and Carter being biracial and the commentary on how Carter lived through so many different experiences than Sadie, with Carter being dark-skinned and Sadie being white-passing.

I think the only big detractor from my enjoyment of this first installment was the weird, forced beginnings of romance here, which proved to be a big issue later in the series, sadly. I don't care for romance in MG novels to begin with, but especially romance as unnatural as the ships we see in this series. That said, they were minor in The Red Pyramid, so this first book still got an easy 4 stars from me!

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Buddy read with Ellyn! ♥