I love Rick Riordan books with all my heart and soul and the MCGA series has been no exception. But when reading both PJO and HOO, I've found myself disappointed with the concluding book.

Thankfully, I can say that this book defied all my expectations and is now my favourite in the series!!

(note: I will be using she/her pronouns for Alex because those are the pronouns used at the end of the book)

Without going into spoilers, there's not much that can be said about the plot other than it's a fun and exciting quest as all Rick Riordan books are. I doubt there will be many people disappointed with this particular quest. The final act in particular is absolutely incredible and I cried for the entirety of it.

There's nothing that can be said about the writing, it's the classic, hilarious first person POV writing Rick Riordan is known for. Magnus is honestly such a fun voice to read from and I'm really going to miss having his point of view.

I think Magnus has become my favourite Riordan protagonist?? [EDIT: he definitely is!] I know, I know, I still love Percy with all my heart and soul, but there's just something about Magnus that makes me fall in love with him so unconditionally. I think a large part of this love is that he's not really a very fight-y character, something which is really refreshing in a middle grade adventure series.

If you already thought Sam was the ultimate badass, she gets even cooler in this book because she's just as badass but she's also in the middle of Ramadan. I love that this book looked deeper into her faith and has established it as an important part of her character, but not the only important part of her character.

I can't talk about Hearth and Blitz separately. These two take a bit more of a backseat in this book for the first half or so but it gave opportunities for other characters to step into the forefront, which was nice. They continue to be amazing and the scene at the end of chapter twenty-six with them was honestly the best thing I've ever read.

Alex continues to be my favourite character. You learn much more about her past, especially in regards to family of hers that she doesn't hate, which I loved. You also get to see a slightly softer side to her, something that is always my favourite part of reading about an emotionally closed-off character. Also, her outfits continue to be incredible.

You learn so much more about T.J., Mallory & Halfborn in here, including the details of their deaths, their families and the way the world was when they died. T.J. is probably my favourite out of the three of them, but I genuinely love all of them.

Jack falls in love and gets his heart broken, all in the space of under 50 pages, and it's hilarious. He is still the ultimate comic relief while also showing a bit of a more sensitive side at the very end.

Percy & Annabeth aren't in it for very long (something I was very thankful for) but just enough for me to appreciate their characters just that little bit more. Although Annabeth at the end makes me really worried for TOA 3.

I'm not going to mention the main romance because that's a spoiler (even though you all probably already know who it is and yes, it was done beautifully) but oh my god, the friendship in this book is honestly amazing!!! Magnus gets a chance to connect with each main character, usually multiple times, and the final scene with Loki brought me to tears because of how beautiful it was.

This book is perfect, go buy it and love it right now!