First Line: "Even before he got electrocuted, Jason was having a rotten day." 
 I've read several of Rick Riordan's other books, and at this point I have pretty high expectations of his novels. I didn't really get into the Percy Jackson series until the third book, but after that it was completely epic. The last one was the best, and I was excited to start this spin-off series. I'd heard from a couple people that it was actually better that PJO. The Heroes of Olympus series' books are all pretty hefty in comparison, and I'd be lying if I said I sped through The Lost Hero. It took me quite a long time to finish it, but it wasn't entirely the book's fault. I really appreciate the cover - it's cool to see Festus, the mechanical dragon, and the three protagonists of the story. 
 Jason is the first new character we meet when the book begins. There's nothing wrong with him, but he lacks a lot the charm Percy had. I still don't feel very connected to him, simply because there's nothing about him that's very memorable. Hopefully I'll start to like him more in later books. I also had some problems connecting with Piper - I can't even put my finger on it, but there's something about her that's really annoying. She waited way too long to tell her friends about her father's kidnapping - she could have saved herself a lot of inner turmoil by just talking about it sooner. I realize that it was probably meant to create tension, but I just disliked the whole aspect of the story. And her romance with Jason was just kind of there - I didn't really care if they got together or not. Since I have no strong feelings about either of them individually, together as a couple they're just meh. Leo was the real savior here. I enjoyed all his chapters and his personality. He's funny and lighthearted but at the same time has a very troubled past. And of course I loved seeing the old characters - Annabeth, Chiron, etc. I'm hoping they will appear more later on. 
 There's this sense of lighthearted humor in these books, even during the action sequences where the narrators could possibly die. It makes them all a lot of fun, and I really love Riordan's writing. Honestly I thought The Lost Hero was a bit too long - parts of it really dragged and when I was reading about characters I didn't really like I had nothing in the plot to distract me. That's part of why I had a hard time getting through it. When I wasn't hearing about Piper's annoying problem or Jason's flat personality, I was treated to long travel sequences. Even some of the action felt kind of uninteresting until the end. When I finally got to the last hundred pages, I couldn't put it down. As usual, I was fascinated by the Greek mythology, and I loved the ending. The thing is, even though The Lost Hero is not one of my favorites, I still liked parts of it and I realize that I didn't get invested in PJO until later on, so I'm assuming the same thing will happen here. I will happily continue on with this series because I'm curious about the seven demigod prophecy, and I'm confident the next books will be better. 
 3 stars