Summary: Percy is back for his senior year of high school.
It has been over a decade since I originally read all of the Percy Jackson books. My son read all the Percy Jackson books last year and I had not realized until then that in 2023 and 2024, two new books were released focusing on Percy, Annabeth and Grover. That original trio is what I loved about the original Percy Jackson books and I didn’t like the extended second series as much.
Percy is trying to make up for missing his junior year (because of Hera) and at an alternative high school. Annabeth is doing well at a NYC boarding school near where Percy is attending. Percy is back living at home with his mom and stepdad. And while things are busy because Percy is taking a ton of classes to try to finish school on time, the distraction from the supernatural world hasn’t stopped.
The plan is for Annabeth and Percy to both go to college at New Rome University in California the next school year. But Zeus is behind throwing Percy a curve ball. He has to get three recommendation letters from three different Gods to be accepted. So in addition to his normal school work, he has to complete three quests. Each of these Senior Year adventure books is another quest.
Percy is older and there is some chaste romance between Percy and Annabeth, but this is still a young YA or middle grade book. There is enough action to keep it interesting and enough character development that to keep it from just being mindless action scenes strung together. The gods that are involved are less central gods and that does keep it from being a rehash of previous books. I read the first and immediately started the second of this subseries. The third will likely be released in the fall of 2025.
The Chalice of the Gods: The Senior Year Adventures by Rick Riordan Purchase Links: Paperback, Kindle Edition, Audible.com Audiobook