The Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan

  Apparently this winter break for me included catching up on series that I may have left unattended too long.  Enter "Throne of Fire" the second entry into the Kane chronicles.  The Kane chronicles follow Sadie and Carter Kane, godlings from the ancient house of Egypt who we first became familiar with in "The Red Pyramid".
    Rick Riordan is a man to be respected, for sure.  He has used this series intelligently to interest people in Egyptian mythology and history like he used Percy Jackson for Greece.  The journey of the Kane family in this novel pulls at your heartstrings as the two children learn to truly stand on their own in this book.  They mature and grow, and of course make tough decisions out of bad choices all around.  I enjoyed the addition of Walt and the way Mr. Riordan uses informal word choice fitting of his teenage main characters throughout much of the book.
    This series still doesn't rank above that of Percy and his mates, but I felt this book took it up higher on that scale for sure.  Four smiles and a tear because that hard-exterior Bes got to me a bit.