Bound To Stay Bound

School Library Journal - 06/01/2019 Gr 5–8—Astraea is a Titan teen whose best friend is Zephyr, a cloned granddaughter of Pegasus. It has been 15 years since Olympus was destroyed. To encourage friendship between the Titans and Olympians now living in the same world, all children are sent to the same school. Astraea is reluctant to attend, and tension runs high among the students. As Astraea meets Tryn from Xanadu, weird things happen on Titus, like the arrival of Earthlings and a change in the adult leaders, who seem to be possessed. Banding together with a boy from Earth named Jake and a herd of belligerent centaurs, the kids try to find out what secrets lie in the rooms under the school and save Titus in the process. Though the kids all have special powers, they also have regular teenage problems, and O'Hearn uses humor to lighten the mood. The teens' endeavors to understand those from different worlds may inspire readers to do the same here on Earth. VERDICT Fans of Rick Riordan's series will be taken with these characters who learn to be heroes in order to rescue those they love.—Elizabeth Kahn, Patrick F. Taylor Science & Technology Academy, Avondale, LA - Copyright 2019 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Booklist - 09/01/2019 Jake lands head-first on the pavement following a skateboarding accident and awakens on Titus, home of the Titans, Olympians, and other mythological creatures, who are currently living together in an uneasy peace. There he meets Titan Astraea, Centaur Zephyr, silver-skinned human/Rhean Tryn, and other students from the newly built Arcadium who are hot on the trail of a potential planetary takeover by what appears to be their parents! Titans’ cliff-hanger ending hints at the beginning of another series, in the vein of (and continuing some of the plotlines from) O’Hearn’s Pegasus series. There are brief mentions of Emily, Pegasus, and the CRU from the earlier series, and (spoiler alert!) cloning makes another appearance. Like in her earlier books, the writing is sometimes didactic or clichéd, and O'Hearn's creative tweaks on mythology aren't explained and may confuse some readers. However, as a school story, it speaks to bullies, emotional control, and diversity (characters are winged, silver-skinned, and even vampiric), which is bound to pique kids' interest. - Copyright 2019 Booklist.