Book: The Mark of Athena (The Heroes of Olympus #3) by Rick Riordan
Rating: 5 stars
Review:
The journey for Percy, Annabeth, Leo, Hazel, Frank, Jason and Piper continue first with Annabeth, Leo, Jason, Piper and satyr/chaperone Coach Hedge arriving at the Roman Camp Jupiter to reunite with Percy who had been missing for nearly six months (and not to mention he had gone on a
Camp Jupiter quest with Hazel and Frank). The group was also there to see if they could join forces with Camp Jupiter to stop the reawakening of Gaea. The arrival of the group also would have had Jason meeting fellow camper and praetor Reyna but due to his "relationship" with Piper he doesn't seem to want to acknowledge their friendship. Reyna also has a connection with Percy and Annabeth, she met them while they were on another quest (see book:
Percy Jackson and The Sea of Monsters)
Despite some slight animosity between Camp Jupiter and the group it seems as if there might be a united front. However, something awful happened and it caused Camp Jupiter to issue a call of war. This impromptu change of plans had the group which now includes Frank and Hazel immediately leaving the camp and start their quest to find Hazel's brother Nico di Angelo.
Keeping away from the Romans is not the heroes only worry, Annabeth is trying to redeem her mother by trying to follow the Mark of Athena which hopefully will lead her to something that has been lost for centuries. The lost treasure could also mend the rift between both camps.
This was a fast-paced and exciting story. The only downside to me was Piper Mclean, she is a useless annoying character and to some extent so is Jason Grace. I thought Jason was a total jerk in regards to how he treated Reyna and throughout the story he was really dull and useless most of the time. It's hard to argue against Piper being useless when she states it herself in one scene and the story backs up her claim because she hardly did anything beside obsess over Jason. Throughout the story all she does is think about Jason and how they will live happily ever after. Her every waking moment is centered around Jason and nothing else really. She wasn't that bad in
The Lost Hero but in this story she was unbearable.
And the last thing I wanted to read was Piper's Jason obsessed point of view that slowed down the story but unfortunately she was one out of the four point of views the reader got, the others were: Percy, Annabeth and Leo.
I thought the story and all the characters minus the two I mentioned above were amazing and the story was great. The story was full of action and adventure. Annabeth continues to be awesome and showed that who needs powers when you have smarts. This was also a very relationship heavy story with Percy and Annabeth, Hazel and Frank (and possibly Hazel and Leo) and Jason and Piper.
To end my review I love that you get growth and development with these characters (minus Jason and Piper) you get see how Percy and Annabeth have grown since the first book. I love that Leo is stepping into the spotlight and no longer feels like he's a 7th wheel and Hazel's past is also connected to Leo in an interesting way. I also like how the adventures have become even more intense. This really was a fantastic read and I can't wait to read the fourth book.
Side Note: Since the book was sort of Annabeth centric with her quest, I wish she had been the one on the cover. That would have been awesome.
