Book Review ~ The Mark of Athena

The Mark of Athena (Heroes of Olympus #3)
by Rick Riordan
published by Hyperion
genre: MG/YA, Fantasy, Mythology

Summary (Goodreads): Annabeth is terrified. Just when she's about to be reunited with Percy—after six months of being apart, thanks to Hera—it looks like Camp Jupiter is preparing for war. As Annabeth and her friends Jason, Piper, and Leo fly in on the Argo II, she can’t blame the Roman demigods for thinking the ship is a Greek weapon. With its steaming bronze dragon masthead, Leo's fantastical creation doesn't appear friendly. Annabeth hopes that the sight of their praetor Jason on deck will reassure the Romans that the visitors from Camp Half-Blood are coming in peace.

And that's only one of her worries. In her pocket Annabeth carries a gift from her mother that came with an unnerving demand: Follow the Mark of Athena. Avenge me. Annabeth already feels weighed down by the prophecy that will send seven demigods on a quest to find—and close—the Doors of Death. What more does Athena want from her?

Annabeth's biggest fear, though, is that Percy might have changed. What if he's now attached to Roman ways? Does he still need his old friends? As the daughter of the goddess of war and wisdom, Annabeth knows she was born to be a leader, but never again does she want to be without Seaweed Brain by her side.

My Thoughts: This book is told from four different POVs, Percy, Annabeth, Leo, and Piper. I don't mind getting the story from all sides, especially when the group seemed to split up a lot so you were only getting one to two POVs from each story line. That said, I didn't really care for Piper. It seemed to slow the story down whenever it came to her chapters. This stems more from not caring about her and Jason's relationship than anything. It seemed to come across as whining more often than not. It did not bring the book down and I'm sure others will not have a problem with it, it just did not work for me.
Even though I like the mix of the different myths (Greek vs Roman) character wise Percy and Annabeth are  still my favorites., with Leo moving way up on the list. Annabeth's quest to find something that the Roman's stole from her mother was the highlight for me. Following her as she had to take on all of this by herself when she has spent most of her life in a group being taken care of was a great show of character growth. We also got to see this with Percy and Jason realizing that they did not always have to be the leaders and things turned out better when they worked together.
Overall this was another great story from Rick Riordan that ended with just as many questions as it did answers. Looking forward to the next book to see how Percy and Annabeth get out of the trouble they found themselves in at the end of the book.

Rating: 5