User blog comment:SayuriDarling/The Mark of Athena Official Discussion/@comment-86.28.255.73-20121005181603

That was DEFINATELY the best book in the Heroes of Olympus so far. I particularly liked how the Leo-Frank-Hazel love triangle was handled. Especially Hazel- I expected her to act like most girls in fictional love triangles do- having mixed feelings, kissing both, tagging both boys along and feeling sorry for themselves (like THE INFAMOUS BELLA SWAN and sort of Katniss Everdeen-sorry HG fans!!!). Hazel on the other hand, even without her point of view, clearly knew who she wanted, was not going to play with both of their minds, and the only thing that drew her to Leo was pure curiousity (I mean who wouldn't- with how much he looked like Sammy). There wasn't enough of her in the book though- she barely did anything unfortunately. Although I suppose that's just because she didn't have a POV.

Frank was pretty good too. Maybe a LITTLE too mean to Leo but it was clearly out of insecurity and terror with Leo's fire power and similarity to Sammy, not actual hate. Him turning into a goldfish was the only part of the book that had TEARS coming out of my eyes from laughter. I can't say much about him since it wasn't his POV but he wasn't too sidelined (unlike Jason and Hazel).

Leo was my favourite character in this book!! RR really made me feel sorry for him (almost as much as i did for Reyna)- I mean with everyone else on the ship being couples and the unfriendliness from Frank AND the whole possessed-Roman-camp attacking he was forced to do at the beginning, I couldn't help but love him. He did have a lot of low self esteem and constantly compared himself to the others- but seeing his situation- the awkward third wheel (SEVENTH wheel actually)- I think that this is his fatal flaw. I also particularly liked his 'relationship' with Annabeth- as the only person who he can talk about engineering and stuff with (I don't want this to become all lovetriangley but I really like this friendship). I also LOVED Leo's reaction to Archimedes- being a bit of a maths geek- I related to him a lot and almost fangirled as much as him. I could go on and on about Leo (particularly his narrating in the final chapter and the hilarious/ sad narcissus/echo scene) but I should probably stop.

I'm starting to warm towards the Reyna /Leo pairing. I can't say there's any chemistry since they've barely met but we still can't say there won't be. I know they're opposites but that's what makes Percabeth great in my opinion. I wouldn't want Jason with Reyna anyway- they're both leaders (but not like Percy and Annabeth- who are two different types of leaders)- Jason needs someone more dependent like Piper (I'm not one of those Piper-haters but she's certainly not as strong or independent as Reyna so she fits with Jason fine). And the girls Leo's expressed interest in (like Thalia) are quite similar in personality to Reyna. They just need to spend lots of time together to know each other.

Wow this was long. Sorry guys. I should probably make a proper wiki account :s