Mark Of Athena

Mark Of Athena cover. I like the British one more. But this one's good too!  

I didn't expect that ending.
I did NOT EXPECT THAT ENDING!
But let me begin from the beginning.
Mark Of Athena by Rick Riordan is by far the best book in the Heroes Of Olympus series. The Lost Hero was nice enough, The Son Of Neptune was even better, however Mark Of Athena takes the cake.
The book starts when the Greek trireme Argo II reaches Camp Jupiter. The attempts to unite the Greeks and Romans fails when Leo Valdez, the creator of Argo II is possesed by an eidolon. Due to this, Leo destroys most of the New Rome and whatever attempts that had been made by Annabeth Chase and the rest to unite the two sets of demigods fails. Along with Percy Jackson (one of my all-time favourite fictional heroes), Frank Zhang and Hazel Levesque, Annabeth, Leo, Piper and Jason embark a journey to Greece to shut the Doors Of Death and prevent the destruction of the world by the evil earth goddess Gaia.
The demigods fight not just through their strength, but through their wisdom as well. Like Percy uses his brains to throw off Chrysaor and his pirates (half-dolphin, half-men) by lying that Lord Dionysus is in the ship  while Hazel, Piper pretend to have shaking fits and Frank turns into a dolphin to scare the pirates. Also, when Annabeth makes Arachne, the mother of spiders, weave her own trap. Those were one of the best moments in the book. And that shows that the demigods don't just need super powers to save their necks, they can get out of such situations using their brains as well. I know I said that before. But I can't help saying the same thing again.
The Hazel-Leo-Frank triangle was also pretty good. I actually didn't expected that, to tell you the truth. But it was pretty interesting all the same.
This book is fast paced, has the right amount of action, romance and dollops of humour, however, the ending, THAT ENDING!
I feel like strangling myself, or worse, the author for giving such a sad ending and a cliffhanger.
Sorry, that was an overreaction.
Anyway, moving on.
Percy and Annabeth fall into Tartarus after saving the Athena Parthenos (which is the symbol of unity of Greeks and Romans) and the others are really upset. Although Bacchus, the Roman form of Dionysus had warned Percy that his journey was going to be more difficult. And I don't know why but I have a sneaky feeling that Percy's fatal flaw might be acting up.
The person who's most upset with this turn of events is me, the reader.
I really don't know why but I'm eagerly waiting for October to come - for House Of Hades.
Ah, well, so long!