There was a perfect, marvelous occasion to prove that love can be an amazing, strong force, a statement which was made in the book itself, and not only was it totally ignored, the statement itself was completely fucking useless to the main character!

Wait, which "the book" are we talking about? I thought he did a decent job in The Lost Hero of giving Aphrodite's children some real powers.

I agree with what you said about Demeter, though. I'm hoping her poor treatment is just because there hasn't been a major character from that cabin yet.