On Nott: A Review of Dark Frost by Jennifer Estep

I received an ARC of Dark Frost from the author in exchange for an honest review.

This is the third book in the Mythos Academy series, featuring a gypsy named Gwen. Gwen is a champion of the goddess Nike, and she's charged with finding and hiding a special dagger. This dagger has the ability to free the evil god, Loki, who would unleash chaos on the world.

Positive Comments:

I find Gwen extremely charming. I like that she's a comic book geek. She's blossomed a great deal since book one, going from loner to a confident young woman who supports her friends and flirts with Logan.

Logan is sexy as hell. He's a tormented bad boy, which is an extremely popular archetype, and I can't get enough of him. I'm anxious to see Logan and Gwen finally start to connect on a deeper level.

The secondary characters are fantastic. In this on, I give special mention to Grandma Frost, who kicks ass and bakes cookies. I love that. I also loved Nott, Gwen's mythical wolf companion.

This story was action packed from start to finish. It opens with a battle, has a mystery in the middle and finishes off with some big, game changing events.

Critical Comments:

Some of Gwen's actions--or lack of action--maddened me. She makes questionable (arguably stupid) decisions, and then when things go bad as a result, she survives only by luck and because her friends rescue her. I want to believe that she will improve in this--that soon Gwen will be standing on her own feet. But three books in, I expected more.

Recommendation:

I'm very fond of this series. I'd recommend it to fantasy fans, young adults, and those who love mythology. 4 stars.

Buy from Amazon: Dark Frost: A Mythos Academy Novel

On Frost: A Review of Kiss of Frost by Jennifer Estep

I happened to win an ARC of this book back in October. It's the second book in the Mythos Academy (see my review of book one HERE). I had mixed feelings about the first one. This one, on the other hand, left me feeling pleasantly surprised.

In Kiss of Frost, Gwen is convinced that a Reaper is out to kill her because of the events of the first novel (which is all I can say, and still try to be spoiler free here). Gwen is still relatively unskilled when it comes to weapons and self-defense, but she does have a talent for investigation. Thus, wanting to prove herself and uncover her would-be killer, Gwen uses her psycometry powers to sift through her classmates' secrets.


Positive Comments:

I liked the winter setting and themes. I fully expected this book to be set entirely at the academy, which would have been fine. Instead, most of the story takes place at a ski resort where the Academy hosts a Winter Carnival. The change of scenery makes the story seem fresh.

As I said in my first review, the characters are quite interesting and thoughtfully written. In this book Gwen has finally started to come out of her shell socially, but she's still a fairly geeky and introverted character. I love Daphne, Gwen's best friend, who is the perfect blend of cheerleader and warrior princess, with a dash of computer nerd on top. Logan, the obvious love interest, is still hot and intriguing, and his character is finally beginning to show some depth. I also liked how the background characters were handled; Oliver, Carson, Preston, and so forth. The author manages to give them distinct and interesting personalities in very few pages.

As an aside, yes, there is actual kissing in Kiss of Frost. But I'm not telling you who kisses whom, because that would be a spoiler.

The overarching plot of the series seems to be headed in an interesting direction. This story by itself is pretty small and not overly exciting, but it does feel like it's building to something epic.

Critical Comment:

Gwen makes some questionable judgement calls. There are times when she seems to be willfully refusing to see obvious facts. This is frustrating for the reader, but I will acknowledge that Gwen is new to her role in the Mythos world, so a few mistakes may be excusable.

The only other complaint I have is that these books have a lot of untapped potential. The author has taken the time to build a world where all gods and goddesses and mythological creatures from all cultures exist, but she doesn't do much with them. Instead we get mortals fighting other mortals, with a little help from a giant killer wolf. There is so much more that could be done with this kind of world building, and as much as I enjoyed the story a part of me is disappointed at the wasted opportunity.

In the end, my expectations for this book were met and I dare say exceeded slightly. In the world of YA fantasy novels, these aren't anything special or ground-breaking, but they are enjoyable. I recommend them. 4 stars.

On Gypsies: A Review of Touch of Frost by Jennifer Estep

Touch of Frost by Jennifer Estep is this month's book club pick over at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. I just finished it last night, with mixed feelings. Primarily I liked the book. But the issues I have with it are many, although all very minor.

The book is told in first person narrative with Gwen as the narrator. Gwen is the new girl at Mythos Academy, a school for teens descended from the gods and champions of classic mythology. Most of the teens are warriors from rich families, and grew up knowing their heritage and their purpose. Gwen, however, has no warrior abilities to speak of and knows nothing about her mythological origins. She does possess a "gyspy gift"--psychometry--the ability to touch objects and people and get information about them (images, thoughts, emotions). When a girl is brutally murdered in the school library where Gwen works, she tries to use her gift to solve the mystery.

I thought that the initial ideas within the book--the use of mythology, the setting, the characters--were pretty fantastic. I had really high hopes early on when the book introduces Valkyries, Spartans, Amazons, etc, that it was going to build into an epic and detailed story. Estep uses Gwen as the fish out of water type character who doesn't really know anything about the mythological world, and thus has to have everything explained to her. This is generally a good world building strategy. The problem with it in this case is that it kept the story small. We are limited to Gwen's point of view and Gwen's knowledge of events. So instead of an epic story about gods and goddesses, you mostly get a murder mystery with a paranormal touch. It's almost entirely exposition, with a lot of pages devoted to building up to future books. It's a good story, but I thought there was a lot of unrealized potential.

The narrative gets a bit repetitive. The author seems compelled to remind readers of important details over and over, and in my opinion it makes for a lot of wasted space.

I liked that the characters had actual personalities. I've been noticing in my YA reading that protagonists are often given minimal character traits, as though authors are afraid that by giving them real personalities they might make them impossible to relate to. Not so here. Gwen is full of sarcasm, curiosity, and a touch of geekiness. It's unfortunate that, due to grief over her recently deceased mother and not really fitting in at Mythos, she spends most of the book friendless and isolated. Because of that, it took me almost the entire book to get a handle on her character, but at least she isn't flat and boring. And her development is fulfilling. She comes out of her shell, learns a lot about herself, and helps to save the day.

I had one problem with Gwen: I didn't really buy her skepticism regarding the fantastical elements of the story. I've had this complaint with other books. If you personally have a magical power that you've lived with your whole life, why would you be surprised or in denial about other powers existing?

Now imagine theses girls had super powers. Scary, right?

The social scene at the school was pretty intriguing. Mostly we learn about the Valkyries, who are the most popular girls. As you might expect, their mean and catty to one another and everyone else. Pretty accurate to what I remember from high school (minus the super powers, of course). Many of the other kids behave more like typical college students--lots of drinking and sex. None of which Gwen actually experiences, being isolated as she is, but she tells us about it repeatedly.

That brings me to Logan, the "love interest" of the book. He's a cool character, a Spartan with a lot of warrior skill, but he's under-utilized. There isn't really any romance to speak of, only a mutual attraction between he and Gwen that doesn't go anywhere. To be fair, I only expected romance because of the source of the recommendation. To my knowledge this is mostly being marketed as YA fantasy. And I'm sure we'll see more of Logan in future books.

This book is a nice meld of classic mythology elements and a few modern paranormal elements. If you like that sort of thing, and especially if your looking for a decent young adult book, I'd recommend this. I have high hopes for this series. 3.5 stars

Snippet Reviews: Immortals After Dark

Kresley Cole's Immortals After Dark books remain among my favorite paranormal romance series. Even after nine full sized novels and several novellas the stories haven't lost much momentum.

The overarching plot involves all of the creatures of the Lore (vampires, valkyries, witches shape-shifters, and so on) heading toward war with one another in a classic good vs. evil epic battle. Each book features a different couple on a mission or journey. The timelines of each book overlap with one another, giving the overall series a fun nonlinear style.Cole uses a lot of traditional tropes and plot devices found in paranormal romance, but she also has a talent for turning some of those tropes on their ear. The variety of story types will keep even a jaded reader intrigued.

Book 1: A Hunger Like No Other: Lachlain, the leader of the Lykae, escapes from years of torture at the hands of vampires when he catches the scent of him fated mate. Emmaline, half valkyrie and half vampire, is the last person Lachlain would have chosen or expected as a mate, but he's determined to claim her anyway. The interactions between them are intense. I was struck by the familiar imbalance of power between the too--Lachlain being extremely powerful and overbearing, Emmaline being somewhat sheltered and helpless. This is a sexy, if somewhat irritatingly anti-feminist trope. It's forgivable in this book because Emma really comes into her own by the end, and Lachlain becomes a bit gentler (without being totally de-clawed). Really great first book. 4 stars.

Book 2: No Rest for the Wicked: Kaderin the Cold Hearted, a valkyrie known for her skill in slaying vampires, competes in an Amazing Race style tournament for immortals, hoping to win a prize she covets desperately. Sebastian, knowing that Kaderin is his Bride (fated mate), competes as well in hopes of winning Kaderin over. I liked that Kaderin was such an alpha female, while Sebastain (though quite alpha like in his own right) is not quite as domineering as your typical paranormal romance hero. I loved how much action and adventure this book featured, and I really got into the competitive nature of the plot. 5 stars.

Book 3:Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night: Bowen, a Lykae, once lost his mate when she tragically ran from him. Now, a witch named Mariketa appears to be his mate. Bowen struggles with his prejudice against witches and Mariketa's desire to build her power. Unfortunately this wasn't a favorite book for me. I didn't care for Bowen as a hero, I found him irrational and overbearing most of the time. I liked Mariketa, but I didn't feel like she and Bowen were a good match. 2.5 stars.

Book 4: Dark Needs at Night's Edge: Conrad, a mostly mad vampire, is locked in a house haunted by Naomi, the ghost of a former ballerina. This is the most successful attempt I've seen at using a ghost as the protagonist of a paranormal romance. It makes for such beautiful imagery, comedy, and an extremely touching romance. I also liked that the hero was inexperienced when it came to sex and women--you don't see too many virgin heroes. 5 stars.

Book 5: Dark Desires After Dusk: Holly is a half valkyrie who knows nothing of her heritage. It turns out that she's the Vessel, a special woman destined to carry a child that will become a warrior for ultimate good or ultimate evil. Cadeon, a demon mercenary, initially intends to kidnap for his own purposes, but ends up in love with her instead. Holly has some rather adorable nerd tendencies and OCD, which I quite enjoyed. I wasn't quite as enthusiastic about Cadeon as a hero. He felt underdeveloped to me. 4 stars.



Book 6: Kiss of a Demon King: Dethrone demon king Rydstorm falls in love with the evil sorceress Sabine. I was really excited that the heroine had such a dark personality, and I found her back story intensely interesting. Rydstorm is not quite as interesting, but still manages to be three dimensional. The romance is surprisingly satisfying. The plot drags a bit in some places, but for the most part it keeps your interest. 4.5 stars.

Book 7: Pleasure of a Dark Prince: Garreth, prince of the Lykae, discovers that Lucia the valkyrie and master archer is his mate. Lucia actively runs from him, busy pursuing her own mission. Lucia has some old scores to settle and an apocalypse to avert. Lucia and Garreth are probably my favorite couple of the series, I feel that they have a lot of chemistry. The timeline of this book goes all the way back to book one, and I thought that was pretty impressive. 5 stars.

Book 8: Demon From the Dark: Carrow the witch is blackmailed and sent to Oblivion, a hell plane, to apprehend Malkom (a half demon, half vampire). Malkom is pretty violent and isolated by nature, for good reason. I found him intensely interesting. I liked Carrow as well, and she develops a great deal throughout the book--from carefree party girl to responsible guardian. I felt their chemistry was a bit forced, but it still had it's moments. 4 stars.

Book 9: Dreams of a Dark Warrior: This one has an ambitious plot. Regin, a valkyrie, meets Aiden the berserker when she's very young. He fully intends to make her his mate, but dies before he can win his immortality. Several incarnations later, he's back as Declan Chase, a human involved in the capture, torture and murder of immortals. Regin remains one of my all time favorite characters, with her humor and fierceness. With Chase, I felt that Cole struggled to go from villain to fully redeemed hero. It was a little unbelievable, and I just didn't connect with him as strongly as I wanted to--and therefore didn't fully buy into the romance. 3.5 stars.

All things told, this remains an above average series and I always look forward to new releases.Happy Reading!