I’m Gwen Frost, a second-year warrior-in-training at Mythos Academy, and I have no idea how I’m going to survive the rest of the semester. One day, I’m getting schooled in swordplay by the guy who broke my heart—the drop-dead gorgeous Logan who slays me every time. Then, an invisible archer in the Library of Antiquities decides to use me for target practice. And now, I find out that someone at the academy is really a Reaper bad guy who wants me dead. I’m afraid if I don’t learn how to live by the sword—with Logan’s help—I just might die by the sword...
Title: Kiss of Frost
Author: Jennifer Estep
Publisher: Kensington Teen
Pages: 354
Release Date: November 29, 2011
Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback
Rating: 5/5
I have read my fair share of books written by authors who try to take myths and legends and transform them into their own modernized mythological story. Whether those books are good or not, well, we won't get into that. But I can personally guarantee that there is no "mythological retelling" book out there quite as original or well-written as Kiss of Frost by Jennifer Estep.
Kiss of Frost is the second book in the Mythos Academy series, so if you haven't read the first installment, Touch of Frost, it'd be a good idea to click off this review until you have.
Kiss of Frost opens up shortly after the ending of the first book and, as per usual, Estep has you hooked from the very first page. The first OMG moment happens when Gwen is nearly killed by an unknown assailant. After the first attempt to take her life is foiled, Gwen starts getting paranoid and begins taking extra precautions to ensure her safety, but plays it off cool because she doesn't want to ring any alarms and upset her friends, Grandma Frost, or Professor Metis. However, after the SECOND attempt at murdering Gwen is set into motion, Gwen uses her Gypsy gift of psychometry to get to the bottom of who's trying to kill her. And what she sees in her vision gets the ball rolling and from that moment on, a chain of exciting, heart-stopping events take place and you literally will not be able to tear yourself away.
Now that I've cruelly teased you all with the passage (above), I'll talk a little bit about the rest of the novel. First, the characters. I'll admit, Gwen really annoyed me in the first book and I can honestly say I wanted to slap her around on quite a few occasions, but she completely changed over the course of the second book. I felt as if Gwen matured a lot and really started taking her place as Nike's Chosen One seriously and stopped bagging on herself for not being "good enough" all the time--because it was really annoying, but that's what character development is for, right? I really liked Daphne and Carson in this book, too. I felt as if they were the perfect best friends, and I could definitely feel the sincerity in their friendships. At first, Logan Quinn (totally hot Spartan playboy/warrior) really pissed me off until the very end of the book. I didn't understand why he was being such an asshole to Gwen, but things cleared up and by the end of the novel, I had to profess my love for Logan. All in all, the characters were great and they all felt very real and relatable, and I really liked that aspect of the book.
Next, lets talk about the plot, which I've already given you a taste of in the introduction. OMFG! I think that one single acronym should be enough to tell you all how crazy (in a good way!) this plot was. Action, adventure, romance...what else could you possibly want from a book?! The plot, characters, and chemistry of this book reminded me a little bit of the House of Night series, (minus the tedious plot line!)
I have to give Kiss of Frost a 5/5 rating. It was THAT good. I seriously can't wait to dig into the third and fourth installments, Dark Frost and Crimson Frost (December 24, 2012).
Buy the book:
No comments:
Post a Comment