Review: Dark Frost by Jennifer Estep

Dark Frost by Jennifer Estep
published by Kensington in May 2012

I've seen so many freaky things since I started attending Mythos Academy last fall. I know I'm supposed to be a fearless warrior, but most of the time, I feel like I'm just waiting for the next Bad, Bad Thing to happen. Like someone trying to kill me again. Everyone at Mythos Academy knows me as Gwen Frost, the Gypsy girl who uses her psychometry magic to find lost objects and who just may be dating Logan Quinn, the hottest guy in school. But I'm also the girl the Reapers of Chaos want dead in the worst way. The Reapers are the baddest of the bad, the people who murdered my mom. So why do they have it in for me? It turns out my mom hid a powerful artifact called the Helheim Dagger before she died. Now, the Reapers will do anything to get it back. They think I know where the dagger is hidden, but this is one thing I can't use my magic to find. All I do know is that the Reapers are coming for me and I'm in for the fight of my life.

Genre: YA, Paranormal
Series: Mythos Academy, Book #3

The Story: The winter semester has just started at Mythos Academy and already, Gwen has her hands full. It all started with the attack from the Reapers at the museum where Gwen and her friends had to put in practice what they've learned in order to survive. It's one thing to learn how to fight, but to actually apply the theory... and kill someone? Problem is, the Reapers and Loki's champion will never leave Gwen alone until they find what they want: the Helheim Dagger which is the last artifact they need to release Loki unto the world. And it seems there's a possibility that all along, the dagger was hidden at the academy!

Unfortunately for Gwen, she has no one to turn to when she needs it most. Daphne is busy coming to term with her nascent Valkyrie ability which manifested during the attack. It's really not what she wanted nor expected, although it did save her boyfriend's life. Then there's Logan... He wants to be with Gwen, but he has issues with Gwen's gift, not wanting her to know his deepest and darkest secrets...Only, Gwen has already had a peek and there's nothing she can do if he doesn't accept that.

Finally, there's the new job Gwen has been hired for, to find Vivian's - another student at Mythos Academy - ring. It should have been simple, only it is not. She knew that there were Reapers among the students at Mythos Academy... but could it be that Loki's champion is among them as well?

My Opinion: Let's jump right in, shall we? :) I thought Dark Frost was better than Kiss of Frost... but it still hasn't reached the point where I'm going to go out and rave about this book or the series :( It still hasn't realized the potential it exhibited in Touch of Frost.

The positives of Dark Frost include once again a solid world building and interesting characterizations. The plot was also interesting and actually moved the overall storyline along well. It was tighter and I felt Ms Estep did a better job at balancing the action and the relationships. I actually quite enjoyed the relationships part of the book. I enjoyed seeing Gwen befriending more people and I really liked her growing friendship and chemistry with Oliver. Also, I think it was a good move on Ms Estep's part to add a bit of conflict between Daphne and Gwen. It's all good that Gwen has a best friend to depend on, but one has to remember the friendship is quite new and there can be waves to rock it. It's also more realistic given Gwen and Daphne are teenagers and at a crucial period of their lives. And all this will contribute to helping them build character.

Something else I enjoyed was seeing Gwen evolve in term of her abilities and ditto with her friends. Having a better grasps on their powers will only make the action more interesting in future books. There were also some interesting revelations in Dark Frost that shed some lights on some behaviors :) All in all, the series is really shaping up and that's a good thing.

Unfortunately, I do have one issue with Dark Frost and the series and it's a big one: the stories are too obvious. Quite frankly, I feel there's no subtlety in the plot and writing... therefore, if something is mentioned, you know it's going to be important ^_^; There is foreshadowing and there is "right there in your face" and the Mythos Academy series falls more in the "right there in your face" category ^_^; And that's really unfortunate, because it takes a lot away. I just feel the story is not intricate enough. Oh, there has been some nice twists, but for the most part, it's been too straightforward and easy to connect the dots. It's as if Ms Estep has a plan for the story and characters and she's following it... but I feel in this kind of series, you kind of need to throw the readers into the loop a little, let them figure out what's happening and why. In my review of Touch of Frost, I compared the Mythos Academy series with the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. Well throwing the readers into the loop is something Mr Riordan achieved really well. When you start reading the Percy Jackson series, you are aware of the prophecy. You know where the characters are head, but you don't know how and while they go on new adventures, you don't know how these adventures connect to the end. In the case of the Mythos Academy series, you know how it connects to the endpoint and it just takes away from the enjoyment, from the wondering.

Something else that bothered me as well in Dark Frost was Gwen pining after Logan. Sigh. Besides the fact that Logan is the hottest guy in the Academy and he's been nice to Gwen on occasions, I don't know if he's really worthy of Gwen's feelings. I mean, so far, I feel the way he's been treating Gwen has been lacking. It doesn't matter the excuses he has, it's just not okay. He blows cold and hot and Gwen just let him. I wish Gwen would grow a spine when it comes to Logan and stopped letting him dictates everything between them... because the way it's going, it feels like Gwen is weak. It's really too bad there's no chance of any love relationship between Gwen and Oliver, because so far, he's the one who's been there for her.

Overall, I still think the series has potential, but it's not enough. Ms Estep needs something more for the Mythos Academy series to really stand out, to completely and utterly hook the readers... and personally, I think it's going to have come through the plots and storylines.

My Grade: B-.

WEM VII: Kiss of Frost by Jennifer Estep and Sean Griswold's Head by Lindsey Leavitt

It's the week-end! It's the week-end! Just too bad that the temperature has started dropping. Although, I'm kind of happy... because now, it feels more like spring instead of summer LOL.

I haven't talked about it, but this week was the World Women Curling Championship and I've been following it religiously :) The teams either did great or not in the round robin and some teams I was expecting to see as the top 4 didn't make it like Scotland and China. The big, big surprise this week was Korea!! Wow, they won 8 games and lost 3... Their previous best record was the opposite, 3 wins and 8 losses and that was 2 years ago! Such improvement! So I'll definitively be rooting for the underdog. The funniest thing about Korea is that they came to Canada to train a couple of month and guess how they learn strategy? By watching TSN! TSN is our national sport channel on which I watch curling all the time because it's so popular in Canada. The commentators are very good and knowledgeable. They will talk about all the options available, what is the best call in their opinion, what should have been done for the perfect shot (brush more, brush less), etc. I just find it fun that Korea could improve so much by watching it LOL. Oh and USA was pretty amazing this week. They lost 4 straight games and everyone thought they were out... and had 7 consecutive wins! That meant there was a tie-breaker with Canada. Just too bad they had one bad end, so Canada ended up winning it. The top 4 teams are Sweden, Switzerland, Korea and Canada. Sweden is already sure of winning either gold or silver and it was a great match between Sweden and Switzerland. I hope this week-end's curling will be as good as last night :)

All right, back to books :) Since I've been pretty much up-to-date with my reviews this month, I thought I'd take the opportunity the books that slipped through the cracks last year :) And I decided to go by genre, which was YA last week. The whole week, Kiss of Frost was leading... and at the last minute, someone sneaked in a vote and we got a tie with Sean Griswold's Head! So here we go :)

Oh and for next WEM feature, the genre is historical :) As usual, the poll is on the sidebar :)


Kiss of Frost by Jennifer Estep

published by Kensington in November 2011

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...

Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal
Series: Mythos Academy, Book #2

What do you need to know? The story actually takes place away from the Academy. The students are headed to a ski resort for the Winter Carnival. Otherwise, Gwen has been training with the Spartan boys. She still has a crush on Logan, but he's with someone else. So when she meets a cute guy at the ski resort from another Academy, she decides, why not? Also, Gwen has the feelings someone has been following her and perhaps there's been a few attempts on her life, but doesn't really speak up ^_^;

Why this book? In the past couple of years, I've become a big fan of Ms Estep. First with her Elemental Assassin series and now, the Mythos Academy series. I enjoyed Touch of Frost and thought the series had potential... so it was simply a matter of time for me to pick up Kiss of Frost. Plus, great cover!

My thoughts? Truthfully, I was a bit disappointed with Kiss of Frost ^_^; I thought Touch of Frost was a great beginning to the series and I thought Ms Estep would use this opportunity to ride the momentum. Instead, she seemed to have "halted" with Kiss of Frost, almost like a breather. It was bogged down by too many descriptions, internal dialogues and Ms Estep's Archilles heel, recaps. It's nice to provide information to new readers, but at the end of the day, this book is part of the series and therefore the author should expect that readers have read the previous books.

I did like that Ms Estep changed the setting for Kiss of Frost and that most of the story took place at the ski resort. I have to say, I wished there's been more action in this one, but what was there was good. As for the storyline, it wasn't great, but wasn't bad either. The idea was good, but I thought the identity of the villain was too predictable and I didn't like how it connected with Gwen's mother's death. Too coincidental and too obvious. I think for this series to be a success, it needs to be more subtle and intricate. The way it is now, you know that every new information or element is important and will come into play later on.

Something else that I liked about Kiss of Frost is that Gwen finally seems to be coming out of her cocoon and making friends. She's not universally loved, but at least, she has people that she can count on :) Aside from Daphne, I think Oliver will become someone she can confide in. While it's improving on the friendship front, there was little progress on the love front. It annoyed me that Gwen was mooning so much over Logan ^_^; I like Logan and I can see how someone would have a crush on him... but to say that he broke Gwen's heart is going too far as well as the way Gwen is hanging up on him. Yes, they could have started something but Logan backed out at the last minute. Both Gwen and Logan's attitudes towards each other is simply frustrating. Either you get together or you move on... However, as it is, one minute they care, one minute they don't: it's just so contradictory.

Luckily, what saved the day for me was the overall story about Gwen's family being Gypsies. It clears up some questions I had and kept things interesting :) And because of it, I think the series still has a lot of potential.

My Grade? C+. Kiss of Frost felt very much like a transitional book to me. However, the end sets up well for the next book. I'm definitively going to read the next and hope it's a winner :)


Sean Griswold's Head by Lindsey Leavitt
published by Bloomsbury USA Children's Books in March 2011

According to her guidance counselor, fifteen-year-old Payton Gritas needs a focus object-an item to concentrate her emotions on. It's supposed to be something inanimate, but Payton decides to use the thing she stares at during class: Sean Griswold's head. They've been linked since third grade (Griswold-Gritas-it's an alphabetical order thing), but she's never really known him.

The focus object is intended to help Payton deal with her father's newly diagnosed multiple sclerosis. And it's working. With the help of her boy-crazy best friend Jac, Payton starts stalking-er, focusing on-Sean Griswold... all of him! He's cute, he shares her Seinfeld obsession (nobody else gets it!) and he may have a secret or two of his own.

In this sweet story of first love, Lindsey Leavitt seamlessly balances heartfelt family moments, spot-on sarcastic humor, and a budding young romance.

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Series: None

What do you need to know? Payton is very close to her father, therefore finding out that he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) is a shock. While not life-threatening, the disease is debilitating on a long-term basis and obviously, life-changing. Payton is scared, but also hurt that her parents did not tell her and she was last to learn about it.

Payton decides to listen to her guidance counselor who suggested to focus on an object and write about it to help her go through this rough period. And she chooses the object that she has been seeing most since third grade: Sean Griswold's head. Well it starts out with the head, but quickly expands to the rest of him. Payton realizes that while she's been sitting behind him for years, she barely knows the boy. What are his likes and dislikes, his interests? As Payton starts getting to know Sean better, she finds she enjoys his company and likes his personality... But Sean's migraines are troubling her and she fears they are not simple headaches...

Why this book? This book first came to my attention on Rowena's The Book Scoop blog :) There was the cover which I found absolutely cute, but also the fact that this book dealt with the acceptance of MS. During my undergrad, I worked at the MS clinic, so I'm familiar about the disease. Also, I thought I'd enjoy this book since it's about Payton's acceptance of her father's disease instead of high school drama.

My thoughts? I'm really glad I read Sean Griswold's Head, because I enjoyed it a lot. It was also as I expected: the book was focused on Payton's acceptance of her father's disease and not centered on high school drama. I find that Ms Leavitt did a great job because the story was very realistic, what Payton and her family were going through felt really real and so did their feelings. In addition, the author did a great job at balancing the serious aspect with the silly, fluffy side of the story :) While the topic is serious and hard at times, the tone wasn't dark or heavy. Instead, it was easy to read and that made it a good read for me :)

All in all, I really liked this book. Payton was a good heroine, although a bit self-centered. I don't mean it in a bad way though. It's just a side-effect of being a teenager :) Payton is hurt and scared and as a result, she's angry at her parents. And while she was angry, she didn't stop to think about how her parents felt... Especially her father who is the one sick. I thought the reaction was very normal, very real... Not just from Payton's side, but also her father. I really liked his explanation for not telling Payton sooner. He himself needed time to accept the disease... by telling Payton, it became too real. I also liked that overall, Payton had a good relationship with her parents and her family was normal.

I also liked Sean very much. He was such a great guy in my opinion. I wished we could have read his POV or seen more of him. I liked how Payton started getting to know him better. First, it was a bit stalker-ish, but then, she started talking to him and made a new friend, found a new interest - biking... Seeing her develop feelings for Sean and her feelings being reciprocated, that was definitively the cute part of the book :) Especially when it started from such a silly idea LOL.

My only complaint is the author's need to add conflicts to a story that already had one. First, there was the fight between Payton and Jac, her best friend. I thought it was superfluous and especially, the way it was done ^_^; Then, there was Payton pushing Sean away because of his migraines. I understand that Payton doesn't want to care for someone who might be sick... She's dealing with her father's illness and so, is scared she could lose Sean. So instead of standing by his side, she pushes him away. I really didn't like that part because I think it spoke poorly of Payton ^_^; As it turned out, Payton's reaction was very premature and lucky for her, Sean forgave her... But what about the future? If something does really happen to him, will Payton rabbit again or will she be strong? Obviously, the relationship was pretty new and as it deepens, things will change... but it left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. Finally, with these two conflicts, it meant Payton was pretty much on her own in the last quarter of the book... and it took out steam from the book. It just wasn't as interesting and engaging and I thought it was unfortunate since the first 3/4 was so strong :(

My Grade? B. Despite a couple of issues, I really liked Sean Griswold's Head and will definitively read more books by this author :)

Review: Touch of Frost by Jennifer Estep

Ugh, what an awful few days it's been. First, it's been really busy at work... and second, my computer is giving me trouble. Again. This time though, I'm throwing down the towel and I'm ready to buy a new computer. Except, buying one is not as easy as it seems or as it should be ^_^;  I'm debating whether I should still go with Dell or another brand and how long it'll take till I get it if I order it. Just yesterday night alone, I got the blue screen of death 6 times!!  That's not counting the number of times Chrome crashed on me! At the rate it's going, I won't be able to wait for long... so I'm thinking perhaps instant gratification at a store is the way to go instead of ordering online. Sigh, decision, decision, decision.

In the meantime, I'm really happy to finally have this review up!! Yay!! I'm really having a hard time putting reviews together lately. It's just not coming together nicely in my opinion... Despite that, I hope this review still make sense :) Let me know if it doesn't!!


Touch of Frost by Jennifer Estep

published by Kensington in July 2011

My name is Gwen Frost, and I go to Mythos Academy — a school of myths, magic and warrior whiz kids, where even the lowliest geek knows how to chop off somebody's head with a sword and Logan Quinn, the hottest Spartan guy in school, also happens to be the deadliest.

But lately, things have been weird, even for Mythos. First, mean girl Jasmine Ashton was murdered in the Library of Antiquities. Then, someone stole the Bowl of Tears, a magical artifact that can be used to bring about the second Chaos War. You know, death, destruction and lots of other bad, bad things. Freaky stuff like this goes on all the time at Mythos, but I'm determined to find out who killed Jasmine and why—especially since I should have been the one who died...

Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal, Urban Fantasy
Series: Mythos Academy series, Book #1

The Story: In Gwen Frost's family, the women have powers. Her grandmother sees the future, her mother could sense the truth and Gwen knows, sees and feels an object or a person's history upon touch. Because of those powers, the Frost women are considered as Gypsies.

Six months ago, Gwen's mother died. Not long afterwards, Gwen was enrolled at Mythos Academy, an elite Ivy League prep school for the descendants of mythological warriors: Amazons, Valkyries, Romans, Vikings, Spartans, Trojans, Celts, Samurais, Ninjas and so on. Being the new kid is difficult, but in this case, Gwen just feels she doesn't fit in: she is not a warrior and cannot wield any weapon, she's not rich, she's not wearing any brand names and is into comics... Her friendless state doesn't really matter anyway as Gwen is still dealing with her grief.

Then, the most popular - and mean - girl, Jasmine Ashton, is murdered in the Library of Antiquities, where Gwen works, and the Bowl of Tears, one of the Thirteen Artifacts, is stolen... Jasmine wasn't among Gwen's favorite people, but she is bothered that everyone is indifferent to Jasmine's death. Something else that's on her mind is that Gwen actually touched Jasmine's blood and corpse... and didn't flash. Things just don't add up and therefore, Gwen decides to investigate Jasmine's death. And in the course of her investigation, she ends up making unexpected allies...

My Opinion: Well I've become a fan of Ms Estep with her Elemental Assassin series and I was looking forward to Touch of Frost because I thought that Ms Estep's writing would lend itself well to YA... and I was right :) Touch of Frost ended up being a really enjoyable read :)

I admit, I'm not a fan of high school drama. I know, I know, it's the predominant theme in YA books ^_^; I guess it's because I never experience high school drama to that extent, so I cannot relate. That's why I usually prefer paranormal or fantasy YA. However, in this instance, I think Ms Estep did a good job at blending the regular life of a teenager with the paranormal elements. It felt a bit like the Percy Jackon series version teenagers LOL. I like that while these characters were supernaturals: Valkyries, Spartans, etc., their concerns were ones from typical teenagers, i.e. going to school, having friends, their crushes, who are they going to go to the dance with and so on. For them, being supernatural didn't bring them more angst or make their lives so different. I liked that at Mythos Academy, they didn't need to hide who they were. As you can see, the setting  really worked for me.

Another aspect of the book that worked for me were the characters :) I really liked them. Gwen was a nice heroine that I could get behind and cheer for. She was quite independent and didn't really care about high school drama - a plus in my book :) I liked that she was her own person and was quite comfortable with it. I also liked that she wasn't too morose or depressed. Yes, her mother passed away and part of Gwen felt guilty and that's why she isolated herself in the past few months... However, she was ready to come out of her shell and move on, start making friends and live. Basically, she was a good character with a lot of potential and one that I'm curious to see what will happen to :) I also liked what I've seen of the secondary characters. I thought at first that Daphne would be a bitch, but it was nice to see things turn around and her becoming Gwen's ally. I'm looking forward for their relationship to develop :) Carson was a nice guy, a bit of a geek. I thought his romance with Daphne was cute and most likely, he will become the voice of reason in their little group. As for Logan, he was quite the mystery. It was hard to figure him out, as he blew hot and cold... Obviously though, the guy is interested in Gwen and I'm sure whatever his secret or reasons to be had to do with Gwen. Right now, I'm thinking he's her protector... He seemed to always be there at the right moment and probably know much more than he let on. I wonder how long it will take for Gwen to figure it out :)

There was a lot of world building in Touch of Frost, but Ms Estep was good at not dumping all the information at once. She was able to spread it out as the story went on and I thought the storyline was a good one. I liked seeing Gwen taking an interest and investigating Jasmine's death... although it felt like her amateur sleuthing was too easy. Also, the fact that the teachers didn't look more into Jasmine's death was highly suspicious in my opinion. In any case, the twist at the end was quite interesting and I didn't really expect it :) What I'm most happy about though is that Ms Estep cleared out the Gyspy thing in this book. First, it means she thought about it and so every dots should connect :) Also, it gives us a little idea of what to expect in the future.

All in all, Touch of Frost was a solid start to this series in my opinion. The style of the book is easy to read and enjoyable, the characters are engaging and the storyline was interesting. Ms Estep gives us enough information and answers so we are not too anxious and going crazy, but still looking forward to the next book :)

My Grade: B.