Review: Touch of Frost by Jennifer Estep

Publisher: Kensington
Where did you get the book: Bought
Release date: Out now

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 …

*blurb taken from author’s official website*

During our last meetup, Has was telling me how she was hearing great things about Jennifer Estep’s new elemental assassin series, and her new YA series. It’s taken me a while, but I finally caved in and read Touch Of Frost, the first in the Mythos Academy series. Whilst it has some of the usual tropes such as a school setting with magical abilities, it’s a very fun read with a very likeable heroine that has a strong narrator voice that’s a little different to some other stuff out there. In fact, it surprised me in the good way that Rachel Hawkins’ series did which also has a school setting.

Gwen knows she has abilities and they haven’t been hidden from her, but she doesn’t know about the past of her Gypsy abilities. And it’s when her mother dies that Gwen is sent to Mythos academy by her Grandmother. What I thought was great and which wasn’t brushed over was Gwen’s heartbreak and grief of loosing her Mother which never really goes away. It’s there in the back of her head all the time, and it really added depth to Gwen’s character. But she was also spunky, and whilst she was an outcast with no friends in Mythos to start with, she doesn’t lay down and let the ‘mean’ kids get away with shit. And it was fun seeing Gwen and one of the ‘mean’ kids bond and then become close friends. What bothered me though was the atypical rich school girls that have sexual experience be named and shamed as the school slut. I was in two minds between rolling my eyes, and the other half actually thinking do things like that happen in today’s school kids.

And may I shout and do happy dance. There is NO love triangle. NONE. NADA. There is no convoluted predictable love triangle that seems to be a must in YA’s these days that drive me up the freaking wall. Gwen has a love interest in Logan, and he’s somewhat of an arse, but there’s no sudden relationship and instant love. Girl likes boy, boy likes girl, and there’s no instant declaration of love or other silly stuff which I thought was great. It had a great amount of teenager angst that wasn’t over the top which I thought was appropriate for the ages of the kids.

Gwen really is a pro-active heroine, and she does go out to find out what happened when nobody seems to care that a girl was murdered, and I thought the way it played out in the end was a great twist, and what excites me about this series is the strength of the pace and the back-story of who Gwen really is, and what her powers do and how does she fit into a school with kids that are so different than she is.

I’m so glad I caved, and I can’t wait to see what happens next in the Mythos universe.

I give Touch of Frost a B+

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