Review for Midnight Frost (Mythos Academy #5) by Jennifer Estep

TITLE: Midnight Frost
SERIES: Mythos Academy #5
AUTHOR: Jennifer Estep
PUBLICATION DATE: March 25, 2008
PUBLISHER: K-Teen, an imprint of Kensington Publishing Corp
PAGES: 372 pages
FORMAT: E-ARC
SOURCE: NetGalley
RATING: 4 stars

Gwen Frost’s life is never going to get better. After the recent events, with the reapers trying to put Loki’s soul in Logan’s body, and having Logan stab her through the chest before running away in shame wasn’t exactly the highlight of her life, but the reapers are still out to get her and as much as she’d like to just hide in her room and grieve over Logan’s leaving, life must go on. Nickademes has been poisoned and it’s up to Gwen and her posse (yes, I did just type “posse”) to get to a remote location in the mountains outside of Denver where one of the rarest ingredients grows for the antidote….even knowing that they are walking right into a trap.

Though I really enjoyed this, it is just more of the same. Gwen almost dies, Gwen fights reapers, Gwen talks to Nike, Gwen saves the day….It’s not a bad formula, but it’s gotten a bit monotonous. That was amplified in this one by the lack of Logan. The flirty wordplay between these two is a big part of why I read this series and Logan’s only in this one at the very end. Much of this felt incredibly predictable ****SPOILER****Covington being the bad guy, learning that Grandma Frost had more secrets, and the fact that the Gryphon’s come to her aide because she helped one of their offspring early on in their journey.****END SPOILER****

We do get something new in this, we get a new character, Rory. She seems almost like a carbon copy of Gwen herself, with similar personality traits and the same shunned vibe going on at school. I hope we get to see a bit more of her in the next book. Beyond her, it’s the same group of lovable quirky people that we’ve seen in the past few books, though we don’t get to see much of Nyx, who is quickly becoming my favorite character.

Honestly, I love this series, but I hope the next book wraps up this story because I’d much rather end when things are still at a high point that with the series drawn out and tarnished. Here’s hoping Gwen can knock Loki down off his thrown in the next novel and let this series go out with a bang.

****Thank you to Kensington Publishing for providing me with an eARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review****

Review for Spartan Frost (Mythos Academy #4.5) by Jennifer Estep

TITLE: Spartan Frost
SERIES: Mythos Academy #4.5
AUTHOR: Jennifer Estep
PUBLICATION DATE: June 25, 2013
PUBLISHER: K-Teen, an imprint of Kensington Publishing Corp
PAGES: 60 pages
FORMAT: Ebook
SOURCE: Borrowed
RATING: 5 stars

Since this is a novella, I’ll keep this short and sweet. I loved seeing things from Logan’s point of view and that this was still a new story, with only vaguely overlapping scenes, not the exact same plot via a new perspective. Logan is everything we thought he’d be and more. That dreaded cliffhanger leaves me desperate for the next installment.

Review for Crimson Frost (Mythos Academy #4) by Jennifer Estep

TITLE: Spartan Frost
SERIES: Mythos Academy #4
AUTHOR: Jennifer Estep
PUBLICATION DATE: December 24, 2012
PUBLISHER: K-Teen, an imprint of Kensington Publishing Corp
PAGES: 354 pages
FORMAT: Ebook
SOURCE: Borrowed
RATING: 4 stars

Things are finally working out for Gwen. Sure, Loki has escaped from his eternal prison, but her and Logan finally seem to be on the same page, going out on their first date. Things are looking up…until Logan’s dad arrives with the Proctorate to arrest her for freeing Loki. And everyone at school, beyond a handful of friends and a few teachers believe she really did intentionally help free Loki. Now, she is going to trial to and things don’t look good. Can she convince the Proctorate that she is innocent?

I have to say that this is my favorite so far in this series. It still doesn’t get 5 stars because the ending leaves something to be desired ****SPOILER****what, with Logan leaving and all****END SPOILER****, but it was very entertaining and addictive. Gwen’s back with her normal spunkiness, even with the entire school torturing her and the Powers That Were hounding her for freeing Loki. It weighs down on her a lot, but that doesn’t stop her from being determined to figure out why Reapers broke into the school just to steal some jewelry and who is behind this whole plot to get her thrown in jail for Vivian’s crimes.

We get to see a bit more of Grandma’s kickass-ness. Man, I love that little old lady. And then there is all the extra Logan time we get….yeah do I really need to comment? Sure, he’s cocky and overly self-assured, but he always manages to keep Gwen happy and smiling even at the worst of times and really what more can you ask for? The romance between those two is totally swoon-worthy. I’ve also got to hand it to Estep for keeping me in the dark for a lot of this. Maybe I was denser than I normally am, but I didn’t see the ending coming until Gwen figures it out and I didn’t suspect a certain someone of being a reaper at all until Gwen revealed that he/she was.

This is a great installment of the Mythos Academy series and I can’t wait to read the next one.

Review for Dark Frost (Mythos Academy #3) by Jennifer Estep

TITLE: Dark Frost
SERIES: Mythos Academy #3
AUTHOR: Jennifer Estep
PUBLICATION DATE: May 29, 2012
PUBLISHER: K-Teen, an imprint of Kensington Publishing Corp
PAGES: 336 pages
FORMAT: Ebook
SOURCE: Borrowed
RATING: 1 star

Gwen Frost is on a mission to find the Helheim Dagger, the last mythological artifact the Reapers of Chaos need to open a portal to Loki’s prison and set him free. Her mom hid it long ago and all she knows for sure is that the Reapers believe it is in the Library of Antiquities, though Nickademes swears it isn’t. One thing is certain, things are going to get much more complicated in this installment of the Mythos Academy series.

This novel is everything you would expect from the next Gwen Frost novel. It’s got spunk, mystery, humor, and a good amount of sadness. Gwen seems to be a little down on her game. It’s not so much that I saw exactly what was coming at every turn, but quite a few “big” plot twists were very predictable and our big brave Gwen should have had some sort of inkling that SOMETHING wasn’t right, even if she didn’t know exactly what was wrong. I realize that a good bit of this novel is about Gwen’s failure in a lot of ways, but there were so many clues that she missed it is hard to believe she didn’t catch on until it was too late.

It was also a bit tiresome to watch her and Logan play the on again, off again game. I get there is so much at stake and Logan is scared of her learning his secret and blah blah blah. I’m a bit more tolerant of this types of situations in a fictional setting than I am in real life, but we’ve watched them dance around each other for two entire books now. Either get it on or get over it! What makes it worse is that I KNOW there is so much more relationship drama ahead of me.

These things don’t add up to a terrible novel. In fact, I found a good portion of it amusing, filled with Gwen’s signature snarkiness and good writing that keeps you interested. The reason it gets one star may seem juvenile to most of you, but it angered me and I am a woman of my word. In the last novel, Gwen befriends a Fenrir wolf and I was quite pleased when said beast shows up in this novel. She names her Nott and things proceed in great way from there….until the end. I won’t spoil the rest of the plot, but I will say that the wolf dies. ****SPOILER****Saving Gwen, and isn’t resurrected. She does leave behind a very adorable wolf pup that Gwen will care for, but that doesn’t excuse her death or my statement that I would give this book a one star review if she died. I don’t care about the bullshit answer Nike gives about her being poisoned and dying anyway. To put it succinctly, FUCK. YOU. Oh, and also BULLSHIT. This is a fictional story about war and I accept that certain people will die. I have a hard limit, though, on animals and characters I like being some of the deaths. My rules are simple. None of the main characters can permanently die. Yes, playing the resurrection game can get a little tedious, I mean, just LOOK at Supernatural, but it’s entirely better than the alternative. Repeat after me authors: “I am NOT J K Rowling and I will not kill my characters for no reason beyond my own pettiness.” Got it? Good.****END SPOILER**** Needless to say, that pissed me off enough to downgrade this from the 3 or 4 stars it would have received otherwise.

All in all, this isn’t a bad book. I just find certain things unacceptable and animal death is one of those things. Remember that authors.

Review for Kiss of Frost (Mythos Academy #2) by Jennifer Estep

TITLE: Kiss Of Frost
SERIES: Mythos Academy #2
AUTHOR: Jennifer Estep
PUBLICATION DATE: November 29, 2011
PUBLISHER: K-Teen, an imprint of Kensington Publishing Corp
PAGES: 337 pages
FORMAT: Ebook
SOURCE: Borrowed
RATING: 4 stars

Gwen Frost’s life just got worse. It’s bad enough to be stuck at Mythos Academy, where all the kids are decedents of ancient warriors, but now, she’s also forced into extra hours of weapons training, to help her learn to defend herself. Oh yeah, and the extra sessions are taught by none other than her crush, Logan, who rejected her proposal to date. Trying to stay focused is difficult enough without his gorgeous face to distract her. Add to that the fact that the Reapers of Chaos are out to get her, and this is definitely bound to be an interesting semester.

Just like the last one, Gwen’s spunky personality had me instantly sympathizing with her. Her comic book and sugar addictions, not to mention the strong compulsion to know everybody’s secrets and I just couldn’t get enough. Her snappy comebacks always made me laugh and her struggle to get over Logan had be both rooting for her and hoping she’d fail…because I mean, COME ON, her and Logan belong together and it had better fucking happen before this series ends.

The side characters are as amusing as ever, though I do feel like Daphne got pushed to the side a little. She was too wound up in her new boyfriend to be overly involved, though she isn’t completely absent, just a bit distracted. We get to see just a bit more of Logan and the fact that we don’t get a LOT more of him was a rather large disappointment. Gwen also makes a new friend in this one, towards the end, and I have to say that I think I’m going to love him. He’s quite an unlikely friend and I was taken aback a little, but I already like him quite a bit.

Part of the plot was a completely shock ****SPOILER****the thing about Oliver****END SPOILER**** and part of it was utterly predictable ****SPOILER****the thing with the reaper.****END SPOILER**** The biggest reason this gets four stars instead of five is that the beginning was very slow and felt outright condescending at times. In the beginning of this, we get so many recaps of book 1 that I felt like I was reading an extended summary of it instead of a completely new book. I understand that authors want to make sure people who didn’t read book one can understand the plot, but you can leave somethings a mystery to make them wish to read the first one a bit more. Or at the very least, not describe multiple things in completely detail! I mean, I did actually read book one and I do remember quite a bit from it, especially the major plot points and the fact that Gwen cannot touch people because her psychometry gives her flashes whether she wants them or not. You don’t need to repeat that fact every single time Gwen refuses to touch someone or allow herself to be touched or even in close proximity to others.

Beyond that, this novel was wholly enjoyable, especially once you get past the first half because things really pickup quickly in the second half. Once you get to the halfway point, it’s pretty difficult to put down. One thing is for sure, I’m definitely going to be reading the next installment.

Review for Touch of Frost (Mythos Academy #1) by Jennifer Estep

TITLE: Touch Of Frost
SERIES: Mythos Academy #1
AUTHOR: Jennifer Estep
PUBLICATION DATE: August 1, 2011
PUBLISHER: K-Teen, an imprint of Kensington Publishing Corp
PAGES: 350 pages
FORMAT: Ebook
SOURCE: Borrowed
RATING: 4 stars

Gwen Frost is that weird girl that just doesn’t fit in anywhere. She’s Mythos Academy’s newest student, but unlike everyone else, all she has is psychometry, a fancy way of saying she gets flashes off touching things and/or people. Her lack of flashier gifts is what sets her apart. Everyone at this school is a Spartan or a Valkerie, here with the sole purpose of learning and being trained to fight a war with Loki who is still imprisoned, but always trying to escape. Gwen isn’t sure why her grandmother is forcing her to attend this school since her mother’s death, but one she knows she stands out. Then a fellow classmate dies and while everyone else is busy brushing it off and getting on with their lives, Gwen is struck by the feeling that they are all missing something big and she is determined to figure out what that is.

This is one of those YA mythological fantasy novels with a big mystery and just a hint of a budding romance. It’s completely enthralling and I loved it. Gwen is everything you could want in a heroine, spunky and quirky and completely misunderstood. She reminds me quite a bit of Veronica Mars though at some point in the novel she says she isn’t as crafty as our dear Veronica. She’s forced into a school where she is the school freak for have less strange abilities than her fellow classmates and can’t make a friend to save her life. Nobody likes her, nobody wants to talk to her, and nobody cares about her. Instead of spending the novel bitching and moaning about it, she just kinda goes with it. Nobody likes her? Fine, she’s better off without those snotty rich kids anyway. She’s that underdog that you can’t help but root for.

I also really liked Daphne. Estep could have easily put her in the category of bitchy rich girl and left it at that, but she doesn’t. Daphne’s true colors are hiding under the surface and they are a girly pink with hints of a computer nerd who is really sick of the fucking backstabbing community of Valkeries she has always been a part of. After a little pushing, it is clear that her and Gwen are meant to be BFFs.

Then there is the character that I’m a little on the fence about, Logan. Initially I adored him, with his bad boy looks and attitude, not the mention his reputation as a man-whore and his quippish dialogue with Gwen. I loved him more when he saves her life not once, but twice. The part where my love for him starts to diminish is how after every step forward he and Gwen take, he always assumes the standoff brutish attitude. ****SPOILER****Add that to the speech at the end about how he likes Gwen but they can never be together because there are things about him that she doesn’t know and shouldn’t ever know and I was rolling my eyes and nicknaming him “Edward” in my head. This is also part of why this gets four stars instead of five, because I HATE it when they do that.****END SPOILER****

One of the other many things I loved about this was the fact that we don’t stick to your basic overused mythological figures, or even stick to one type, seeing Greek and Norse gods, and more than one that I have never heard of before. No Aphrodite or Thor or Zeus to be found here, opting for much more obscure references, only throwing in a handful of popularized ones. I also loved the writing style and how I felt like I was in Gwen’s head a lot of the time, bouncing around along with her insecurities. My only issue with this, beyond Logan’s idiotic moments, was the lack of romance. I would have preferred just a touch more romance between Logan and Gwen, but since this is the first in a series, I’m sure we’ll get to see it eventually!

This is a wholly enjoyable novel and I recommend it to everyone who enjoys YAs, mythology, and a good mystery.

Review for First Frost (Mythos Academy #0.5) by Jennifer Estep

TITLE: First Frost
SERIES: Mythos Academy #0.5
AUTHOR: Jennifer Estep
PUBLICATION DATE: July 1, 2011
PUBLISHER: K-Teen, an imprint of Kensington Publishing Corp
PAGES: 30 pages
FORMAT: Ebook
SOURCE: Borrowed
RATING: 4 stars

Gwen Frost has a gypsy gift, the gift of psychometry. Basically, she gets flashes of other people’s memories from touching things. Her gift has made her incredibly nosy and when she discovers something entirely unpleasant about her fellow classmate, it forces her into a mental breakdown leading to her changing school. Mythos Academy is for people with gifts, to help them control their gifts and learn fighting techniques to defend themselves. One thing is certain, her life has changed forever.

This prequel has accomplished exactly what it set out to, it’s whetted my appetite for more. I cannot wait to read Touch Of Frost. In fact, it’s one of the next books on my TBR list, partly because I really enjoyed this and partly because I was granted an eARC for book 5 in this series. Gwen seems to be a somewhat headstrong teen with a pretty level head on her shoulders. She suffers a terrible loss and though she is resistant to the idea of starting a new school, she never does that temper tandrum thing that I think we were all expecting. That’s commendable because I certainly would have thrown a fit! I can’t really say much about the rest of the cast because you don’t meet many of them, since most of the ones you do meet are at the school she’s leaving behind. You get a vague glimpse at who I hope the hero of the story will be, but that’s it.

Basically, it’s pretty similar to most prequel novellas, it sets the stage for book one. It gives you just enough to want more, but mostly leaves you guessing about what is going to happen next and any deeper plots that may have occurred