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

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... (goodreads.com)

Back in November I was delighted to discover that this YA series was full of humour and action - just the way I like my books. It helped immensely that Mythos Academy is also a boarding school. If there are witches or boarding schools in a book I have to read it. I think that's part of my DNA make up.I took advantage of Christmas gift cards to get the second book in the series. I was wary about it though, I mean, second books in series often don't live up to their precursor. Luckily, Kiss of Frost did not disappoint. Gwen remains a fun character though I felt she wasn't really all that bright this time around. I found myself internally yelling at her to WISE UP and BE SMARTER! Because she was smarter in Touch of Frost when she didn't even know what was going on. I found a couple of her leaps of logic to be mind-boggling dumb at times. I suppose when your life has suddenly flipped completely upside down and there are people in the world who are hellbent on killing you, when this wasn't a normal, every day, occurrence before, you might suddenly start finding even radishes suspicious. I tried not to fault the character too much for these boggling logic leaps because well, hey, I might have done the exact same thing if it were me. I can't see myself trusting anyone if all of this magic, mythology and attempted murdering was happening all the time.I was a little sad about the lack of Logan time. Not in the romantic or sexual tension way, but more in the, witty dialogue way. I truly like the interaction between Gwen and Logan. I also love the interaction between Gwen and Daphne, which was also watered down this time around. Alas. I look forward to those friendships being built up in future books. (Dear Author, just so you know. In case you were wondering what to write. I am trying to be helpful here.)My one problem with the book was that I found the first few chapters slightly awkward in their recapping of the previous story.Some books are really great at catching the readers up on the series, and some aren't. This one fell somewhere in the middle for me. I was very, very aware of all the exposition and "hey, reader, just in case you didn't read book one, here is ALL OF THE INFORMATION that was written in 300 pages, but we've condensed it into 3 for you now". I also felt that the recaping happened way too much throughout the book. In NO way was this as bad as the House of Night Books by the Casts, but it was obvious enough to me that it sort of made me cringe at times. I would have liked a little less obviousness in telling the reader what was happening and what had happened. I don't know if it was because I'd recently read the first book or not, but I felt like I'd even read some repeated explanations throughout the book.Really that was only a minor irritation and it didn't take away from my overall enjoyment of the story. I like that we keep learning a little more about Gwen's powers and that secrets were revealed in this book. I am HOPING (very strongly) that the brief stupidity of deciding to NOT TELL the adults or her friends about things because she didn't want to bother them, was knocked out of Gwen by that avalanche.  Please, please, let the character have learned her lesson on that one because I HATE that plot device. It's up there with the trusted guardian ending up being the bad guy and taking advantage of all the information they find out. I just want Gwen to be able to trust and rely on Daphne, Logan and Prof. Metis, even her own grandmother. I hate when main characters keep secrets and then end up getting saved only by a stroke of luck. You have friends and resources, Gwen - USE THEM! No man is an island! Other cliche statements here!Yeah. So. Dark Frost comes out in June and I cannot wait! This is a fun series that really clicks with me even if it has plots that I can see through from a mile away (I'd pretty much figured out what was going on from the start and was rather delighted with myself when my guesses were right. heh). As long as Mythos Academy books are written, I shall read them!Mythos Academy

1. Touch of Frost
2. Kiss of Frost
3. Dark Frost
4. Crimson Frost
5. Midnight Frost - August 2013