Touch of Frost
Touch of Frost (Mythos Academy, #1)by Jennifer Estep
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. . . (goodreads.com)
You know when you have good vibes about a book and you just feel that this will be the book that you have been waiting for and will connect with and just love? Do you know that feeling? Is it just me? Well, I felt that way about Touch of Frost from the second I first read the title and then the summary. Boarding school with super-powery students?Bring! It! On!Of course then I was filled with apprehension over the story sucking and just being like every other one out there. Love triangle, ALL OF THE PARANORMAL ELEMENTS!!!!11!!!!!!OMFG!!! and so on...Of course, then I couldn't get my hands on a copy to save my life, so the above apprehension was rendered somewhat moot.Turns out I had a credit on an online bookstore account that I didn't realize I had. It wasn't a huge thing, but it was nice to see I had $10 or so to spend. So as I was picking up a book I was waiting for to go on sale, I added Touch of Frost to my order to get free shipping. heh. Cue original apprehension.The books arrived yesterday and I started Touch of Frost right away. Would have finished it too, had I not fallen asleep (curse you, human nature!) while reading. So I finished it this morning.I love Gwen's voice. The narration was entertaining and witty. The dialogue was sarcastic and funny. The characters surprised me. All of the elements I was hoping to like in this book did not disappoint me whatsoever.Sure the sort of supernatural reveal wasn't a surprise, but I was expecting that. This book follows the normal urban fantasy/paranormal route of finding out about your powers and who you are and the disbelief turning into belief and all that jazz, but I didn't care. I was enjoying all the other aspects of the story so much I didn't get annoyed by the "of COURSE that happened" elements. They fit with the story in a way that didn't make me roll my eyes much at all. (Although I will admit that I am tired of the "what's going on with me?" "oh, nothing, really. We can't tell you, you'll just find out when you need to" plot device. I think characters in books need to be told WHAT THE HELL IS GOING on, especially if they are going to be the target of all the baddies. That one issue in books really makes me cranky.)This story was just so much fun for me to read. Even the potential love interest wasn't over the top and I actually rather liked Logan as a character. I love that Gwen keeps running into him. ha!As I read the book, I couldn't help but think of Erica from The Book Cellar as the main character. I don't know why, but the way Gwen spoke really reminded me of her. I guess when you spend week in a hotel room with someone (even if that someone just sleeps on your floor) you get to know them well. If they make a movie I think Erica should play Gwen. ha!I am extremely happy that the difficulty I had in picking up this book resulted in my reading it only a couple of weeks before the second book comes out. As much as I need to not buy anything that's not super important (food, toilet paper, mortgage) I HAVE to pick up Kiss of Frost when it's out (my luck, it won't be in the store and my maxed out credit card isn't going to be much help). This book cheered me up considerably. It was exactly what I needed right now in my life.Mythos Academy
- Touch of Frost
- Kiss of Frost
- Dark Frost
- Crimson Frost
- Midnight Frost - August 2013
(There is also a prequel to the series, that I believe came out as a short story e-book, First Frost. I have no plans to read it since I think everything was nicely put together in the first, full, book.)