Touch of Frost

Howdy blog readers, I am a little sad today,a member of our book club family and my bestest neighbor left for Nashville this morning. Jill is one of those people that just after you meet her you feel like you have known her forever. She is an open, caring, funny person and my life is better for having gotten to know her. I will miss living next door to her but now I have an excuse to go to Nashville so it's all good.

If you are a frequent reader of our blog you know that we are fans of Jennifer Estep and she has been gracious enough to give us ARC's of her last couple of books. Her latest book, A Touch of Frost, is the first in her new Mythos Academy young adult series. Me being the self professed mytholgy nerd that I am could not have been happier if I had been drinking wine and eating chocolate.



A Touch of Frost, Jennifer Estep, Kensington, 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. . .

Gwen Frost isn't like the other kids at her school. Most are the descendants of Valkyries, Amazons, Vikings, Romans, Spartans or any other host of warriors from all of the pantheons. Gwen is just a gypsy who has the gift of psychometry, the ability to touch an object or person and get physic impressions. She is new at the school and just doesn't fit in with all of the rich snobby kids.

One night Gwen discovers the bloody body of the most popular girl in school in the library and that one of the 13 Artifacts has been stolen. She is surprised to see that no one is mourning for the dead girl and no one seems to be trying to solve her murder. So Gwen decides she will use her powers to figure out what really happened to Jasmine.

I really enjoyed this book and the new world that Ms. Estep is creating. Her writing flows well and pulls the reader into the story quickly. I loved watching Gwen discover her self worth and realize that she was more than she thought she was. I did have a problem with the amount of self recrimination that she goes through it felt a bit repetitive.

Once again Ms. Estep gives us strong secondary characters that I can't wait to read more about. I was half in love with Logan Quinn just from reading his description....love the black hair blue eyes combo. And while I thought Daphne was going to be a total bitch in the beginning, what she did with the emails from Jasmines computer was PRICELESS!! But I have to say I think my favorite character was Vic! Who doesn't want a sarcastic talking sword for a companion?

I had fun with this book and can't wait to see where Gwen and the rest of the student body at Mythos Academy go next! I give A Touch of Frost 5 chocolate dipped strawberries and a slice of grandma's pumpkin roll!