Kiss of Frost - Jennifer Estep Rockin the Humpday Blues Away!!!!

Greetings and salutations my hump day posse. Hope all has fared well with you...we are more than half way there and if we are good and behave, perhaps that weekend bliss will come a little faster! (worth a shot, anyway!) So, we got our own kiss of frost this past weekend, in the form of several inches of snow - what the heck was that about, I'd like to know? Seriously, I may know all, but I didn't see that one coming! Ma Nature was kind of sneaky, but I had the chimney cleaned the day before luckily so I had roaring fire, many cups of tea and oodles of fab reading to while away the time!!! Perfect. And speaking of perfection, and bodies that look like Spartan warriors, take a gander at this specimen of eye candy - Oh, boy - Delish! Enjoy!

Our spotlight this week is a sneak peak at one of Guilty Indulgence Book Club's super fav authors and her follow up to her new YA series. Seriously, y'all - if you didn't snag book one when it came out or catch the short in the Entangled anthology last month raising money for Breast Cancer Foundation Research Fund - well, hell - I just don't know what to do with you but say - YOU. ARE. MISSING. OUT!!!!!! This is one series worth your time - it has all those things that snagged your child's mind and heart when you first learned to love reading - action, adventure, heroism, good vs evil, ordinary people who turn out to be extraordinary people!

Kiss of Frost- Mythos Academy Book #2, Jennifer Estep, Kensington Publishing, November, 2011

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 sword play by the guy who broke my heart — the drop-dead gorgeous Logan who slays me every time. Then, an invisble 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...

Kiss of Frost picks up pretty much where we left off in Touch of Frost, with Gwen the Gypsy girl trying to make her way in the completely foreign world of Mythos Academy. Still our girl, sneaking off campus to visit her grandma and collect her fill of sweet delights, Gwen fights the call to get swept up in the madness so recently swamping campus - the Winter Carnival trip. Why go? She's still a klutz, despite daily sparring lessons with Logan and his warrior pals, even Vic, her talking sword says so. Not to mention the sheer agony watching her crush, the resident campus man-whore, Logan has a girlfriend he has no problem flaunting publicly. Even if she is Nike's warrior and Professor Metis the headmaster thinks it's a good idea to go...not to mention her BFF Daphne. Nagging doubts about the mystery surrounding her mother's death, the evil Reapers of Loki hell bent on revenge for part in foiling their plans for chaos and destruction apparently cant keep her away. Bags packed, she joins the bus of students who head off into the snowy mountain resort to get their ski and party on! Aside from mix-ups, mystery men and an avalanche - it's basically the same old, same old....no, not really! This story has more twists and turns than the Skyline Drive.

What Ms. Estep does best is take elements of fantasy and wrap them around a kernel of truth. Her characters are not so fantastical that they lose sight of their humanity and they feel so very real that the reader just wants more story, even after the last page has been turned. The ability to capture adult audiences as well as the YA audience it's directed toward implies inherently that this is no superficial tale but one that has multiple levels: imperfect heroes and strong secondary characters, universal truths and majorly exciting storyline. The romantic elements are sweet in that yearning, "I've got a crush on you" type. But the ability of the main character to be a true heroine, albeit reluctantly, and not focus on "getting the guy" but "saving the day" pushes this story into my Most Favorite Shelf status!

I am thrilled that Ms. Estep continues this fantastic new series and will simply curl in a sad little ball and cry until it's next installment, Dark Frost, arrives sometime next June!!!!!

I give Kiss of Frost 5 out of 5 chocolate dipped strawberries, a tin of grandma's fudge and maybe even one of those tasty adult beverages the kids were sneaking at the Winter Festival Resort!!!!!!