Touch of Frost by Jennifer Estep Review

Touch of Frost by Jennifer Estep

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Goodreads: 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. . .

My take: Jennifer Estep has been writing Urban Fantasy for awhile. She's a popular voice and writes strong female characters that are often a chip off the old Xena block. I was always much more partial to Hercules but I see the strong Xena warrior lure.

Gwen is a likeable protagonist with unfocused powers. She touches something and feels, sees and senses all emotion attached to the object or person. They call her "Gypsy Girl" at the Mythos Academy. Mostly I thought this was a good introduction to the main characters and future conflict which will probably be between Loki or Chaos and Nike (Victory) using Gwen as Nike's Champion. My guess is that Loki's Champion will soon be identified and it will be someone Gwen loves very much. Pretty much hoping it's not Logan Quinn.

Speaking of Logan Quinn - hot bad boy and chemistry between him and Gwen is interesting but it just fizzled out. Nothing happened. In the meantime, periphery teenage sex and drinking is flagrantly woven into the story. Just didn't see the point of having Gwen witness Morgan doing what she did to one of the boys in the story. It was gross. Meanwhile, Logan Quinn is a man-whore who signs the mattresses of all the girls he sleeps with and Gwen likes him because he's hot. Okay, so he saves her bacon, too but is this the kind of boy we want our protagonist to hand over her V card to? Not that she did, because, like I said, the chemistry between them came to a screeching halt.

It wasn't a bad book and I feel guilty writing only the bad about it because the story was kind of fun, albeit morbid. No complaints about writing style. Estep is established and writes well. On that same vein, it's her book, her characters, and Gwen's story. It will be interesting to see where it leads.