Touch of Frost - Jennifer Estep

Publisher’s Summary:
“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. . .”

This is going to be a quick one, folks, not to mention woefully inadequate due to the length of time that’s passed since finishing Touch of Frost. It’s also one of those cases in which, niggling in the back of my mind, there’s this sense that something about the book frustrated me; like a splinter that constantly caught and pulled at my favorite sweater, I’d acknowledge the source’s existence while reading, but carried on anyway. That I can no longer recall exactly what it was means two things: 1) it must not have been too bad and 2) it didn’t overwhelmingly and negatively impact the overall enjoyment I took from the story.

And I do enjoy novels that invoke mythology – Greek, Norse, it doesn’t matter – but it seems that consistency is a problem: some are wonderful, others are…not. Touch of Frost finds a middle ground: it’s fun and highly readable, but it doesn’t take or twist the mythological elements in a “new” or surprising direction. What the story does do is incorporate a mystery angle that may not have kept me guessing, but succeeded in keeping me entertained and onboard. Basically, if you’re looking for a few hours of light, escapist fun with the added bonus of a hot Spartan, well, Touch of Frost may do the trick.

Quick thoughts:

• It took me a while to warm up to Gwen; she seemed a little slow on the uptake at times, for one, and I wasn’t entirely convinced she was the nerd girl she professed to being (the type that has superhero posters on her wall, carts around comic books in her backpack, and wears Wonder Woman t-shirts. Oh, she did all of those things, but it almost, sort of felt like an act).
• The first few chapters were somewhat repetitive, with Gwen going over her ability in pretty much the same detail over and over to the point that I felt like snapping, “Yes, okay, I’ve got it.”
• I liked a few of the secondary characters: Daphne, Carson, and Vic. Wait until you meet Vic. *grin*
• I will definitely be picking up the next book, Kiss of Frost, because…Logan? There simply wasn’t enough of that hot Spartan in this first Mythos Academy outing, and I’m looking forward to learning more about him.

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