February 16, 2012

Review: Kiss of Frost by Jennifer Estep

Kiss of Frost (Mythos Academy, Book 2) by Jennifer Estep

kissoffrost

Genre: Paranormal YA
ISBN: 0758266944
Edition Reviewed: Paperback
Amazon: Paperback | Kindle 
Goodreads: Kiss of Frost

At Mythos Academy, teen warriors in the making train to take up their roles protecting humankind. With her snarky, self-deprecating voice and strange gift of psychometry - the ability to know an object's history just by touching it - Gwen Frost is an outsider both to the students of the Academy and the rest of the world. But now that she's taking private tutoring with the Academy's most notorious young Spartan, and has Nike's own sword to protect her, she's ready to make mark...

 


Review:

For debut titles there is a certain amount of leniency that you will allow a writer. You can overlook things that would normally bug you because this is the debut title introducing a whole new world. Well, Estep used that get out of jail card on her debut YA book, Touch of Frost, which I enjoyed despite it's over obvious plot. This time around Estep makes all the same mistakes, but I can't overlook them this time.

The plot “twists” and climaxes were so obvious that I almost wanted to put the book down. I knew everything that was going on before the author even introduced the new characters. After a while I kept thinking, surely an author of Estep's caliber could not write something this predictable? Right? Before even a little hint could be put out there I knew where this story line was going. Yes I'm over emphasizing it, but who wants to read a book that you can predict from the first page.

I'd like to say that this time the great cast of characters saved the book and that I enjoyed them fully. However, I really can't. Gwen is annoying in her “I'm just a gypsy and need to prove myself” mind set and her obvious stupidity. The whole time she was lusting after Logan while he's trying to get over her, was boring. Jealousy as a plot devise for developing a love story has never been something I've been interested in. It only ever seems to make the characters look ridiculous and pull out traits that make them seem unredeemable. Besides that, Logan shacking up with another girl while he's obviously in love with Gwen did not earn him any points—unless you like your men slutty.

Sure I'm greatly disappointed with this second title in Estep's new YA series, but I did enjoy it. After all she is the creator of the Elemental Assassins series, it's clear this author has mad skills. It's just that I was expecting her to tap into into those—many times mentioned—skills and produce something other than comfort food for the paranormal genre. There's progress in Kiss of Frost that is clearly going to lead up to an amazing plot, kick ass battles, and a yummy love story. Just at this point it's nothing that you couldn't have thought up yourself.

Sexual Content: Kissing, talk about sex and hooking up, and some sexual humor. Pretty clean all and all. Nothing that will shock the kiddies.

 
2/5- Average/disappointing, library check-out


Previous book(s) in series:
Reviewed on BW: Amazon: Goodreads:

Touch of Frost (1) 
Dark Frost (3)
Crimson Frost (4)

PaperbackKindle
Paperback | Kindle
Paperback | Kindle

Touch of Frost (1) 
Dark Frost (3)
Crimson Frost (4)

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