Touch of Frost (Mythos Academy #1)
Jennifer Estep
Published July 26, 2011
Received from Teen Book Scene for Review
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. . . –Goodreads
Touch of Frost focuses on Gwen Frost, a Gypsy, who has just started at Mythos Academy after her mother was killed by a drunk driver. Gwen has no friends and no clue why she is at Mythos – a school for the descendants of warriors like the Spartans, Amazons, and Valkyrie. The only special thing about Gwen is that she has a gift of psychometry, which always her to see the feelings of objects and people – even if she doesn’t want to.
When Gwen finds the body of Jasmine in the library with her throat cut – she is horrified – and even more so when she realizes no one on campus cares – even though Jasmine was the most popular girl in school. Gwen feels like there is something off with Jasmine’s death – so she decides to do a little detective work and try to discover what happened to Jasmine.
Touch of Frost was a fast, fun read for me. I enjoyed Estep’s writing style – it flowed very easily and was just relaxed and natural. I felt like I knew exactly what Gwen was thinking and feeling throughout the whole book without having to figure it out.
I think my favorite thing about the book was how Estep took the different myths and legends and pulled them all into one setting. I’m a sucker for boarding school books – and this boarding school was one of the most uniquely imagined ones I’ve encountered. Nothing much about the other characters stood out – Gwen is very likeable and you feel sorry for everything she’s gone through. I would totally want to be Gwen’s friend. Eventually, she starts to make contact with other people – Carson, who is a band geek, Daphne, who is a mean girl turned nice, and Logan Queen, a Spartan and one of the hottest guys in school. I would have liked to have seen more interaction with Gwen and other characters but it took a while – so I’m looking forwarded to the next book and to see how all the relationships develop.
Overall, I enjoyed this book very much. It was a fun read and had a unique story line behind it. I also liked the ending that knowing that Gwen isn’t what she seems – you definitely need to read it to find out what!