Jennifer Estep - Touch of Frost

Another Goodreads recommendation, following me reading the final instalment of the Starcrossed series, Goddess.  This has similar mythic themes but the concept is a bit like P.C. and Kristin Cast's House of Night series where it takes place in a specialist school.

Touch of Frost is the first book in the Mythos Academy series by Jennifer Estep.  This series revolves around Gwendolyn "Gwen" Frost, a young Gypsy girl, who started a new school two months prior the beginning of this book.  She is established as the outcast in this young adult book while everyone around her is accepted in their own clique.  She has no friends, though she doesn't care about this, and dresses differently from all of the other students (who wear designer gear and nothing else); she also feels different to everyone else because she isn't a warrior like them and she only has a bit of magic.

Rating: 8

Recommended To: Those that liked the House of Night series and Starcrossed series

Favourite Characters: Logan Quinn - mysterious and aloof; Daphne - appears to be more than a pretty girl which is great; Vic - sarcastic and bloodthirsty

Favourite Part: Arm in arm, we left her room, the beginnings of a real relationship shimmering in the air between us, just like the bright pink sparks fluttering up from the Valkyrie's fingertips. - Page 236

Good Points: The concept; love interest is present but not a focal point; Gwen's determination; the powers and the weapons

Bad Points: School life is not fully explored; myths are vaguely mentioned

Touch of Frost begins with Gwen using her magic, psychometry, to find a missing (or stolen in this case) bracelet for one of her fellow students (Carson) so that she can earn some extra money to help her grandmother out.  Whenever Gwen touches anything, from furniture to stuff to people, she sees and feels everything from the people that have touched this particular item.

The concept of this book, with it being set in a school for the descendants of mythical warriors, is similar to that of House of Night which is a school for young vampires.  Despite this, I still think it's a good concept because there are multiple types of warriors in the school: Spartans, Romans, Vikings, Valkyries, and Amazons to name a few.  While in House of Night, these students are vampires and some are just vampires who are just like humans but need blood to survive, every single student in Mythos Academy are completely unique, yes all are warriors but use different weapons and random magical powers depending on their families.  The idea of the school having multiple types of warriors who all have special powers as well as insanely good fighting skills, all in preparation for the next chaos war, is great and interesting to read about.  From the most popular kid down to the biggest outcast and band geek, these know how to kill so they can defend themselves which makes this even better because in a world where we are pretty much defenceless, it's great to escape to a fictional world where people have great powers.

In many young adult books, there is a love interest where the protagonist falls head over heels for them, swooning over them and not paying attention to the world around them.  While there is a love interest in this book for Gwen in the form of the Spartan Logan Quinn, the events in the book don't revolve around him, he just happens to come to Gwen's aid when she absolutely needs him most.  While he turns up and comes to help Gwen, I feel it's only because she can't defend herself properly yet to the extent that other students of Mythos Academy but when it gets further into the series, she will need Logan to save her less and less.

Gwen's determination to find the truth about Jasmine's death and why her powers didn't work when she found Jasmine is inspiring is this book and shows integrity of character in Gwen as well as a sense of innocence.  In a school where the students are accustomed to death, Gwen stands out by questioning what happened and eventually conquers the evil that is in the school this time, reinforcing the idea that it is okay to stand out against the other students, and question the norm in school.

I loved how everyone had powers and weapons and how they're all different with different combinations; with all of the kids growing up in a world they have to defend themselves, they are all highly skilled and are used to being warriors.  In comparison to the characters of House of Night who don't know they're vampires until they're marked, these kids at least know everything about their future or at least what is expected of them and the focus is on their growing into their roles as warriors against Loki, the god of chaos, and his army rather than struggling with coming to terms with their roles in life.  Even Gwen, who doesn't know or belief the full extent of her role as a warrior or anyone else's, knows something about her ability and is comfortable with it, mostly, and is aware of others having magic too so isn't surprised by anything that occurs in the school.

We all need a mysterious young man in our lives that we find attractive, at least according to young adult books and even in adult books, and it's just the same in the Mythos Academy series with Logan Quinn, the deadly young Spartan.  He's flirty and even acknowledges Gwen's existence while the other students don't, ignoring the only Gypsy girl; despite this, he is also mysterious and aloof to everyone in the school, acting as the bad boy of the school, which adds another dimension to his character.  Once he knows the full extent of Gwen's psychometry, he doesn't allow her to touch his skin because he has a secret which immediately makes me want to know it and that inevitably means I want to read more of this series.

Another character I love in this series is Daphne, the equally deadly Valkyrie that adores pink.  My initial thoughts on her were that she was just another bitchy high school girl who looked and acted too much like Barbie in public, being bubbly and friendly, while being absolutely horrible behind everyone's backs but once Gwen, and the reader, gets to know her, there is more to her than a pretty girl.  This makes her really interesting and therefore engaging because I want to see her grow as a character, like Gwen.

Despite his brief appearance in this book, another character I adore is Vic because he's sarcastic and bloodthirsty, something I thought the book was lacking.  His sudden appearance stirs things up and adds something different to the series for me as the other characters aren't particularly vocal about their bloodlust (if they even have it).

There are a couple of things I don't like about this series, though don't ruin it for me.  While this series is set in a school, there's not a lot of focus on the students' education in anything apart from their "gym" class and their myth-history class; surely they have other classes because other buildings are mentioned.  In other books from this series, I'd like to know what these classes are like because the lack of school life makes it seem irrelevant to the series and could be taken away from the school and the fact that these kids are warriors could just be focussed on.

This series is based around multiple myths and legends, with many types of warriors being enrolled in this school, but these stories are only briefly mentioned.  For me, they could have been explored more because I find this kind of thing interesting.

Arm in arm, we left her room, the beginnings of a real relationship shimmering in the air between us, just like the bright pink sparks fluttering up from the Valkyrie's fingertips. - Page 236

This part was great because it completely summed up Gwen and Daphne's great newfound relationship.  It's great that Gwen has gone from being a social outcast to a newly formed social butterfly, gaining a small group of friends quickly which could become greater.  It also shows Daphne has gone from being an angry popular girl to a happy young woman who is willing to accept others and is also accepted for her personal choices instead of being laughed at.  It also shows how the Valkyries use their magic, or how you can tell they have magic, with the sparks from their hands which is interesting as it reflects their auras (their moods) and with it being pink, there can be an assumption that Daphne is happy which is really nice to see.

After I finished this book, I wanted to know what is going to happen to Gwen and how her life is going to pan out.  I need to read more of these!  Damn this addictive personality of mine!

Predictions

1. Gwen learns to fight from Logan but then Logan quits on her, meaning someone else has to help her, possibly starting a love triangle (making Logan jealous) with a guy who is willing to touch Gwen despite her magic

2. Gwen and Logan almost hook up but Logan stops because he's scared of Gwen finding out his secret
3. Daphne and Carson go strong while having some bumps along the way because what's life without some drama.

Other Books by Jennifer Estep