Kiss of Frost

Kiss of Frost by Jennifer Estep

Mythos Academy #2

Logan Quinn was try­ing to kill me. My Spar­tan class­mate relent­lessly pur­sued me, swing­ing his sword at me over and over again, the shin­ing sil­ver blade inch­ing closer to my throat every time. A smile tugged up his lips, and his ice-blue eyes prac­ti­cally glowed with the thrill of battle...

I’m Gwen Frost, a second-year warrior-in-training at Mythos Acad­emy, and I have no idea how I’m going to sur­vive the rest of the semes­ter. One day, I’m get­ting schooled in sword­play by the guy who broke my heart—the drop-dead gor­geous Logan who slays me every time. Then, an invis­i­ble archer in the Library of Antiq­ui­ties decides to use me for tar­get prac­tice. And now, I find out that some­one at the acad­emy is really a Reaper bad guy who wants me dead. I’m afraid if I don’t learn how to live by the sword—with Logan’s help—I just might die by the sword...

Now that Gwen somewhat knows her purpose and reason behind her abilities, you would think things would be a little easier for her. Yet, she can't seem to make any progress on her weapons training, and to make matters worse, her trainer is none other than the boy who broke her heart, Logan. Then she starts to be attacked by a reaper on campus and everything gets turned upside down. She'll have to find the Reaper's identity before it is too late, or curtain's call may just come early for her.

In Touch of Frost, no matter what was thrown at Gwen, she held her head high and mustered through. In fact she really stood apart from the very spoiled and selfish counterparts in the story. Unfortunately that seems to have changed as in Kiss of Frost she seemed to complain an awful lot. Also, the teen angst got dialed up several notches, especially when it came to her semi-relationship with Logan (if you can call it that). To be honest the two of them really drove me quite batty. She is extremely obsessive over him, even though he's been parading around with his girlfriend right in front of her face. Then, on the other side of things, it is painfully obvious that he does really care for her, but is too afraid to get close, so he keeps pushing her away. I'm hoping that in time they will either get together or just completely separate as this limbo stuff stinks. 

Gwen made some really poor choices in Kiss of Frost. I do realize that she is really struggling to find her place in this crazy life she has been thrown into. However, that being said, it doesn't excuse her hiding the attacks against her from everyone who would help her. Her reasoning is that everyone else wouldn't need help, so she needs to prove herself to them. However, just like one of the characters points out, all of them have been training since they were toddlers for this life. Of course they would be more skilled at protecting themselves. So, as they say "pride goeth before a fall," Gwen winds up causing more damage and danger that could have been easily prevented if her pride hasn't gotten in the way. Hopefully she has learned her lesson.

After how much I loved the previous installment, Kiss of Frost was a slight let down. As I stated before, Gwen really seemed to backtrack in character development rather than move forward. Also the beginning was rather slow as it mostly was re-explaining everything we already read in the first book. Luckily things really picked up in the second half, which helped to turn the book around. I think I'm just going to chalk up everything that bothered me to growing pains, and just wait for the next installment. I still love the world behind the series, and despite my frustrations, Gwen is an interesting narrator. I still would recommend  Kiss of Frost, just be forewarned to the issues I stated above, and hang in there until the second half. 

(Received a copy from the Publisher)


Rating:

Buy a copy from Amazon:
Kiss of Frost

Other Reviews:

• Once Upon a Twilight
• Small Review
• I Just Wanna Sit Here and Read!

Previous Books:

1. Touch of Frost

Challenge Categories:

• Outdo Yourself
• YA