Touch of Frost by Jennifer Estep

Jennifer Estep, author of two successful adult series, introduces a new young adult series.  Touch of Frost is the first book, released July 26, 2011.  First Frost is a prequel short story, which you can grab for free from most ebook sellers.  First Frost chronicles the events that lead to Gwen's attendance at Mythos Academy.  Touch of Frost picks up the story a few months after Gwen's admittance.  From Kensington Publishing:

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 …

We have already discussed my love of mythology, so it should not surprise anyone that I would be drawn to this book.  Mythos Academy sounds like an ideal high school to me. 

This book creates another whole world of alternate mythology which unites all cannons of myth to fight "The Chaos" led by the Norse God, Loki (very timely with Thor's release this summer).  Mythos Academy is where the children of myth learn the skills to wage the war against the Chaos.  After tragedy strikes, Gwen finds herself enrolled in Mythos.  She has no idea why she is there or why her family seemed to view her enrollment as inevitable.  After Gwen finds the body of a fellow student, she becomes obsessed with finding out why the popular, beautiful student was murdered and no one seems to care.

Gods, monsters and heroes, what's not to love?  The characters are snarky and sarcastic.  Like Buffy, except with mythology.  Jennifer Estep did an amazing job of honestly dealing with the emotional issues Gwen faces as she struggles to find her place among the students at Mythos.  I felt like Gwen was perhaps a little too accepting of certain things when I wanted her to stand up for herself, but this was a minor irritation in an otherwise fantastic book.  More than anything, this story is about empowerment, friendship and the lengths one will go to understand and deal with loss.  I give Touch of Frost 4.5 stars and encourage you all to pick it up! 

I also want to KISS someone at Kensington Publishing for only making me wait until November 29, 2011 for Kiss of Frost (Book 2)!  Thank you for only torturing me for a few months instead of a year!  Book 3, Dark Frost is scheduled for release June 2012 - I will forgive you for this because I only have to wait until November for Kiss of Frost.  Check out the awesome cover for Kiss of Frost -

I leave you with one of my favorite exchanges in the book:

"Are you actually ... going to eat lunch with me?" I asked.

"No," Daphne said, breaking a buttery breadstick in half and dipping it into the spicy marinara sauce on her plate.  "I'm a figment of your imagination.  You're only imagining that I'm sitting here eating with you.  Because I'm just so freaking awesome that people daydream about being seen with me." 

"Funny," I muttered.

The Valkyrie smiled at me and took a bite of her breadstick.

"But why?" I asked.  "You hate me."

Daphne chewed and swallowed.  "I wouldn't say hate, exactly.  You're kind of like fungus, Gwen.  After a while, you start growing on people."

"So I'm mold.  Wonderful."  p. 131 - 132.

~Shel