DNF Explanation: Killer Frost by Jennifer Estep

Read 188 out of 354

Received: ARC via NetGalley

Goodreads 

This is a review for the final book in a series. DO NOT read this review if you haven't read the series

Haven't read the series yet? 
Check out my review for the first book Touch of Frost. 

What is it with me and series enders this year?

Mythos Academy is yet another series I've been following for years, another series I've enjoyed overall, and, devastatingly, another series I'm DNF-ing on the final installment.

Full disclosure? I knew the Mythos Academy series wasn't the strongest out there. The plots have always been on the weaker side (and steadily getting weaker), narrator Gwen tends to get really (really, really) repetitive, and ever since book three, Mythos Academy has had a serious case of series stretching.

But that's ok. Why? Because I'm a character girl.

Gwen was dorky and shy, Daphne was brash and totally unexpected, Vic is a bloodthirsty talking sword! Plus, all the other characters, creatures, and mythological little details MORE than made up for the series' weaknesses.

Except, bit by bit, book by book, the things I loved about the series were slowly whittled away. Daphne had less page time, Carson practically disappeared. Instead, I got to spend time with new characters, and I don't like them (I loathe Gwen's cousin. She is the Mallory of this Babysitters' Club. The flat-footed Skipper to Daphne's pink sparkly Barbie).

Worst of all is Gwen. I LOVED Gwen. BFF charms, sleepover party invites, a permanent seat at my lunch table. I was that serious. 

But no more. Gwen went from an awkward wallflower who I could totally bond with to The Chosen One, complete with sulky "no one gets it like I do!" specialness and Mary Sue Amazingness.

Which would be fine, I guess, if Gwen were actually smarter than everyone. But she's not. She spent almost all of the 188 pages I read lone-wolfing it on the dumbest kick EVER (honey, there were, like, FIFTY other options to your problem! ALL of them better than your half-baked plan!) all while grumbling about how everyone else was wrong *foot stomp*

I just cannot abide that sort of thing.

Bottom line

It was nice while it lasted and I'm happy for the time I did spend with these people in this world. I think I'll just mentally pretend books 5-6 never happened. 

________________________________

Tweet

Book Review: Midnight Frost by Jennifer Estep

#5 in the Mythos Academy series
Release Date: July 30, 2013
Publisher: K Teen(Kensington)
Pages: 372
Received: ARC from publisher
Stars: 3
Goodreads Page

This is a review for a sequel! Spoilers for the previous books in the series are here! 
Haven't read the first book? Read my review for that book instead.

I need to preface this whole review by saying that I really do like this series. The characters are people I'd want to hang out with, the mythology has grabbed my interest, and the whole series has this vibe for me that's the literary equivalent of putting on a comfy sweater and curling up next to a fireplace.

I love it, and I definitely recommend it.

Things I didn't like

So, that said, now I need to confess that Midnight Frost felt like mostly filler. We have all these big THINGS coming up with Gwen's impending battle against Loki and his forces of evilness and in the last book goddess Nike tasked Gwen and her Scooby Gang with locating all these cool mystical artifacts.

Basically, I was promised quests, nifty magical items to covet, and battles.

And, I didn't really get that.

Instead, Gwen has been doing the artifact hunting between last book and this book and I've been kept totally out of the loop on that. Plus, it didn't sound like she faced all that much peril to acquire them so I didn't even get rousing stories of said off-page adventures.

And, final insult to injury, I only got to hear about one artifact and while it would be kinda handy to have around (I could bring ALL my books with me everywhere), it was used in a somewhat unnecessary way. Totally disappointing.

BUT I did get to go on a quest. Sort of. Except, it was a quest with pretty much no peril and a totally predictable rescue that reminded me of a saccharine My Little Pony plot.

Also, the point of the quest was a complete diversion from the big battle against Loki and his forces of darkness. It was a race for a cure but I never once doubted it would be successful and I couldn't help but feel like I was promised one thing (Loki battles) and given something much less awesome (minion skirmishes).

Added detraction? All this dancing away from the showdown is making the villains seems kinda lame now. Their big plan in Midnight Frost seemed pretty half baked and not at all meeting the bar I've set for this league of evil. Especially considering the bold moves they made in Crimson Frost.

Also, Gwen, my wonderful outcast Gwen is now a total Mary Sue. Can you hear my heart breaking??? I still love her, but it's getting tiresome and boring hearing how everyone else loves her so much and she can charm everyone under the sun.

(There's also this revelation with a new character and I hated it.)

Things I did like

But, that isn't to say there weren't things I liked. Because I did enjoy a lot. And I do plan on reading the next book.

Even though it's annoying now that everyone loves Gwen, I still love her, too. Her romance with Logan left off in a totally annoying point in Crimson Frost with Logan embracing the whole "I can't be around you because I might be dangerous" schtick (can you see my eyes rolling?) and I was so not looking forward to that playing out in Midnight Frost.

Thankfully, Gwen is awesome and she says everything I wanted her to say to Logan. Which is to say, she was her blunt, prickly, cut-to-the-chase self and I loved her for it.  

All of my other favorite characters make an appearance and I still love them just as much as I always have. Vic (Gwen's talking sword) is always a highlight for me and his new relationship with Gwen's puppy is beyond adorable. And, ok, ok, I know I said I didn't like the My Little Pony save, and I stand by that, but it was also kind of adorable, too.

Bottom line

This installment was overall a miss for me, even though I did like it enough to stick with it to the end. It wasn't so much that it was bad, but that this far along in the series I feel like things need to step up more than Midnight Frost managed. Rehashing devices from the previous books isn't cutting it at this point.

Midnight Frost mostly felt like a rehash and digression. Sure it had elements that I liked, but overall it didn't feel like a necessary installment (with the exception of a few important events that will play a role in future books).

I'm still going to read the next book for sure though. I want that battle with Loki. I want to go treasure hunting with Gwen for all those mythological artifacts. I hope I get the chance to do these things, and I hope that chance comes in the next book.

. Tweet

Book Review: Dark Frost by Jennifer Estep

Dark Frost by Jennifer Estep
#3 in the Mythos Academy series
Release Date: May 29, 2012
Publisher: Kensington
Pages: 336
Received: ARC from publisher
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

This is a review for the third book in the Mythos Academy series. This review probably DOES contain spoilers for the previous books. 


Don't want spoilers? Read my review of the first book, Touch of Frost instead!

Summary

From Goodreads:

I’ve seen so many freaky things since I started attending Mythos Academy last fall. I know I’m supposed to be a fearless warrior, but most of the time, I feel like I’m just waiting for the next Bad, Bad Thing to happen. Like someone trying to kill me—again.

Everyone at Mythos Academy knows me as Gwen Frost, the Gypsy girl who uses her psychometry magic to find lost objects—and who just may be dating Logan Quinn, the hottest guy in school. But I’m also the girl the Reapers of Chaos want dead in the worst way. The Reapers are the baddest of the bad, the people who murdered my mom. So why do they have it in for me?

It turns out my mom hid a powerful artifact called the Helheim Dagger before she died. Now, the Reapers will do anything to get it back. They think I know where the dagger is hidden, but this is one thing I can’t use my magic to find. All I do know is that the Reapers are coming for me—and I’m in for the fight of my life.

Review

Are all my favorite characters back?

Yes! Daphne, Carson, Logan, Metis, Grandma Frost, Oliver, and (my two personal favorites) Nott (the wolf from Kiss of Frost) and Vic all make an appearance. Lots of squealing points for that!

But, sadly, their appearances are small. Daphne and Logan spend most of the book pissed off with Gwen and avoiding her calls, which was on one had totally disappointing because I love them and wanted them to be in the story more.

But, on the other hand, it was nice to get so much one on one time with Gwen. Gwen makes a kick butt loner in that Nancy-Drew-solo-mystery-solver kind of way. And with her very thorough first person narrative, it felt like me and Gwen were sleuthing together and hanging out like BFFs. 

Vic and Nott also played a decent role, which is awesome because I love them even more now than I did before (is that even possible?). And, even though Daphne, Logan, and Grandma Frost were MIA for a good part of the book, Jennifer Estep spilled some much-anticipated secrets about all three (yay!)

Does the plot start to suffer from series stretching?

The book kicks off with a bloodbath of awesome then follows with a dropped clue, a hunt for the Helheim Dagger, Daphne's magic revealing itself, Gwen's magic developing further (and here I thought her psychometry couldn't get any cooler), more fights with Reapers, sleuthing through Gwen's mom's high school journals, combat with Loki's evil champion and her talking sword (as much as the action of these scenes made me read with a white-knuckled death grip, the verbal sparring between Vic and the Reaper's sword stole the show and made me laugh out loud), more sleuthing to find a stolen ring, and all leading up to a gigantic climax of pure win (and heartbreak)!

So, yeah, I was pretty entertained. 

Also? Puppies make everything better.

I noticed the writing

It's been a while since I read the previous book in the series, so I was a little rusty on the details. Thankfully, Jennifer Estep is a recapping master and she filled me in on everything that went down in Touch of Frost and Kiss of Frost. So I was totally caught up to speed without having to take time I don't have to reread the previous books. Major points for that!

But the repetitive stuff also got a little too much after a while. If you've read the first two books then you're already familiar with Gwen's tendency to repeat things again and again and again. She still does it, but I love her so much that even while I'm sort of rolling my eyes because, yeah, I KNOW you have violet eyes and you saw something really awful with that girl and your mom died, its just, it's so Gwen. And I love Gwen.

The writing is also really heavy on the foreshadowing, and while I usually consider myself a big blind dunce when it comes to figuring things out early, I pretty much guessed every twist and turn with chapters to spare.

This really could have been annoying and admittedly it did remove some tension for me. But, the predictability combined with my feelings for Gwen made it feel more like I was rereading an old favorite where I know what's going to happen because, you know, I've already read it, but I still like settling in for a marathon reading session with my favorite characters.

Bottom line

The Mythos Academy series is like my favorite old sweatshirt. It may not look perfect anymore and it may not have the flash and excitement of a new outfit, but it's comfortable. Every time I put it on I'm instantly happy and I can sit curled up on the couch wearing it for hours of cozy bliss.

I love the character Jennifer Estep has created with Gwen and I'm pretty much at the point with her now where I'll read any book she stars in, regardless of the plot (even though Gwen is totally wrong about the food choices in the cafeteria. They sound divine).

Though thankfully, the plot of this series is looking pretty good. I can't wait to find out what happens in the fourth book, because, oh gosh, things did not end on a pretty note! It's not a total cliffhanger with the bottom dropping out right at a critical moment, but big end of the world stuff is imminent, and you know I'm always up for that.  

Explanation of rating system: Star Rating Key 

Do you have any questions about Dark Frost that I haven't addressed?
Feel free to ask in the comments!


Dark Frost comes out today! No More Waiting!
Add it on Goodreads
Buy it on Amazon

Tweet