Review of Touch of Frost by Jennifer Estep

Touch of Frost
Jennifer Estep
Kensington Teen
350 pages
ISBN 13: 978075826692

Gwen Frost has had a lot to contend with in her young life, her mom dying tops that list, but what she didn’t expect was what happened after that when her Grandma decided she need to attend Mythos Academy, a place where Gwen is an automatic outcast a place that’s as mysterious as the students who attend here and the real reason she’s here too. Mythos Academy is nothing like any high school we’ve ever seen, it’s sort of a prep school for how to be a Titan, that’s right the students are living breathing descendants of Amazons, Vikings, Spartans and Valkries among other myth busting species, and they’re here to learn how to be warriors to stop another Chaos war by keeping Loki in his magical prison and his minions at bay. But what does this mean for Gwen, well she’s about to find out as she tries to solve a murder at the school and gets pulled deeper into the reality that things are not always as they seem and sometimes all it takes is a “Touch of Frost”.

Jennifer Estep is no stranger to me as I love her adult urban fantasy Elemental Assassin series. This series takes place in close proximity to that one and she even mentions the prolific Pork Pit from that series in this one, but that’s where the similarity ends because she floats from adult to YA with the ease of a surfer catching the perfect wave. Her story line is just as incredible as the adult series filled with all mythological beings from our high school ancient history classes and yet she fills those pages with characters that pop off the page with their realism and their believability. Her narrative is very “high school”, well I think it is anyway, since I’m way over that limit, but it seems very hip and very young to these aging ears. Her heroine Gwen Frost is such a likable character, needy and yet brave at the same time. She shows us very different sides of Gwen which makes me all the more impressed with her. She fills the pages with fast paced action, danger and more myth come to life beings on both sides of the good vs evil fence.

If you like YA, this one will rate right up there with the best, if you’re a fan of urban fantasy, or paranormal adult or YA you’ll like this one. If you are just a lover of a great story told by an amazing storyteller, pick this one up.

Buy the book here visit the author’s website here