 | Title: Sweet Venom
 Sexual Content: References to sexual activity Rating:
Good - A fun read with minor flaws. Maybe read an excerpt before buying. |
Description
Grace just moved to San Francisco and is excited to start over at a new school. The change is full of fresh possibilities, but it’s also a tiny bit scary. It gets scarier when a minotaur walks in the door. And even more shocking when a girl who looks just like her shows up to fight the monster.
Gretchen is tired of monsters pulling her out into the wee hours, especially on a school night, but what can she do? Sending the minotaur back to his bleak home is just another notch on her combat belt. She never expected to run into this girl who could be her double, though.
Greer has her life pretty well put together, thank you very much. But that all tilts sideways when two girls who look eerily like her appear on her doorstep and claim they're triplets, supernatural descendants of some hideous creature from Greek myth, destined to spend their lives hunting monsters.
These three teenage descendants of Medusa, the once-beautiful gorgon maligned by myth, must reunite and embrace their fates in this unique paranormal world where monsters lurk in plain sight.
Review
When I hear the word ‘Medusa’ it immediately conjures up the famous Ray Harryhausen snake haired creature from the original Clash of the Titans movie. SWEET VENOM by Tera Lynn Childs’ version bears little resemblance. Instead, she imagines teenage monster hunters who are the only ones who can see the mythological beasties that prey on humanity. No snake hair. No serpent bodies. No turning people to stone with a glance. These descendants of Medusa have lethal venom laced fangs, the ability to hypnotize with their eyes, and three powers uniquely theirs.
Gretchen, Grace, and Greer are the three monster hunters who were separated at birth. All three do have very distinct personalities, which I appreciated, but those distinctions all kiss the cliché line more than I would like. Gretchen is the tough and jaded one who has been fighting monsters for years on her own. She’s super sarcastic and supremely unimpressed with everything. She took a long time for me to warm up to and is responsible for the less than stellar start in SWEET VENOM. Grace is the sweet, brainy sister. She’s big into computers and not so much into sticking up for herself. Greer is the sister we meet towards the end of the book. She’s the socialite snob who is more concerned with not ruining her shoes than with the monsters attacking them.
Imagine teenaged Charmed but with Greek Mythology and you get SWEET VENOM. Not all the sisters endeared themselves to me, but the mythological ride was a fun one. I also really liked the guys in this book, two of whom clearly have big secrets they are keeping. In fact, I would have loved to read a whole book just about Grace and her mysterious older brother. Fair warning about the ending. I wouldn’t even call it a cliff hanger since the story doesn’t really get started until the end. The whole book is about the sisters finding each other, accepting their fate, and deciding to work together. The rescue mission, answers, romances, and fights will all have to wait for the next book in the Medusa Girls series which will be published in 2012. I had enough fun with this debut that I’ll be looking forward to it.
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