 | Title: Everneath
Sexual Content: Kissing. References to sex Rating:
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Showing posts with label Greek Mythology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Greek Mythology. Show all posts
21 January 2012
Posted by
Abigail
at 6:30 AM
Labels: 1st in series, 1st person, 4 bats, Brodi Ashton, Greek Mythology, Paranormal YA, Review, trilogy
Labels: 1st in series, 1st person, 4 bats, Brodi Ashton, Greek Mythology, Paranormal YA, Review, trilogy
17 September 2011
 | Title: Half-Blood
Sexual Content: Kissing, references to sex. Scenes that allude to sexual activity. Rating:
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Posted by
Julia
at 6:30 AM
Labels: 1st in series, 4 bats, Covenant, Greek Mythology, Jennifer L. Armentrout, Magic, Paranormal YA, Review
Labels: 1st in series, 4 bats, Covenant, Greek Mythology, Jennifer L. Armentrout, Magic, Paranormal YA, Review
09 September 2011
 | Title: If I Die
Sexual Content: Kissing. Scenes of sensuality. References to sex. Rating:
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Posted by
Abigail
at 6:30 AM
Labels: 1st person, 4 bats, 5th in series, Greek Mythology, Paranormal YA, Rachel Vincent, Review, Soul Screamers
Labels: 1st person, 4 bats, 5th in series, Greek Mythology, Paranormal YA, Rachel Vincent, Review, Soul Screamers
01 September 2011
 | Title: The Hour of Dust and Ashes
Sexual Content: Kissing Rating:
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Posted by
Abigail
at 6:31 AM
Labels: 1st person, 3rd in series, 4 bats, Charlie Madigan, Greek Mythology, Kelly Gay, Review, Sirens, Urban Fantasy
Labels: 1st person, 3rd in series, 4 bats, Charlie Madigan, Greek Mythology, Kelly Gay, Review, Sirens, Urban Fantasy
30 August 2011
 | 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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Posted by
Abigail
at 6:30 AM
Labels: 1st in series, 1st person, 3 bats, Greek Mythology, Medusa Girls, Paranormal YA, Review, Tera Lynn Childs
Labels: 1st in series, 1st person, 3 bats, Greek Mythology, Medusa Girls, Paranormal YA, Review, Tera Lynn Childs
23 August 2011
 | Title: Fury
Sexual Content: Kissing. Scenes of sensuality Rating:
Okay – A few good points, but with significant flaws. Library/swap/borrow if you want. |
Description
Sometimes sorry isn't enough....
It’s winter break in Ascension, Maine. The snow is falling and everything looks pristine and peaceful. But not all is as it seems...
Between cozy traditions and parties with her friends, Emily loves the holidays. And this year’s even better--the guy she’s been into for months is finally noticing her. But Em knows if she starts things with him, there’s no turning back. Because his girlfriend is Em’s best friend.
On the other side of town, Chase is having problems of his own. The stress of his home life is starting to take its toll, and his social life is unraveling. But that’s nothing compared to what’s really haunting him. Chase has done something cruel...something the perfect guy he pretends to be would never do. And it’s only a matter of time before he’s exposed.
In Ascension, mistakes can be deadly. And three girls—three beautiful, mysterious girls—are here to choose who will pay.
Em and Chase have been chosen.
"Achingly gorgeous. Fury seduced me."--Lauren Kate, New York Times bestselling author of Fallen
"A fresh dark twist on paranormal, with surprises around every corner. FURY kept me up all night!" --Nancy Holder, NYT Bestselling Author of WICKED and CRUSADE
Review
FURY is the story of two loosely connected—at least initially—characters whose amoral actions cause them to become the targets of Furies, mythological creatures whose sole purpose is punish. The chapters alternate between Em, the rich girl in love with her best friend’s boyfriend, and Chase, the poor football star who values popularity above all else.
The biggest problem I had with FURY are the characters. They just aren’t very likeable. Given the premise, I expected there to be reasons why the Furies would target these two characters, but I didn’t expect to struggle with wanting them to defeat the Furies as much as I did. They both crossed serious lines, Chase specifically, that made it challenging to get upset when the tables were turned on them. And Em, well, she was more stupid than mean, but I couldn’t muster much sympathy for her either.
Another problem I had was how little we actually learn about the Furies themselves. They sort of flit in and out of a few scenes here or there, but never for long and never leaving the kind of impact I expected from a book titled FURY. Even when we learn that these three girls are Furies, information about where they came from, why they are so ‘furious’ at wrong doings, and how they choose who to punish is noticeably scant. I understand that as the first in a series the author may not have wanted to reveal all, but a little information would have gone a long way.
Overall, I’m left feeling much the same as I did when I finished Lauren Oliver’s BEFORE I FALL. I just don’t know if I really liked this book or not. I know the writing was vivid and expressive. I know the Greek Mythology premise of Furies was a refreshing addition to the Paranormal YA genre. I know that the story felt uncomfortably realistic in several places. But the characters are just not the sort you want to root for, even as they fumbled through various redemptive acts, and the plot was never really engaging or exciting enough overcome that. Since apathy is the the dominating emotion I feel having finished FURY, I’ll probably pass on the next two books in this trilogy, ENVY and then ETERNITY, which will be published presumably in 2012.
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Posted by
Abigail
at 6:30 AM
Labels: 1st in series, 1st person, 2 bats, Greek Mythology, Paranormal YA, Review, trilogy
Labels: 1st in series, 1st person, 2 bats, Greek Mythology, Paranormal YA, Review, trilogy
22 July 2011
 | Title: Touch of Frost
Sexual Content: Kissing. References to sex. References to molestation. A scene of mild sensuality. Prevalent crude sexual dialog. A character overhears a girl giving a guy oral sex. Rating:
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Description
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. . .
Review
Myths and mystery and mean girls all converge in Jennifer Estep’s magical TOUCH OF FROST, the first book in her new paranormal YA series, Mythos Academy. It reads like Veronica Mars meets The Percy Jackson series, which of course means I loved it.
Protagonist Gwen Frost, a ‘gypsy’ who possess touch magic, is exactly the kind of character I love to discover in YA. She’s believable as a teenager in high school but has a maturity about her that makes her relatable to readers of all ages. She transfers to Mythos Academy and gets lost among a sea of privileged ‘warrior whiz kids’—the descendants of Greek and Norse mythology heroes. But Gwen doesn’t let her outsider status get to her. She hires out her touch magic talent to track down missing objects and make a buck in the process, she even ends up with a few unlikely friends.
I was a little leery at the first chapter which introduced a few cliché fashion obsessed mean girls, but almost immediately, Estep began to twist the characters and add layers of interest that made them anything but cliché. I can’t tell you how much I appreciated this. Several mysteries are also thrown in, and while Gwen doesn’t solve all of them in TOUCH OF FROST, it’s obvious that they won’t be forgotten in the books to come.
The mix of modern day with mythology has been done before, but not like this. TOUCH OF FROST gives us an extremely likeable and levelheaded female protagonist, the ultimate bad boy romantic lead, and an epic battle between good and evil. It’s fantastic fun from start to finish and I’m counting down the days until the next Mythos Academy book, KISS OF FROST, is released on November 29, 2011.
| #0.5 First Frost (prequel) e-story |
Posted by
Abigail
at 3:30 PM
Labels: 1st in series, 1st person, 4 bats, Greek Mythology, Jennifer Estep, Mythos Academy, Paranormal YA, Psychic, Review
Labels: 1st in series, 1st person, 4 bats, Greek Mythology, Jennifer Estep, Mythos Academy, Paranormal YA, Psychic, Review
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