Title: Touch of Frost (Mythos Academy #1) 
Author: Jennifer Estep
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Contemporary, Mythology
Publisher: KTeen (an imprint of Kensington Publishing Corp.)
Publication Date: July 2011
Pages: 350
Rating: 5 stars

Synopsis (from goodreads):
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. . .

My Review:

I think I was sold on this book when I read this line from the author’s website. “Basically, I’m pitching the book as Veronica Mars meets the movie 300. I’m also using this tagline — Magic. Myth. Monsters. Mean girls.

It’s true, I only watched 300 for Gerald Butler’s abs but I am one of the world’s biggest Veronica Mars fans. She is one of my all time favourite characters – from film, TV and books – she is just everything that I wanted to be when I was a teen but lacked the confidence and mad detective skills to ever become.

Gwen Frost might not be quite as kick-ass as Veronica Mars but she is snarky and in her own way endearing.

I was hooked from the start. Gwen Frost, aka. The Gypsy Girl, confronting one of the schools’ Mean Girls in a bathroom over a stolen bracelet. It turns out that Gwen has the gift of psychometrics – the ability to see the complete history of an object and strong feelings a person has had when touching the object. I’m not sure I’d see it so much as a gift per-say but I love that Gwen has turned it into a lucrative business opportunity.

And then from there things just got even better. We find out that Gwen has been enrolled in Mythos Academy six months ago after her mother died in a car accident. This is no ordinary school. The students who attend this prestigious school are the descendants of mythological warriors – Spartans, Vikings, Amazons and other incredible ancient races that many, including Gwen, only ever really thought of as made up story characters. When the most popular girl in school is found murdered in the library and an incredibly powerful artefact is stolen, Gwen wants answers.

I completely fell in love with this story. It’s quick and fun and interesting and is a mix-mash of so many things that I love. Quirky somewhat snarky heroine. Magical boarding school. Mythological creatures. Adorable and loveable grandmother. And a gorgeous strong and deadly leading male love interest – who in this particular book is in the form of Spartan Logan Quinn.

I adored the characters – from Gwen to Daphne to Logan and Nicodemus. The characters made this book the engaging and enjoyable read that I found it to be. The plot was brilliant. I think Veronica Mars herself would have had trouble solving this one and whilst Gwen isn’t quite up to Veronica’s standard, she’s got that same intelligent streak that overcomes the obvious until she finds out the truth.

For me this has been one of those reads where I am so glad I have a kindle and as soon as I finished I could instantly get the next book in the series with just a click of the mouse.

For anyone that likes a feisty heroine and a modern twist on mythological stories then I could not recommend this book highly enough. This has been one of my favourites of this year so far.

Purchase the novel from:

Amazon / Book Depository