Just Finished Reading: Dark Frost by Jennifer Estep

Dark Frost by Jennifer Estep

Will be published by: Kensington Teen

on May 29, 2012

Source: received an e-ARC from the publisher through NetGalley. 

Series report: Estep does a fantastic job of recapping in the early chapters of this third book of the series. Dive in and enjoy!

My summary: Still feel like you need a recap of books one and two? Click this highlighted text to read my summary of Touch of Frost and Kiss of Frost in a new window. 

Dark Frost begins immediately after the events in Kiss of Frost. Gwen and some classmates are getting a homework assignment done -- visiting a museum before school resumes from winter break -- when a sudden, violent Reaper attack leaves them shaken. Gwen knows what's up -- the Reapers are looking for the Helheim Dagger, an artifact used during the final battle of the Chaos War. That conflict ensured that the evil Norse God Loki was imprisoned. If the Reapers find the last artifact, they free him. Using clues from her mother's diary, Gwen resolves to find the dagger first.

My thoughts:  There are so many things I love about this series. The pan-cultural mythological world Jennifer Estep has created is fresh and interesting. Gwen is a great main heroine, and I love the will-they-won't-they romance between Gwen and Logan. The secondary characters are all well-developed and appealing -- Nickamedes, Daphne, Carson, Grandma Frost, and of course, Vic! Plus, the action scenes are fantastic. If you're a reader who loves weaponry and sword fights, you'll be very happy. 

In every series, I have my favorite books, and I didn't like Dark Frost quite as much as the prior two. I figured out the identity of a certain masked culprit long before the mask came off.  And the fact that Gwen refers to characters as "the Spartan" or "The Valkyrie" instead of by their names started to bother me. In romantic scenes, when Gwen says stuff like, "I'm crazy about you, Spartan," I wasn't feeling it. 

That said, I still enjoyed this book a lot. The character development was great in Dark Frost-- as it should be in a series. I think in each book, every major character should grow and change a little. In this book, Daphne learns something new about herself that has her all in a snit.  Grandma Frost gets to do cool stuff besides whipping up delicious treats in her kitchen.  There is a new -- non-human -- character. Finally, Gwen learns something about her psychometric powers that leaves her shaken and confused. All this means that book four in the series (there has to be one, as this book doesn't resolve the whole Loki-Reaper thing) should be really exciting! I'm looking forward to it!

Have you read this series? If you love mythology, you should definitely check it out!

Tell me in comments: what are you up to this weekend? If the weather cooperates, I hope I'm reading outside!