Kiss of Frost by Jennifer Estep w/Bonus Review of Halloween Frost (Reviewed by Mihir Wanchoo)

Official Author Website

Read FBC's review of Touch of Frost

Read FBC'S review of First Frost and Q/A with the author about the series

Read the first two chapters HERE

Order the Book HERE

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Jennifer Estep has a Bachelor’s degree in English & Journalism, and a Master's in Professional Communications. Her bibliography includes the Elemental Assassin urban fantasy series, the Mythos Academy YA urban fantasy series, and the Bigtime paranormal romance series. She is also a member of Romance Writers of America, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and other writing groups.

PLOT SYNOPSIS: At Mythos Academy, teen warriors in the making train to take up their roles protecting humankind. With her snarky, self-deprecating voice and strange gift of psychometry - the ability to know an object's history just by touching it - Gwen Frost is an outsider both to the students of the Academy and the rest of the world. But now that she's taking private tutoring with the Academy's most notorious young Spartan, and has Nike's own sword to protect her, she's ready to make mark....

Gwen also has to deal with the fallout of what happened in Touch of Frost and the various changes it has brought into her life. To add to the overall pressure Gwen realizes that a Reaper of Chaos is trying to kill her, and that if she doesn’t figure out who it is, the Reaper just might succeed...

FORMAT/INFO: The e-ARC of Kiss of Frost is 296 pages long divided over twenty-eight chapters. Narration is in the first-person, exclusively via the protagonist Gwen Frost. Kiss of Frost is the second volume in the Mythos Academy series and can be read separately as the author provides enough of the backstory through out the story. The book also contains Gwen’s schedule of the Winter carnival as well as a Who’s Who reference guide of the people, places and mythology of the series which can be useful as a quick reference.

Kiss of Frost will be released in paperback and e-book format on November 29, 2011 via Kensington Books.

ANALYSIS: I thought the first book Touch of Frost was a decent start to a YA series about a gypsy girl who has the gift of pyschometry. Gwendolyn Frost is the protagonist and narrator of the series so far and has faced a very traumatic event in her life which changed all her perceptions and forced her to go to Mythos Academy, a place which is out of her imagination. In the review below there might be minor spoilers for the first book so proceed ahead if you have read the first book or if you don’t mind minor spoilers.

The second book Kiss of Frost opens up a few weeks after the events of the first book, Gwen has now been thoroughly exposed to the problems which are caused by Loki and his Reapers. She learns after the events of the climax in the previous book, of her role as a champion to her Goddess and what is required of her. Thus set with a task of sorts she will have to undergo training and learn more about the martial arts to better deal with Reapers who are trying to kill her. She of course is flummoxed when the person chosen to train her is Logan Quinn, the apple of her eye. Another fact which isn’t helping is the fact that her friends Daphne and Carson are going steady and have no reluctance in displaying their affections. Lastly to stir up the pot, at the upcoming Winter Carnival she discovers that there’s a new Reaper of chaos who is trying to kill her. So it will be up to her to sharpen her detective skills if she has any wish to survive.

The second book opens the world of Mythos academy and gives us a sort of panoramic view into the events of the world. The background of the world is explained a bit and especially what is currently happening and why the Reapers are in so much of a tizzy. There are also further revelations on Gwen’s role as a champion. Particular details are revealed about the events of First Frost which I’m sure will be of severe importance in the future books of the series. Characterization is a particular strength of Jennifer Estep's books and it is no different in the Mythos Academy series. However in this book this positive becomes a negative of sorts as Gwen’s character comes across as a bit annoying due to her constant fretting over whether Logan will return her affection. But this particular thread also powers the story as this attraction is a main part of the story and fans will get a particular wish fulfilled. The author has also carefully introduced a third angle to this plot and thereby increasing the tension. The character cast is also increased and the other characters such as Daphne, Logan & professor Metis are given more face time. I believe this is a good thing as they will play prominent roles in the future volumes.

The biggest fallacy I noticed of this book and the series so far, is its utter predictability. From the start of the book to its emotional climax, events occur and with clockwork precision most readers will be able to guess what happens next. This robbed much of my reading pleasure and I realize that this book is aimed at YA readers but sometimes I think the author can definitely up the ante by introducing a few more plot twists. There’s also the constant repeating of facts about many of the characters, which though from the mind of a sixteen year old girl might be explanatory but can be curbed as it occurs all too frequently. This curious habit is also seen in the author’s other books which I have read however it is a bit limited in those books and therefore wasn't much of an issue.

CONCLUSION: Kiss of Frost delivers in its promise of exciting romance tinged with action and continues to give the readers a fun tale. Jennifer Estep nicely shows her skills whilst entertaining and drawing the reader in the world of the Mythos Academy. If a few of the aforementioned fallacies can be eliminated then surely this series will be a better one. Recommended for readers who want a light-hearted read and for Paranormal Romance readers.

Read An Excerpt HERE

Order the Book HERE

OVERVIEW: Halloween Frost is a short story which was featured in the Entangled anthology which is a special story collection wherein all the proceeds go to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. More information about the collection including the contents of the collection as well as the official press release can be found over here.

Halloween Frost is a short story which is set after the events of Touch of Frost, the first book of the series. It is roughly 15 pages long in the e-book form. The book details a small event which occurs around Halloween. Gwen and Daphne are on their way from a Halloween party and suddenly attacked by a mythical creature. Faced with near impossible odds and possibly no warrior backup, it will be up to Gwen to use her wits to save their lives.

This short story again follows the pattern of the earlier Frost short story giving the readers a small view in to the world of Gwendolyn Frost and showcasing a brief but important event. In this case it shows how she has been coping with her recent introduction to the new world and especially after the events of Touch of Frost, where she stands in Logan Quinn’s eyes. The story gives an important indicator for the events of Kiss of Frost and like the previous story, it's not mandatory reading for understanding the overall story however for readers who have enjoyed the series. Its something which serves as an excellent extra to the overall story and more importantly this story is a part of an initiative for an extremely important cause.

Rest In Peace, Anne McCaffrey (1926-2011)

It’s been years since I last read an Anne McCaffrey novel, but her Pern stories have always held a special place in my heart. So it was quite sad to hear of the author’s passing yesterday, especially considering what she meant to science fiction and fantasy. Anne McCaffrey was a pioneer of the genres. Not only was she the first woman to ever win a Hugo or Nebula Award, but her book, The White Dragon, became the first science fiction novel to reach the New York Times' Hardcover Bestseller List. In 2005, McCaffrey was awarded the 22^nd Grand Master Award by the Science Fiction Writers of America and was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2006. In short, Anne McCaffrey will be sorely missed, though never forgotten...

GUEST POST: Beyond Percepliquis by Michael Sullivan

Beyond Percepliquis

Right now the majority of you are thinking…Per—what? But since you are reading Fantasy Book Critic, and the fine folks here have been so supportive over the years, you may have heard of me. I’m Michael J. Sullivan (the J. because there was already five authors sharing my name—and even by adding the initial, two of us still look identical) an indie-published author who rode last year’s digital tsunami and sold more books than I ever dreamed possible. Liviu Suciu was among the first to discover and pluck me from absolute obscurity, and now my books are being published by Orbit (the fantasy imprint of Hachette Book Group, one of the largest publishers in the world).

So now that you know who I am, you’re probably still wondering what that ridiculous perpendicular, Pentecostal, pterodactyl word is? First it is pronounced: Purr-sep-la-kwiss, and it’s the title of the last book of The Riyria Revelations, my epic fantasy series.

For those that don’t know, I wrote all six books (crazy as that sounds…but I wanted to ensure the stories would fit together) before the first one was released. My books are not a series of sequels; instead they are individual episodes with intertwining story arcs. Each book has its own conflict and resolution, but when read together, the whole is greater than the sum of the individual pieces.

Although I had written thirteen novels before starting The Riyria Revelations it was these books that finally made it to market, which is ironic since I had no intention of publishing then when I started. People in the business say that you need to make your first book the absolute best it can be, but I rarely do things the way others suggest, and I purposefully made my first book the weakest. Doing this was a huge risk. There will be people who quit early saying, “There’s no depth here,”—or—“the characters are shallow and ill-defined” and to this I’d reply, “You are absolutely correct.” But just like Inigo Montoya in The Prince Bride I know something they do not…I’m not left handed. In other words, I could have made them stronger but chose not to. Let me tell you why.

I hate series that start off fantastic, have a mediocre middle, and stay around long past their prime. So for me my eye was always on the prize of the last book. I carefully constructed the series by slowly building mysteries and exposing character backgrounds a little at a time. My world building is the proverbial iceberg and you are exposed to it organically through the eyes of the characters and in the context of the plots. My thought process was that if you start at the top you have nowhere to go but down, so I choose to start at the bottom and work my way up. My hope is that people will have enough fun along the way that they’ll give the next one a try.

It’s an interesting time for me right now because I’m having both my nationwide debut and my concluding volume hitting the street within just a few short weeks of one another…68 days to be exact. There are already many people who are expressing both excitement and impending disappointment because the series is ending, which brings me to the real point of this post…is there the possibility for more Riyria stories past Percepliquis?

The answer is…no…yes…maybe. No, because I won’t tack on another story. The series concludes exactly the way I want it to and I think (and hope) that upon reading most will agree with my decision. To try to add anything else would only cheapen and diminish Percepliquis and I won’t be a party to that.

Yes, because I never expected anyone to care, but it seems a few folks have taken a liking to Royce and Hadrian and will be sorry to see them go. My wife is one of those. Upon finishing Percepliquis, she fell into a two week depression because she missed her friends. To her they live in some netherworld in a state of suspended animation. “You can bring them back—make them live again—whenever you want to,” she said to me one day, with eyes that added, and if you really loved me you would. I’m pretty sure your average husband doesn’t get this sort of re-animation demands from their spouses—just me and Victor Frankenstein.

I can write other books and still keep my promise of leaving Percepliquis at its own apex. The two thieves were together for twelve years, before that cold autumn day when they set out to steal a sword and got themselves into so much trouble. I could go back in time, and write up some of their previous adventures—The Riyria Chronicles: Royce and Hadrian the Early Years.

I could also do spin-offs (but hopefully better than all those terrible sitcoms of the 70’s) The story of Novron (the God of Man) could explore how mythologies are created and reveal that everything did not occur the way the people of Elan thought it did. Also because I like buddy-stories I could tell the tale of Esrahaddon and Jerish who would be very different than Royce and Hadrian. The Novron books would be a trilogy, where the Esrahaddon story might be a long single novel.

Lastly, I have to admit that even seven years ago when I was alone in my room with no hope or any intention of publishing the stories about these two thieves, I did allow myself a moment of conceited optimism. I imagined a day when the books were read and loved and people wanted more. And because of this I planted a tiny plotline into the series. It is all but invisible to the reader, but it is there, a hidden thread that if I chose to, I could pull on to create a new series that is linked to the old. But that would be a huge undertaking, and I’m not sure I am up to trying that any time soon.

So maybe is the answer we are at right now. A lot will be determined in the next few months as Theft of Swords, Rise of Empire, and Heir of Novron hit the streets. If people like the books and want more I’d love to oblige. I know what my wife is hoping for, now I just need to know what everyone else thinks.

I want to thank the folks at Fantasy Book Critic for having me here today. This site has been one of the few selected to receive exclusive advanced copies of Percepliquis in December, so keep an eye out in January for first impressions of the final book.

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ABOUT MICHAEL SULLIVAN:

Official Michael Sullivan Website
Order Theft of Swords HERE
Read FBC Review of Theft of Swords
Read FBC Review of The Crown Conspiracy
Read FBC Review of Avempartha
Read FBC Review of Nyphron Rising
Read FBC Review of The Emerald Storm
Read FBC Review of Wintertide
Read FBC Review of The Viscount and the Witch

In the space of two years, Michael Sullivan has moved from a small press debut author who was featured in one of our first "Indie Spotlight Reviews" to a "name" in the fantasy field whose wonderful Ryria Revelations is being published by Orbit Books in three consecutive omnibuses starting with Theft of Swords, followed by Rise of Empire and concluded in Heir of Novron.

Goodreads Choice Awards: Final Round with comments on the choices and what they mean (by Liviu Suciu)

Goodreads is running their third annual Goodreads Choice Awards in three rounds. I talked about eligibility and process in the post about the first round HERE, while the semifinal choices have been covered HERE.

Now that the field has been winnowed down to ten per category, you have the last chance to participate until November 30.

Remember that there are 22 categories so lots of things to vote for - in addition to the 4 main categories for me below for which I will add more comments including my predictions, I also voted again in Historical Fiction (Madame Tussaud by Michelle Moran), History & Biography (In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson) and Middle Grade & Children's (based on my son's reading and what I glimpsed from the books myself, Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick) as all these previously chosen semifinalists made it to the final.

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1: Favorite Book of 2011 (click for titles)


Voted: A Dance with Dragons by George RR Martin

Second Choice: none

Prediction: I have no idea how the non-adult_sff titles stack up but I would say that the extraordinary mainstream success of the awesome HBO adaption of Game of Thrones that raised GRRM's profile from a fantasy superstar to an all American one, will propel A Dance with Dragons to victory.

Comments: With nine out of ten titles being speculative fiction of a kind or another (epic, YA sff, paranormal), the heavy book readers that make their home on Goodreads show once again what dominates today in popularity among the habitual book reading public not the casual "only NYT bestseller library-show/work small talk buying" reader.

This is just the best kind of news sff can get, though the one downside for me is the lack of serious sf in those ten as opposed to say the GRRM and Rothfuss (whatever its faults) fantasies, but at least the YA are reading sf!

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2: Best Fiction of 2011 (click for titles)


Voted: 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

Second Choice: The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan

Prediction: I have no idea how most of the titles stack up in popularity and the Goodreads number crunching indicates the Ann Patchett book is the most read one, though of course early vs late release dates make this a little unreliable as true popularity goes.

I would say that either 1Q84 wins based on the author's huge world following and reputation or State of Wonder wins for the reasons above.

Comments: Here I limit myself to say that today's world strongly favors the popular literary novelist not only in sales but in recognition and endurance and ten years or more from now on the only book from the list I see still living is 1Q84, especially if its perennial Nobel candidate author wins the prize which is due to an Asian author soon anyway as the Nobel politics go...

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3: Best Fantasy of 2011 (click for list of titles)


Voted: A Dance with Dragons by George RR Martin

Second Choice: Naamah's Blessing by Jacqueline Carey

Prediction: Goodreads numbers and all I said above strongly favor Martin, but I think that Rothfuss will give him a tough battle; still the HBO series puts GRRM well deservedly on top.

Comments: Thinking about the comments we got here on FBC to the reviews of both books and my very different reaction to very long and relatively slow moving but generally well written as style novels, I realized that essentially for me it boils down to "I generally dislike college novels and showy protagonists, while I love dark, multi-character intrigue and tortured characters" so if The Name of the Wind blew me away as original and beautifully written with an only partly prima donna protagonist, The Wise Man's Fear disappointed me as repetitive and with a now whining and quite annoying protagonist, while GRMM can write the daily diary of Tyrion, Danni and the rest and I would still love it...

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4: Best SF of 2011 (click for list of titles)


Voted: Leviathan Wakes by James Corey

Second Choice: Embassytown by China Mieville

Prediction: Goodreads numbers and what I glimpsed from sff sites I read, strongly favor Ready Player One, while the close competition seems to be Robocalypse; I would say also that Stephen King must always be considered a favorite too based on his huge popularity and release dates skew numbers here like in the Murakami case above. Going with numbers and the favorable reviews here, so I predict Ready Player One will win.

Comments: I would love Leviathan Wakes or Embassytown to win especially that from the list they are the only serious sf, so the only books that have a shot of being still living ten or more years from now, but as mentioned in the comments above, such sf is not as popular as the more popcorn one that the three books above represent.

Not that I do not like the occasional popcorn sf, but growing up in a completely different culture left me utterly indifferent at the "US/UK geek nostalgia" of the Cline novel, Robocalypse is mediocre at best by all accounts and what I browsed myself only reinforced that, while I never found Stephen King particularly entertaining either.

Mark Newton's New Series Announced - Fantasy Crime

While I rarely propagate deal announcements since there are enough sff sites that like doing it, here at FBC we are big fans of Mark Newton and I am very happy that his writing career is continuing to progress well.

I quite like his writing style and his imagination is among the best in the genre today, so his first three Legends of the Red Sun novels have all been "read on receive the early version, reread on receive the next version, up to the final one", while of course at any subsequent installment I would go back and reread at least partly the earlier ones too.

Not surprisingly they have also been in my top 25 of 2009 - Nights of Villjamur - , top 25 of 2010 - City of Ruin - and top 25 of 2011, The Book of Transformations.

So while the closure of the Legends of the Red Sun is a highly anticipated release for the summer of 2012 - as of now I still have no idea of the title, cover or the precise date - and from the author's posts on his popular website linked above I had an inkling that something like this will be his next project, I am really happy to see it official and of course those books are asap's for me whenever they will come out!

Here are the official details, while more details are on the author's site HERE:

"PRESS RELEASE – NEW DEAL FOR MARK CHARAN NEWTON

Bella Pagan, Senior Commissioning Editor at Tor UK, an imprint of Pan Macmillan, has acquired world rights to the first two volumes of a fantasy series by Mark Charan Newton. The agent was John Jarrold.

The first book in a series provisionally titled DRAKENFELD introduces the eponymous hero, an investigator. The series is set in a fantasy world, but will appeal to fans of historical mysteries. In this opening volume, Lucan Drakenfeld is called home after the death of his father – but is immediately thrown into the investigation of a royal death. He also finds that his father’s demise is not as clear-cut as it at first appears…

Pagan said ‘Mark writes compulsive adventures set in utterly convincing new worlds – he’s a terrific writer. I couldn’t ask for a better start to my new position at Tor UK than this first deal’.

Tor UK have successfully published three fantasy novels by Mark in the Legends of the Red Sun series since 2009, with a fourth to appear in the summer of 2012. They have been strongly acclaimed by China Miéville, Peter F Hamilton and reviewers on both sides of the Atlantic.

The first book in the new series will be published in 2014."