I received a fabulous
ARC from Jennifer Estep with some really great bookmarks. The cover is great. I
have to say that Jennifer Estep is very skilled at eliciting extreme emotions
with both of her series. I had no expectations and pretty much went into this
newest release with an open mind, despite the book blurb. This time out Gwen
has to defend herself not only against reapers, but also against charges that
she freed Loki intentionally. This means she also had to defend herself against
the judgment of her classmates who had all lost someone to the reapers making
it a very hard road ahead of her for her to travel, which is not unusual. That
is one thing that Jennifer Estep does really well. She writes multi-dimensional
characters that you identify with, whilst you can't help but feel total disdain and disgust at the bad
guys, some of which for all intents and purposes, are kids.
There are several new characters in this
book. We meet more of the protectorate leaders and are introduced to more
students. It was great to see more of Morgan because we see more of who she is
outside of how she used to behave when she was the leader of the mean girls. I
am one of those people that cannot stand that concept and hate when I see
students behaving that way in real-life though I know it is human nature to
want people to admire and love you. But, mean girls tend to go to the extreme
with their tactics and treatment of others until they don't have their group to
shield them. This is another example of
how despite this being young adult urban fantasy Jennifer Estep makes you
forget that the book is about mythology and she demonstrates that she really
has insight into her characters and does great job of making us see and feel
them.
The Chaos War is seriously heating up and
it seems that these teens have some serious preparations to make because it
looks like a lot of the reapers tend to be adults who have more experience and
training than them. I love that they fight with ferocity and amazing courage,
which was something that Gwen demonstrated a lot of in this book. She showed
this vast amount of courage when there were times she was all alone against
what seemed like everyone at times. There are so many things you can take from
Crimson Frost, like perseverance in the face of what appears to be
insurmountable obstacles, not just physical pain but terrible heartache from
the losses these kids deal with on a daily basis. They let it drive them and
most of them let it help build their character. One thing that seems
interesting is that you cannot always tell which of the kids will be a reaper
based upon how they behave. Just because someone is a mean girl doesn't mean
she will end up being a reaper, but, then again...That is one of the beautiful
things in this story, surprises. They keep you coming back for more and I know
I'll be anxiously awaiting Midnight Frost!
Review can also be seen at Lady Techie'sBook Musings
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