Sunday, February 5, 2012

Review: Sweet Venom by Tera Lynn Childs

Title: Sweet Venom (Medusa Girls book 1)
Author: Tera Lynn Childs
Age Group: Young Adult
Release Date: October 1st 2011
Publishers: HarperCollins
Available from: Amazon
Amazon UK
The Book Depository
The Nile
Source: Received from the publisher


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.



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Sweet Venom is the first book in a new trilogy featuring triplets that are descended from the Gorgon Medusa. The don't know about each other until the fates bring them together. I really enjoyed everything about this book. The three girls have such distinct personalities, each adding a different dynamic to the story. Grace is the mediator; she's very down to Earth, quite shy and an introvert. Gretchen is very brash and headstrong; she says what's on her mind and is the strongest of the three. Greer is the perfect one. She has the perfect life, the perfect boyfriend and her life is all mapped out. But all that's on the surface. She like's to control everything and the appearance of her 'sisters' blows her plans away. I enjoyed reading from each girls perspective, they had their own expressive voices making this a delight to read.

Watching the girls as they come to terms with the discovery of their sisters is great, learning about each other as they try and figure out their history and what they're supposed to do. You can't forget the addition of Grace and Gretchen's admirers. Milo is Grace's brothers new friend and you can't help but miss the underlying feelings between them. Gretchen on the other hand has no time for boys, but the new boy at her school is beyond persistent. I loved reading  about how Nick would go out of his way to get Gretchen to admit she has feelings for him. Greer's boyfriend is a whole other story. She's only with him because of his future promise, but he is not on the same page. I can say I didn't really like him too much.

The Medusa myth is quite different in Sweet Venom and I really like how the original was tied into the story. This is a light, fun read with action and suspense that will keep you wanting more. Looking forward to book two.
3.5/5


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