Dark Frost

The story: Just recently, Gwen has mastered a mind-blowing, life-threatening situation - and already she and her friends are plunged head-first into the next. When they and a couple of other Mythos Academy students visit a museum to (reluctantly) collect material for a boring homework assignment, the Reapers strike in a messy, bloody attack. It soon becomes obvious that the enemies of the Panteon are searching for the Helheim dagger, the legendary artifact which can free Loki from his prison, and they do so with brutal force and vicious cunning. Among them is Loki's champion, a mysterious masked girl around the same age as Gwen - who has also been tasked by Nike to find the dagger. Finding things is Gwen's specialty, of course, but this time, she meets with more difficulty than she's used to... Can the gypsy girl find the answers within the memories of Preston, the Reaper who tried to seduce and kill her in the last novel and who now spends his days in the Academy prisons? Or does the old diary that she found in the attic hold the key? Can Savannah, Logan's ex who despises Gwen, possibly be Loki's champion? As if all that wasn't difficult enough, Gwen also has to deal with a cuddly Fenrir wolf, her problematic relationship with Logan and the absolutely rotten mood of her disappointed best friend. Pros: The story keeps picking up speed and suspense as it hurtles toward the big finale, and I found it easy and quick to read! I like that we get to see new aspects of old characters, like Nikademes and Morgan, which gives them more depth and makes the reader care more about what happens to them. The characters don't stay frozen in their patterns, they develop and grow. Oh, and I was especially glad to meet the Fenrir wolf again - who, btw, is a lady! Gwen's talent changes and expands, and we learn more about her true destiny - and watch Gwen grow and mature to a young adult on the way, despite all her (understandable) flaws and weeknesses. Her relationship to Logan is a bitterweet affair: they love each other, but Gwen's gypsy gift opens a chasm between them that seems impossible to bridge. I couldn't help rooting for Gwen! Contras: My biggest complaint is the same I had in the first and second book: the endless repetitions. Yes, there was a lot less of them than in the last novel (a big improvement!), but I still had the urge to skip whole passages because they felt so familiar. Please, please, don't mention twilight-colored eyes ever again! A few things didn't seem quite logical to me. An example: the scene I already mentioned, when the Reapers attack a museum full of Mythos students. Over the course of the last two books, we've been told again and again that these kids have been trained to fight reapers from a very, VERY young age (like Daphe, who got her first bow when she was all of three years old), and what happens? When the Reapers attack them, they seem helpless and completely out of their depths. Gwen can be a bit... well, dense. Quite often, the reader realizes things a lot sooner than she does. I suppose the author did this on purpose to some extent, to keep up the suspense, but it makes her look - stupid. The pacing seems off in a couple of scenes. For example, there is a scene where a group of Reapers walk through a big room - and in the time it takes them, Gwen and her friends have smashed a couple of showcases, picked out weapons, exchanged pep talks, made a plan and taken up position... That must've been one heck of a large room, or maybe the Reapers crawled through it on their bellies; otherwise I can't fathom what took them so long. Summary: After being a tad disappointed about the last book, I liked this one a whole lot better! It was a good, easy read without any real lengths, suspenseful and (mostly) believable. I'm looking forward to reading the next one!