"Crimson Frost" by Jennifer Estep

NOTE: I received this book from Netgalley to review.

Firstly, I would like to say that I requested Crimson Frost before I even started reading this series. So then I decided it was about time I gave it a chance. But, as some of you may remember, and if not, just check out my review of Touch of Frost, the very first book flunked my expectations. I was too disappointed to even express my feelings properly.

So, naturally, I decided that I should just abandon all attempts on the Mythos Academy.

And yet!

And yet, when I saw Crimson Frost on my Netgalley shelf, I thought: "Why the heck not?" I mean, even if it was bad, it couldn't be worse than book one, right?

Truth is, that I was surprised in two exactly opposite ways.

On the positive side were several things:

1. It turned out that skipping the two books in between didn't affect my understanding of the events so far. So yay! I was up to date with no reason to go back and read books 2 and 3.

2. The story had actually progressed nicely over a span of several months, and I saw that finally, after three whole books, Logan and Gwen were on their first date. Wow!

Unfortunately there were negative sides too:

1. The descriptions were too long, to the infinitesimal detail, which wasn't interesting to me, so I found myself skipping over them most of the time. Because, honestly, I remembered quite well from the first book what the Library of Antiquities looked like (and other places too). There was no need to describe every small detail every time Gwen entered the place. After the second time around it just got boring. I don't know about other readers, but I'm certain I don't need to be reminded where each shelf and case and statue stood. Besides, that's quite irrelevant to the story.

2. The author's research on the Bogatyr warriors wasn't accurate. They weren't Russian warriors, as she said they were. They were Slavic and Mongolian knights, who fought while horseback riding. No two swords and whatever else Alexei was supposed to be fighting with. You may wonder why I'm even mentioning this, but I hate it when an author includes half true info about things that exist in the world. I mean, either do it all the way, or don't do it at all.

About the characters, here's what I have to say:

*Gwen* has grown into a slightly more bearable person. She was quite annoying in the first book, but I see that she's progressed. She isn't completely dependable on others and stuff. However, she's still lacking some sense of logic.

*Logan* is still this freaking super warrior, but he's also quite messed up on the inside. He seems to be quite strong, and yet unable to deal with guilt even when he's been forgiven for things he wasn't accountable for anyway.

*Alexei* I guess was nice and all that. I did totally want to smack him on the head when he didn't bother to defend Gwen, but oh well, he had his orders and such.

Anyway, with all that said, I still think the novel was good enough. I don't think I'd be reading on though.


My rating is