Another Bite at The Apple by Dana Bate

Title: Another Bite At The Apple
Author: Dana Bate
Publisher: Kensington
Release Date: November 25th, 2014
Rating: 2/5

Cover Impressions: Super cute cover. Love the color combination of the red background and the green apple.  I would like the font to be a little more substantial, but overall it is a nice design.
I'm not sure what the title has to do with the book.  I get it, Sydney is starting over but there is a bigger connection to bread in the plot than to apples.   

Review: 
Sydney has always dreamed of writing about food.  Her first love are human interest stories that feature the people behind the food.  But, food writing is an exclusive club and after any unsuccessful attempt at breaking in, she takes a job that while not exactly fulfilling, pays the bills.  That is, until budget cuts leave her out in the cold.  Picking up the pieces, she begins working at a local farmer's market, writing for the newsletter and blogging again.  When she throws her dating hat back in the ring (years after a terrible break up) Sydney suddenly finds herself with a story that could allow her to land a job at any newspaper - IF she is willing to risk losing her new friends and her new romance in the process. 

The major problem that I had with Another Bite at the Apple was Sydney.  She was irritating, self-deprecating to the extreme and very judgemental.  With the exception of finding herself unemployed, every problem in the book is one of Sydney's own making.  She was overly naive for a woman her age and either had no idea of the consequences of her actions or didn't care enough to consider how other people would be impacted.  She was completely bitchy to her eventual love interest and was so difficult on each of their dates I started to assume that he must have been a serious sucker for punishment to keep coming back for more.  She spent most of the book whining about how her sister was more popular and pretty than she was and was spoiled by her parents.  Sydney appears to be an expert at pointing out other people's flaws but is completely unable to see those same flaws in herself. 

The storyline itself is lackluster.  It takes a long time to get going and, when it does, becomes a cringefest while the reader waits for everything to blow up in Sydney's face. And boy does it ever!  All of Sydney's terrible decisions come to light in a 24-48 hr period of "Oh my God, there is no way this could all happen to one person."  After that, there is the inevitable warp up with ends just a little too cleanly.  True, Sydney has fixed some relationships and learned some valuable lessons, but I hated how all the consequences of her actions were wiped away.  No one suffered any negative effects of the plot and Sydney got the ultimate happy ending. 

Admittedly, this book was not my usual fare.  I thought the connections to food and a sweet romance would hold my interest (as they have in other women's fiction titles - see Sarah Addison Allen), but they just didn't cut it.  I don't think I will be signing up for any more of Dana Bate's novels.

ARC Book Review: Crimson Frost by Jennifer Estep

Title: Crimson Frost
Author: Jennifer Estep
Publisher: Kensington
Release Date: December 24, 2012
Rating: 2/5

Cover Impressions: This cover is kind of boring.  We have Gwen's often mentioned violet eyes as a focal point but I am not a fan of the dragon? Griffin? in the background.  I am also annoyed by the portrayal of her snowflake necklace.  The description in the book is of a delicate diamond tipped snowflake - yet the one in the cover image looks like it was picked up at the dollar store. 

The Gist:  Still reeling from the escape of Loki and Gwen's brush with death at the hands of his reapers, her safe haven at Mythos Academy is shattered by the appearance of the Protectorate.  Suddenly Gwen is being accused of the unthinkable and she must defend herself or face execution. 

Review: 
I read Crimson Frost right on the heels of finishing the first three books in this series.  In the beginning, I cut Gwen quite a bit of slack.  In series like these you often find a deeply flawed (and often annoying) main character whose experiences force her to grow as a person and gain some confidence in her abilities.  However, Gwen just seemed to get more irritating as the books continued.  I kept wanting her to grow up a little, but she never does.  She is unable to piece together even the most obvious of clues and spends a lot of the book whining about her circumstances.  She never stands up for her self and is incredibly self-centered.  The other characters serve only to rescue Gwen, or to listen to her moan.  Despite including several interesting mythologies, the only characters we really get to see in action are Spartans, Valkyries and, occasionally, Amazons.  Why even bother mentioning the other types of warriors if you never plan to use them?

The plot itself is very predictable - partly because Gwen has to be beaten over the head with multiple clues before she will clue in to what is going on.  I often found myself skimming pages because I had already figured out the plot twists and was waiting for Gwen to catch up.  The action also ground to a halt every time that we came into contact with one of the villains.  They seemed to all be suffering from some strange compulsion to spend pages explaining plans and facts that the reader has already figured out.  It is almost like a satire of every action movie where the villain takes an inordinate amount of time to reveal every detail of his nefarious plot - except in the Mythos Academy novels, it isn't funny.  

The first half of this book was dull and frustrating.  Jennifer Estep is the queen of the re-cap.  She feels the need to repeat (often in a very close to copy - paste fashion) nearly every detail from every book.  I know what you are saying: but recapping is great for those who don't read the series back to back and yes, I agree.  However, the repetition that bothers me is of innocuous points that do nothing to further the storyline.  For example, in every single book she feels the need to remind me that the library is more hangout that place of work and that students go there to hook up, even going so far as to remind the reader that Gwen regularly finds condoms in the stacks.  I DID NOT NEED TO READ THAT FOUR TIMES!

All of that being said, I think that I am mostly upset by this book because it has so much potential.  The world that Estep has created is unique and interesting.  I love novels that re-work and combine different mythologies.  I enjoyed the side characters whenever they got a (brief) moment in the spotlight and sometimes found myself longing for the series to follow Daphne instead of Gwen.  I also keep getting the feeling that this series is being stretched too thin.  It could have been well developed and wrapped up within three or four books but, based on the plot progression thus far, is more likely to take nine or ten.  Unfortunately, I think I will be getting off on this stop - that is, unless the next book promises more Logan and Daphne, less Gwen and some closure on a few underlying issues.

Teaching/Parental Notes:

Age: 16 and up
Gender: Female
Sex: Kissing, talk of hooking up/sex
Violence: Swordplay, lots of death
Inappropriate Language: Whore, Slut, Bitch, Pissed, Ass
Substance Use/Abuse: underage drinking, talk of marijuana use.

Book Review: Mythos Academy Series, Books 1-3 by Jennifer Estep

Title: Touch of Frost, Kiss of Frost, Dark Frost
Author: Jennifer Estep
Publisher: Kensington
Release Date: Aug 1 2011, Nov 29 2011, May 29 2012
Rating: 3/5

Cover Impressions: I like the repeated elements in these covers.  The similar colors and font, the use of the sword for the letter T and the architecture featured in the background.  Kiss of Frost does seem a little odd, as it appears that they used a different model and chose to change up the "straight to camera" gaze that is featured in the other two.

The Gist:  Gwen Frost is a has always known that her family are Gypsies.  She has the gift of "touch magic".  In touching a person or an object, she sees their past laid out before her.  As the lone Gypsy at Mythos Academy, a school for warriors of all breeds, she stands out as weak and powerless.  In Touch of Frost, Gwen investigates the murder of a classmate, even though no one else seems to see anything suspicious.  In Kiss of Frost, she finds herself at the center of a plot for revenge and in Dark Frost a dangerous quest sends her searching the past in order to save the future.

Review: This series has been on my TBR list for a while now.  When I received an EARC of the next book, Crimson Frost, I figured it was time to jump in.  Once I started reading, I didn't really want to stop and write a review after each book, so I decided to lump them all in together.  WARNING: this approach will probably result in spoilers for books 2 and 3 being revealed.  Sorry.

I always love books that feature a twist on traditional mythology and Mythos Academy has plenty of that.  Gods and Goddesses abound, as do warriors (though the author seems to stick to just three types - Amazons, Valkyries and Spartans - why not throw out a ninja once in a while?!)  The plot moves at a decent pace, with some exciting action scenes in each book.  The love story does not take over the plot, but adds an extra element to it and I was rather fond of the one or two spicy scenes that featured Logan and Gwen.  The storylines of all three books were rather predictable.  The clues were laid out fairly early and the twists were pretty obvious.

The writing in this series is fairly solid, however, I have NEVER seen this amount of recapping in any other series.  I got so annoyed in the second book that I started jotting down some of the re-capped info:

- About Mythos academy
- about statues (staring)
- about sneaking off campus
- Mom's death
- Vision that led to mom's death
- Battle from last book
- How library is hangout
- finding condoms in the stacks
- Why the Mythos kids are spoiled
- How her powers work
- Each character and what powers they have
- What the library looks like/contains

These are just a FEW examples, and when I say re-cap, I mean that some of the sentences/paragraphs seemed like they were IDENTICAL to the previous book.  The hell?  Can an author plagiarize herself?

One of the things I also had a problem with was characterization.  As I mentioned, the author sticks to three main types of warriors (besides Gwen).  While she mentions several others that attend the school, they are not utilized at all.  The side characters were not developed enough to make me care about them and they did not get any real moments to shine in the spotlight.  They seemed to pop up only when Gwen needed to talk to someone and then vanished just as quickly.  Speaking of Gwen, she was INFURIATING.  I am used to being annoyed at my main characters, but she takes it to a whole new level.  Gwen refuses to ask for help, claiming that she wants to be worthy of being called a warrior, and jumps into some ridiculously stupid situations that left me screaming at her to stop being such a moron.  Though the clues in each story were fairly obvious, Gwen refuses to put two and two together until the bad guy nearly slaps her in the face - and sometimes, they LITERALLY slap her in the face before she figures it out.

There is a lot of talk of sex in these books.  I don't really feel that it was necessary.  I was also disturbed by the easy and frequent use of the word slut.  I would not be able to recommend this series to my students.  Since I recieved an EARC, I will be continuing this series, but I sincerely hope that Gwen smartens up and that the plot is less predictable. 

Unanswered Questions:
 - I understand why Mom and Grandma didn't want to spoil Gwen like the other Mythos kids, but why didn't they at least get her some freaking self defense classes?
- How does Gwen manage to survive on cookies, cakes and an odd salad here and there? 
- Why do these kids never think to use their cellphones to call for backup?

Age: 16 and up
Gender: Female
Sex: Kissing, Talk of sex - sometimes vulgar
Violence: Swordplay, death by car accident, knifplay
Inappropriate Language: Lots: Bitch, Slut, Shit, Dick, Whore
Substance Use/Abuse: Underage drinking, Marijuana use