REVIEW: Sweet Venom (Medusa Girls #1) by Tera Lynn Childs

Author: Tera Lynn Childs

Series: Medusa Girls

Pages: 352

Genre: Young Adult - Paranormal

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

AMAZON: Sweet Venom

Synopsis. (Goodreads)

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.

REVIEW: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Sweet Venom follows the story of triplet sisters belonging to an elite lineage of Guardians, separated at birth for their own protection and who are reunited as teens not knowing each other ever existed. They are teenage descendants of Medusa and have a role to play in sending monsters that escape into the human realm back to their own.

Gretchen was the first to discover her heritage at the age of twelve and has been raised and mentored by Ursula; she is a kick-butt, hardened character who is reluctant to let anyone close to her, I certainly found her to be the most fascinating of each of the sisters.

Grace moved to San Francisco with her parents and older brother Thane on a scholarship and it wasn’t until the move that she first sighted monsters but had no idea what they actually were, she was also the first to meet and train with Gretchen; she is sweet and there is an innocence about her that I really liked, she also seemed to be the most eager to learn.

Greer was the most reluctant to fulfill the role of Guardian, she is snobby and has lived a privileged life and had no idea she was adopted. She was the least endearing of the sisters to me so I am hoping she grows and matures as a character in the sequel.

The rules Gretchen has come to know and live by and the monsters behaviors are beginning to change and a bounty has been placed on the triplets heads by an unknown enemy, so they need to work together to solve the mystery of what is going on as well as work out who or what is behind the disappearance of Gretchen’s mentor Ursula and also who is the mysterious person trying to help them.

Each of the main characters I found to be engaging and interesting in their own way, I don’t feel we received enough information about the secondary characters so I hope to see and learn a lot more about them in the sequel – the possible love interests, Nick and Milo were certainly intriguing and I hope Thane, Grace’s brother who was mysterious and protective makes more of an appearance, I feel there is a lot going on with one or more of these guys that we don’t quite know as yet (I’m thinking Nick).

I enjoyed the Greek mythology and the many mythical beings we come across in Sweet Venom, each are detailed and gruesome in their own way. The action is ongoing and the encounters aplenty.

Each chapter is an alternating POV of the sisters which I initially thought would be confusing but each were unique and they had such different personalities it was quite easy to work out and recognize who was who.

The first half of Sweet Venom didn't grab me the way the second half did. I felt there was too much time focusing on each of the sister’s personalities, school and family life etc. which I think is necessary in the first book of a series but in this case too much information was provided.

I have so many unanswered questions about the intriguing world Ms Childs has created which I am truly hoping will be answered in the next installment.

All in all, I enjoyed Sweet Venom; it is a great start to a new series and I look forward to reading the next book.

 

Obtained: Purchased Amazon for Kindle