Book Review: Sweet Venom by Tera Lynn Childs

Sweet Venom by Tera Lynn Childs
(Medusa Girls, #1)
Release Date: September 6, 2011
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books; 352 pages

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.

I didn’t start to really get into this book until about ¾ of the way through, which was disappointing. It’s not that the story was lacking or the characters were dull it’s just that it lacked excitement for me. I absolutely love love LOVE Grace and Thane. I looked forward to a chapter when I saw it was told from Grace’s point of view but Greer absolutely annoyed me (until the very end) and Gretchen was OK. Though, I liked Gretchen’s situation with her ‘love’ interest, Nick. Some can say he would be annoying but he also is very motivated to go after what he wants and honestly, you have to respect that. *highlight to view spoiler* I’m also convinced it was him who called Gretchen at the end to warn her to get out of the house. She always hinted there was something ‘more’ about him and I believe, firmly, that he is on the side of ‘people who want them to live’ and he can, in fact, see the beasties. I could be wrong but I believe this. *spoiler*

I’m kind of bummed. Now that I got all into the book and was excited for what was happening, the book ended. Now I have to wait and hope the next book (SWEET SHADOWS) continues with the excitement the book finally delivered.

I love all the Greek Mythology involved in this book and I just know we’ll be seeing so much more in the next book to come, and that really gets me bouncy with anticipation. I love the idea of Medusa and the fact that her true story was fabricated and now it’s what we all believe. With the opening chapter, when she mentioned she was wearing sunglasses I just assumed it was to prevent her from killing someone accidentally but I like what Tera Lynn Childs did much better.

I feel like the minority who didn’t really enjoy this book, which is weird for me. I usually like practically anything you place in front of me. It’s not that I hated this, because I didn’t…but I just didn’t care for it. It’s not one I’d pay for to own. Though, I am glad I read it so if you’re looking for a fantasy novel that is much different from vampires, werewolves, faeries, etc then you should pick up a copy of this book. If anything, it’s a quick read.