REVIEW: Sweet Venom by Tera Lynn Childs

Sweet Venom
Tera Lynn Childs
352 pages
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release Date: September 6th, 2011
Source: ARC from Publisher
 

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

  What do an eco-chic, tough girl, and a snob have in common? Probably more than you think.

   Sweet Venom offers a promising start to a new trilogy. Told from the view of three very different girls with very identical features, Sweet Venom certainly was a fun read that has me breathless for book two.

  Gretchen, Grace, and Greer are adopted sixteen-year-olds - though none of them know that, or each other, for that matter. Gretchen has known her destiny for a quarter of her life,ever since the age of twelve. Grace doesn't have a clue until an unfortunate encounter after her move to San Francisco. Greer is another story, but I'll tell you this - you will most likely want to punch her in the nose when you meet her first. The very unique triplets are descendants of Medusa, an ancient Greek goddess... who should also be mythical.

   Though the ending held more action and suspense than the whole book put together, Sweet Venom was pretty satisfying. I think the first installment in this new trilogy held more world-building and character-forming than anything else, the ending promising action and plot in the next installment. But that's up to you to decide. But without the action I expected, Tera Lynn Child's latest still had me turning the pages with addiction. I liked the characters, and I needed to know their decisions as much as I want to know who'll make it out alive.

   So is it worth it? Definitely. In my opinion, Sweet Venom is simply paving the way for a sequel that will probably leave us on the edge of our seats.

I like it, but I can't say I love it. The model's hair 
is exactly as Grace describe's Gretchen's though...

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