Review: Sweet Venom by Tera Lynn Childs ~ ***The Starry-Eyed Revue***

Title: Sweet Venom
Author: Tera Lynn Childs
Series: Medusa Girls
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Publication Date: September 6, 2011
Links: Amazon | Goodreads
Rating:

From 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:

So, this is another one of those books where I’ve never read anything else by the author and after finishing, I’m wondering why that is. Seriously, this book is awesome. Like, go-out-and-buy-everything-by-Tera Lynn Childs-awesome. It wasn’t the sisterhood-aspect, or the oh-snap-we’re-related-to-Medusa-aspect, or even the female-empowerment-aspect. It was all of that rolled up into one fantastically kick-a$$ action story.

Switched POVs. Sigh. I wish all authors could handle them this well. Normally, the transition is between the protagonist and her love interest, or some small variation from that. In Sweet Venom, the shift occurs between sisters. The narration starts out with tough girl Gretchen’s POV. Then along comes Grace, and a sisterly bond is formed. Way, way, way down the road, Gretchen and Grace discover that they have yet another sister that neither knew about, and she is not happy to have her perfect life disturbed. Enter Greer. Three entirely different yet formidable heroines. One destiny. And still so much to discover about themselves and each other.

And then there’s the mythology. Medusa wasn’t evil, you say? Bah. Impossible. Oh, wait…you’re not kidding. Okay, I’ll bite. She’s a protector, NOT an evil gorgon? You don’t say…well, that just makes things even more interesting. And how do you know this? Her sisters? Wait, wait, wait. There are MORE sisters in this story? Great…and I thought I had issues with MY sisters.

Sisters, descendents of Medusa at that, fighting demons by night and trying to maintain a sense of normalcy by day. Love it. There’s a touch of romance, too, but it doesn’t overshadow the real storyline.

Sweet Venom was fast-paced and laced with action and intrigue. I devoured it quickly and already find myself wanting the sequel, even with everything else on my reading plate. I’d love to go into more detail, but I’m afraid anything I say will be spoilery. Medusa is one of my favorite mythological creatures, and I’m actually kind of surprised that this is the first time I’ve seen her pop up in a YA paranormal novel. Sweet Venom is the precursor to what looks to be a fascinating series, and the author has just found herself on my auto-read list.

An ARC of this novel was graciously provided by Damaris at Good Choice Reading.