Sweet Venom by Tera Lynn Childs

Sweet Venom (Sweet Venom, #1)

by Tera Lynn Childs

Meet Grace, who just moved to San Francisco. It's a tiny bit scary starting over, but it gets scarier when a minotaur walks in the door. And even more shocking when a girl who looks exactly like Grace turns up to fight it. . . Gretchen is fed up of monsters pulling her out into the small hours, especially on a school night. Getting rid of a minotaur is just another notch on her combat belt, but she never expected to run into a girl who could be her double in the process. . . Greer has her life pretty well put together, thank you very much. But everything tilts sideways when two girls who look eerily like her appear on her doorstep and claim they're all sisters. . . These three teen descendants of Medusa must reunite and embrace their fates!

Reviewed by Amanda on

3 of 5 stars

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Joint review with Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal

Amanda: So, I was very proud of myself for guessing that there were three girls in this story. That is, until I went back and read the synopsis and realized it was mentioned IN the synopsis that there were three girls. I guess that's what I get for reading the synopsis after I read the book.

Kelly: Oh, Amanda! You just gave me a case of the giggles! Yes, the triplets were definitely in the synopsis. I find that I am VERY interested in the various boys who have suddenly popped into the girls' lives, though. There must be a connection between them and the weird things that are happening. There must be!

Amanda: I blame EVERYTHING on cold meds. They are such a convenient excuse. I was interested in the boys as well, except I kind of wanted MOAR information about them. And I found Grace's brother, Thane, more interesting than Milo, Grace's crush. Was that just me?

Kelly: It wasn't just you. I keep thinking that Thane will somehow be VERY involved in the upcoming events. Is he a guardian of sorts for Grace? The legends say that only three girls in every generation will be Huntresses but that doesn't mean that there aren't more siblings/cousins/etc around, right?

Amanda: Thane was confusing, I think, because he was so quiet. And Gretchen had Nick (who kinda cracked me up with his persistence). So, that would align with the guardian part, BUT what about Greer? She was kind of...odd, since she doesn't really have anyone. And she resists the whole thing more than Grace does.

Kelly: Yes, Greer throws a wrench into my "the boys are guardians" theory. Dang her! I don't know. I keep looking at it like Nick pops into Gretchen's life (I agree with you, btw, about his awesome persistence) and Milo is suddenly there making eyes at Grace and... it just feels very coincidental, you know. Are they guardians? Spies for the Gods? I don't know. I DON'T KNOW! And it's killing me.

Amanda: I was not satisfied with the amount of information in this book. I felt like what we did learn was pretty easy to figure out on our own (hence my ability to guess what was happening with the three girls without having read the synopsis) and the rest was... TEASING us. It kept me from enjoying the book as much as I could have...but at the same time, I enjoyed it enough to want to know MORE.

Kelly: YES! This! I want to know more! Part of me feels like we were really left hanging with the way this book ended. There's so much setup for the next book that I'm DYING HERE! I guess it's a good thing book 2 is already out, right? If I wanted to, I could go pick it up RIGHT NOW and see if we get more answers!

Amanda: So, what's your final rating on this? It's probably more of a 6 or 7 for me (I honestly can't decide right now). I mean, I liked it and I want to know more, but it's not high up on my MUST GET RIGHT NOW list.

Kelly: Overall, I liked the storytelling. I really enjoyed this take on the Medusas and how screwy everything is BUT... I'm trying to reconcile what we were told in the beginning of the book against some of the things we learned later on and I'm left feeling unsatisfied. A few more answers would have upped this to a solid 7 for me. Right now, I'm going back and forth between 6 and 7 like you.

Amanda: Yeah. I think the beginning of the book held a lot of promise, and I liked the alternating POV between Gretchen and Grace. Once things picked up and Greer was added into the mix, it didn't quite live up to its promise.

Kelly: We'll have to see what book 2 brings to the table, I guess.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 17 November, 2012: Finished reading
  • 17 November, 2012: Reviewed