ARC Review: Sweet Venom

Sweet Venom (Medusa Girls, 1) by Tera Lynn Childs, September 6, 2011. 345 pages. Published by Katherine Tegen Books. Source: From Publisher for Review.

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.

 First Sentence (ARC, subject to changes):

Hydras have a distinctive odor.

Okay, so Sweet Venom was the very first book of Tera Lynn Childs that I have ever read, and it was amazing (will totally be checking out her other books) and I devoured it in just a few hours.

Sweet Venom just grabbed me and pulled me completely in the Gretchen, Grace, and Greer's story from the opening sentence. Now me being pulled in from the first sentence is a very rare occurrence and that in itself should tell you how much this book rocks.

The reason I really wanted to Sweet Venom was that it was about the descendants of Medusa; who just so happens one of my favorite Greek mythological characters. I always felt that she was unjustly portrayed and was quite fascinated to see what Ms. Child's would do with her mythos, I loved the story that she wove. It was genius.

One of the things that I really enjoyed about Sweet Venom was that Gretchen, Grace and Greer did not instantly bond with each other, and that it took them some time to accept that yes they are sisters. Had they instantly gone from complete strangers straight to being closely knit sisters, I do not think I would have enjoyed it nearly as much. Because let us face it things do not happen that way.

  I loved how Sweet Venom starts out pretty much with a bang, and that you are thrown right into the world that Gretchen knows, that of hunting monsters and returning them to the abyss. I thought that opening the book with her getting ready to take down a monster was a great place to start in that it shows you what you will be in for, plus it was nice not to have to wait till the middle or near the end of the book for main plotline to be brought into the story.

I liked all three of the sisters, Gretchen, Grace and Greer. I loved how they were about as different from one another as they could be, and that their respective personalities were so easily distinguished from the other. While I liked each of the girls, Gretchen turned out to be my absolute favorite character from Sweet Venom. I just thought that she was such a great, strong character.

     As for Grace, I liked her, but sometimes she was just...naive and maybe a little too soft. However, I do love that fact that as the book progressed she began to get a backbone and stopped letting people push her around.
      Gosh, I did not like Greer at all when she was first introduced. She was just so stuck up and not really someone that was easily liked, but (thankfully) by the time the book ends you've learned a little more about her and once she accepts the way things are now she doesn't seem so bad.

I'm afraid that I cannot limit myself to only one thing that I loved most about Sweet Venom, instead I shall tell the three things that made this book so great, but I won't go into too much detail lest I get carried away and tell ya'll all of the books secrets.
1.) The writing, Ms. Childs' writing was so fluid and pacing of Sweet Venom had both wanting to speed through the book as fast as possible (so I could see how it would end) and wanting to savor the book so that it wouldn't end.
2.) The characters, I loved how diverse the three sisters were and that they didn't instantly click or want to accept that they are all part of the same world.
3.) The story and plot line, I thought they were brilliantly done.

The only drawback to the wonderful Sweet Venom would have to be that ending is a mix between a cliff-hanger with the plot and storyline left wide open for the next installment of Medusa Girls. While I am definitely excited that there's going to be another book, I have not the slightest idea how I am going to bare the long wait for the second book, especially after the way Sweet Venom ended.

Final Verdict: Sweet Venom is one book that you DO NOT want to miss out on.

Sweet Venom 5 out of 5 pineapples.