Tera Lynn Childs

Gretchen is a teenager torn between two worlds. While trying to keep up with school, she hunts monstrous creatures from the underworld at night. Meanwhile, Grace is new to San Francisco and her elite school. Then one night she sees a minotaur right out of Greek mythology, making her question her sanity. But the next time she sees a monster, Grace is confronted with a girl that looks exactly like her. Greer is living the high life with money, popularity, and a wannabe-surfer boyfriend. But show more when two girls that look just like her arrive on her doorstep claiming that they are triplets descended from a Greek myth with a destiny as hunters, Greer will have to reevaluate her priorities in life.

With a creative twist on Greek mythology, Childs has created a world where Medusa was misunderstood and cursed by a jealous Athena. Now, her teen descendents must join forces and become huntresses and fulfill a mysterious destiny. The three sisters could not be more different. Gretchen is jaded, standoffish and wholly embraces her huntress lifestyle. Grace is quiet, geeky and a bit of a pushover. And, at least on the surface, Greer is the typical spoiled, rich girl. Childs' characters are incredibly vivid and complex.

First in a new series, Sweet Venom had me hooked from the start with great characters and plenty of fast-paced suspense, mystery and action. It's highly entertaining and captivating. The Greek myth aspect of the story certainly adds a fun spin to this promising new series for young adults. With surprising revelations and a major cliffhanger, readers will be left wanting more. I, for one, can't wait for the sequel. show less

Medusa, you had kids??

That was my first reaction to hearing that Gretchen, Grace, and Greer were descendants of Medusa.
And the answer to that question was: yes, yes she did. And her kids had kids, and their kids had kids, and so on until we reach Grace, Gretchen, and Greer's generation.

In Sweet Venom, Tera Lynn Childs plays with the Medusa myth and expertly creates a story where these three kick-ass sisters kick the monsters' behinds like they were meant to be doing it. Funny, touching, show more and action-packed, Sweet Venom is a unique novel that opens us up to more Greek myths.

The badass, the good girl, and the princess.

Gretchen, Grace, and Greer all have different personalities and live different lives.
Gretchen, for example, had been fighting monsters ever since Ursula took her in when she was twelve. She's known about her destiny and who she is longer than Grace and Greer has.
Gretchen knows how to take these monsters down and she does it like a pro.
But Gretchen's life hasn't been easy and she's struggled constantly, which makes her a tough cookie and a hard nut to crack.
I loved reading from her POV the most, probably because she's the tough cookie and it's always nice to see what's going on in their head.

Grace is lovable, cute, and determined. If I had to pick which character I instantly connected with, it would be Grace.
All she wanted was a new start, to be braver and bolder. When she moves to San Francisco, that's what's she's hoping for. She didn't expect to meet her twin sister, let alone find out that they're triplets and descends of Medusa.
But when she does, she accepts what she has to do and is willing to train and learn. Family is her motivation. Grace understands how important it is now that the sisters have found each other and she will do everything to keep them together. Grace and Gretchen bond over training, and the more time they spend together, the more they grow to like each other.
Between the three, Grace is the one who will easily come to love her sisters.
And she has such an adorable crush on Milo.

My first impression of Greer was that she was a snob. Rich and popular, the whole "princess" attitude completed Greer's personality. She was the hardest to convince about her destiny and she's stubborn. This I expected. Characters like her are always the hardest to sway. But eventually, they give in.
What I like about Greer is that she struggles to come to terms with the truth and she becomes likable when she finally accepts it.
Though I have to say that because Greer came later into the novel, I didn't get to know her as much as I knew Grace and Gretchen. But I was on a need-to-know basis and Greer's personality was the easiest to recognize.

Sister power!

If there's one big theme of this book, besides mythology, it would be the love between sisters.
I'm a sucker for books like that.

In Sweet Venom, there's a whole lot of sister love, especially towards the end. I think that it's powerful to show the relationship between sisters than focus on romance between couples. While there are very adorable, crushable guys in this novel, I'm glad to have taken a break from all the romance and focus on the story and the relationship between these sisters.
I love how the girls realize that they need each other and I think it's funny how all three of them go an epiphany at the same time. I loved reading how they worked things out and decided to be together.

Sister power, man. There's nothing better than that.

This was sweet.

Sweeeeeet. Totalllyy.

Sweet Venom was a brilliantly thought of take on mythology and Tera Lynn Child's characters were lovable and realistic. With detailed action scenes that'll get the reader pumped up, this book will catch the attention of it's readers.

I don't know how many times I'm going to say this, but I loved the Medusa myth factor in this novel. And the mythological Greek creatures included in this novel were creepy and accurate.
It's just brilliant.

I can't wait for Sweet Shadows! show less

Three sisters, separated at birth, are descendents of Medusa and live in modern San Fran. Wicked awesome hook.

First off, I like how although there are three main girls, it starts off with just the perspectives of two - Grace and Greer. I felt like I could get to know characters better and then have a third one introduced instead of having brain overload and trying to meet 3 new characters all at the same time.

All three of the girls had very distinct voices and you can tell that they aren't show more the same person. That being said, I definitely felt more drawn to Grace than the other two. I'm not sure if it was because she was mentioned first or because I'm more like her than the other two. And funnily enough, Gretchen got on my nerves to no end - seriously, how rude can I girl get? She was like Buffy gone mad! Greer was a good addition to the mix a little more than halfway through, but I definitely want to see more of her character in the second book!

Looking for a refreshing take on mythology while getting your fix for action? Look no further than Sweet Venom. This book was a cute, fun read that promises a great sequel. show less

So what's a girl goddess to do when everything she wants is just a race away? Phoebe is back and has a new challenge of Olympic proportions to master. The question isn't whether she'll win the race, the question--can she win it and control her powers so she doesn't get smote? Between learning to control herself, preparing for a race that's older then the Olympics and holding onto her love life, Phoebe has a lot on her plate and Childs manages to retain that witty narrative tone in this show more sequel to Oh. My. Gods.

Whereas Phoebe spent the majority of Oh. My. Gods. in the dark about her parentage and feeling like a fish out of water amongst her peers, she spends a lot of this book struggling to do what most teenagers have to accomplish. Her development felt more natural here, as she learns (often the hard way) how to control her powers so she doesn't get the ultimate smack down from the Gods for being reckless.

The romance between she and Griffin moves at a good speed as well. Now that they're both on even ground, more or less, it was fun watching their competitiveness both drive them to be better at their running, but also support each other without reserve. There was never a moment when I felt as if either one would rather the other was less so they could be more.

The race, and the end result, was tense. I could feel how badly Phoebe wanted to win and felt my heart go out to her after everything she went through to get to that point. I never thought she'd use her powers (consciously or otherwise) to win the Pythian Games, but there was that nugget of doubt in my mind that maybe the ultimate lesson for Phoebe would be learning that losing would be okay.

Goddess Boot Camp was as engaging and lively as its predecessor promised it would be. A lot of the character flaws I found in the first book were fixed and a new layer was added to Phoebe's emotional development that I appreciated. Enjoy this second helping of Phoebe's life and join me in rooting for a third book. show less