I've been meaning to start this series since I've enjoyed her "Bigtime" series. Nice shout out to Karma Girl BTW. If there was a shout out for her "Elemental Assassin" series- I missed it since I haven't started that one yet. 
Gwen is a gypsy and she has the gift of psychometry. She can touch anything and get the history of the object, or feelings if a person. I found I was annoyed with Gwen for part of the book because of her disbelief of mythology (it's not real!). Come on, she has a gift, her mom, and grandmother too, so her whole attitude was aggravating. I thought she was judgmental, dismissive; however, by the end she was much less so. She learned, which was a plus.
I was a little disappointed in the shallowness of all the teenagers. Especially the girls. I am glad that Daphne was more than she seemed and made the first move towards friendship with Gwen. Morgan was called a slut so many times I didn't appreciate that (and the guys that slept with her? Meh.). On the flip side, Logan, was referred to a "man whore" a few times. 
Not sure how I feel about (I'm assuming) the future love interest. On the plus side, it's a slow burn. On the negative side, he is openly dating (and I assume sleeping) with other people. Not. Crazy. About. That. I think Gwen deserves better.
Nice twist with the murder mystery, Jasmine, Nike, Vic, etc.
Oh and did you know Gwen's mom is Grace and she is a Gypsy? 
YA square for Ripped Bodice Bingo (and that gives me a blackout!).

When Gwen’s mother died she was claimed by the Mythos Academy. An Academy that teaches young, magically gifted warriors to be ready to fight Chaos as has been their solemn duty for centuries

 

But Gwen, with her powers of psychometry and no magical history or culture felt very out of place among the affluent, strong and powerful valkyries and spartans of the Mythos Academy

 

And never did this rift loom so large than when one of their class is killed and her war torn peers seem to not even care. It’s left to her to investigate and find the actual truth

I can’t even begin to review this book without addressing the great big elephant in the room and the problem is it underpins a lot of the whole book.

 

A core concept of this book is that the magical kids in this school are have magical gifts based on the mythological, legendary warriors of the past. This works for the valkyries with their super strength. And the Amazons with their super speed. But then we have the Romans, Celts and Spartans… these are actual people? Also I question why your legendary super-warriors for men are actual historical people. While your magical warrior women are mythological? I don’t think it’s intentional and there’s no actual sense that there’s a magical divide between men and women: but I think it kind of sends a weird message that awesome warrior women are… well… fictional… while awesome warrior men are historical.

 

But then there’s Gwen. Gwen’s magical gift is psychometry - she can touch things and get sensation and images off it. Her mother and grandmother also had psychic gifts like this. And they are called Gypsies.

 

Argh, no. First of all that word is not neutral, it’s a slur used to denigrate, demean, insult and perpetuate no small number of myths against the Romani people. And Romani are not legendary, mythological or even historical people - they’re an ethnic group, a highly discriminated against ethnicity that faces incredible amounts of persecution as well as really damaging stereotypes. One of which is this pervasive fortune teller/woo-woo depiction - this is damaging

But to top this off, I honestly think the author may not know this. And by “this” I mean that Romani actually exist. There is no suggestion, not one tiny suggestion, that Gwen, her mother or grandmother are Romani. There’s no suggestion that them calling themselves “Gypsy” applies to anything BUT their woo-woo. There’s even a line:

 

“I didn’t know exactly what made us Gypsies. We didn’t act like any Gypsies I’d ever read about. We didn’t live in wagons or wander from town to town or cheat people out of their money.”

 

I… no… just no. Really, appropriating a slur and then trotting out of all of these insults and stereotypes while completely ignoring actual Romani people is beyond not ok.

 

Getting past this is difficult, but when you do there is a somewhat intriguing story and world here. Though I would like more development of this world. We have the concept of the pantheon and the big bad god spreading chaos which isn’t exactly original. Which is why I would have quite liked to have examined what all these gods - or what all the individual powers were and meant.

 

There were some excellent moments of examining the idea of these very spoilt, privileged kids who, at the same time, were so innured to loss and conflict, which in turn expanded on the idea of why they are being so very spoiled; indulgent parents who are very aware their kids may not reach adulthood.

 

 

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A school for epic students, gypsy family secrets and a grandmother raising her granddaughter who cares for her granny. A yummy comfortable YA read.

I've read this ages ago. I never really processed the book, and the only reason I remembered it is because I've donated my old paperbacks to charity recently.

This type of books were a dime a dozen riding into popularity on a trail of stars like Vampire Academy and the like. Touch of Frost was uninspired, filled with cliche's and tropes. It based it's school for superfreaks on Greek Mythology.

The romance was your classic bad boy meets the unpopular girl, while the mean cheerleader and her cronies conspire against her.

The rest of the plot was so random and unconnected, truth be told – I found the story not worth the paper it was printed on. But hey ho, the kiddies loved it.

This was a great start to a series. The series is called mythos academy. Its a bout a girl named Gwen who lives with her mother and sometimes her grandmother ( only when her mom has to work late). They are a gypsy family each with their own "gift". Gwen can tell what people are thinking just by touching things that have ( they leave a kinda of imprint on objects).  She uses her gift to make a bit of money on the side and help people find things. Her mother can tell if some one is lying or not and she is a cop, while her grandmother can see a bit into the future and she is a fortune teller.

Sometimes Gwen's ability gets the best of her and she just has to know someones secrets, its like a compulsion almost. This compulsion eventually winds up putting Gwen in a new school where she can learn to control her ability better. She goes to a school where all the kids are rich and descendants of mythical, magical people and beings.

So far  she and her family are the only gypsies gwen has ever met and she is not even sure if she believes everything she is being told ( maybe because she is not being told everything yet) but she will soon learn she is more than what she thinks. If you like greek mythology and magic then I bet youd like this book too. Its well written and action packed. And not filled with too much teenaged angst.