Sweet Venom (Medusa Girls #1)

Title: Sweet Venom (Medusa Girls #1)
Author: Tera Lynn Childs
Rating: 4/5
Summary: 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.My Thoughts: In SWEET VENOM, Medusa and her gorgon sisters have been maligned in myth. Ever since Medusa's assassination, her descendants have been fighting monsters that escape their prison by way of a crack in the seal between worlds, left there by one of those pesky gods (of course). Once in our world, the monsters disguise themselves as humans. Only descendants of Medusa can see their true forms. 

The book begins with Gretchen biting a hydra to send it back to its world. That's totally normal.

Then Grace moves to San Francisco and begins seeing monsters. That's less normal. Grace's life is not supposed to have monsters.

Things quickly get even more complicated: Gretchen's mentor goes missing, one of the boys at school is immune to their hypnotic eyes, and . . . they have a third sister, Greer.

The rules of their monster-fighting world are changing. Something big is going on, and it has to do with the seal between worlds.

This is Tera's third series (following OH. MY. GODS. and FORGIVE MY FINS), once again centering on Greek mythology. Tera always amazes me with her knowledge, flawless prose, and fresh look at a popular subject. This book is no exception. And while you might worry that a story about triplets could have them all behaving the same, this never happens. Not once. Each girl has a distinct voice, her own personality, and unique reactions to the world they live in.

If you like Tera's other books? Read this one.

If you're craving a book about kick-butt monster-fighters? Read this one.