Awaken is the first book in the new adult/adult fantasy series called The Goddess Incarnate, by B.L. Callaghan. The Goddess Incarnate series is a fantasy series that pulls heavily on mythology influences, which if a big favorite of mine. I was super excited to read Awaken and I can’t wait to continue on with this series. I thought this was a good first book, and it has built a solid foundation for a series that I think I will really enjoy. Awaken at times felt a little bit information heavy (info-dumping) because there was so much going on, but that can sometimes come with the first book in a series because they are setting up a new fantasy world and laying all the groundwork for the characters and how they fit into that world. This is not something that bothers me in book one of a series, but I did just want to point that out.

in Awaken, we meet our main character Sapphira. Sapphira believes she is just a normal 19 year old, when she gets a huge bombshell dropped on her that she is no ordinary human. She is actually one of the most powerful beings in the world called the Goddess Incarnate. I don’t know about you, but if I was told that I was a goddess, I would probably be just a little bit skeptical. And I have to say, Sapphira was my favorite part of this story. She questions things instead of just accepting them at face value. She is strong, brave and more than a little feisty. I love her as our main character. She elevated the story to another level in my opinion.

Because we see this book through Sapphira’s point of view, we are often as in the dark as she is. I found this to really effective at allowing the reader to form a strong connection with Sapphira, which I loved. But I also found it to be frustrating at times, when I wanted to learn more about certain aspects of the story. I felt like I had a very clear picture of the world because of all the rich detail and information provided, but I didn’t always know what was going on because Sapphira didn’t know. I think this will become less of an issue in future books as we learn more alongside Sapphira.

The plot of the book was great and I can’t wait to see where it is going to go next. There were plenty of surprises thrown in throughout to keep my attention, and some of them really came out of nowhere! I was legitimately very surprised a few times, which I enjoyed! There is a lot happening in this book plot-wise, and I can’t wait to see what the next book in the series is going to bring. This was a good first book. It is something fans of mythology based fantasy stories should check out!