*Early copy sent to me by the publisher. This doesn’t affect my opinion or the content of this review.*

I’ve never read a book by Amanda before, and the premise for this sounded amazing. Unfortunately, it didn’t live up to my expectations.

A short list of the issues I had with this book:
• It never really hooked me.
• It does have Norse mythology like it’s said to, but I also noticed mention of Greek, Egyptian, and other gods. I don’t know what purpose that served, as they’re very different mythologies.
• A lot of things were left unexplained.
• The setting was never stated. In the end I knew the big showdown was in a secret cave in either Mexico or Central America, but that’s it. I don’t know where the rest took place, or even what time period it was. I think it was at least a little bit futuristic?
• That being said, the general world-building didn’t seem very well done. I had a basic grasp of the mortals and immortals sharing Earth, and of the Valkyrie responsibility. But I’m not sure what the limitations were, and I had a lot of questions.
• Malin’s mother was a horrible parent, and literally everything was her fault. I’m not exaggerating.
• The ending felt really anticlimactic.

Prior to the beginning of the story, the protagonist was in a relationship with a girl. They broke up, and in the actual book the protagonist dealt with remaining feelings for her as well as new feelings for a boy love interest. She was most likely bisexual, though she could’ve been pansexual or something else. I appreciated that her sexuality was a casual thing, and established before the start. I liked the little twist on the typical love triangle, with a girl choosing between a girl and a boy. I didn’t like the drama that ensued.

This is a small thing, but it was noticeable to me. Everyone was beautiful and attractive, and there was always a paragraph talking about said beauty when a character was introduced. I don’t know why no one was just average. And the main character had a habit of noticing appearances and her feelings in the worst situations, something I think took away from the story.

I’m not lowering my rating because of this, since it’s an early copy, but as I read I noticed a lot of grammatical and other errors. I did get this arc a couple of months ago, so I assume -I hope- it’s been revised since then.

I didn’t hate this book, though admittedly it was disappointing. To be quite honest, it was only an average read. It was quick, but I didn’t find anything to like as I read. I won’t be reading the next book, and I probably won’t look for Amanda’s other work, either.