Genre: Urban Fantasy, Romance 25327426

Blurb:

Solina Mundy lives a quiet life, running the family bakery in her small North Carolina hometown. But one night, she suffers a vivid nightmare in which a wolfish beast is devouring her twin brother, who lives in Alaska. The next morning, police notify her that Mani is dead. Driven to learn the truth, Solina heads for the Land of the Midnight Sun. Once there, she begins to suspect Mani’s friends know more about his death than they’ve let on. Skyla, an ex-Marine, is the only one willing to help her.

As Solina and Skyla delve into the mystery surrounding Mani’s death, Solina is stunned to learn that her own life is tied to Mani’s friends, his death, and the fate of the entire world. If she can’t learn to control her newfound gifts and keep her friends safe, a long-lost dominion over mortals will rise again, and everything she knows will fall into darkness.

Review:

Solina Mundy’s twin brother was violently murdered. Four months later, Solina decides to visit Siqiniq to pack up her brother’s belongings and to find out about his murderer. Solina has been having these visions that are connected to the things that actually happen in her life, and one of these visions is of her brother being viciously attacked by a wolf.

Her brother’s death’s investigation is leading nowhere, so Solina takes matters into her own hands and tries to find the killer. Her late brother’s coworkers Skyla and Val help her with this. Thorin, who runs the outdoor adventure store her bro used to work at, mysteriously warns her to stop what she’s doing and go home.

The first part is more like a clue hunt, with one clue leading to another and bringing Solina closer to learning who the killer is. When Solina and Skyla delve further into their investigation, Solina’s place gets trashed, and she gets attacked by a wolf during a kayaking adventure. She also reveals some other special abilities that she didn’t know she had.

Now for the spoilery part.

Turns out Thorin and Val have some Norse mythology roots and are descendants of Odin and Thor. Somehow, the deaths of Solina and her brother may lead to another apocalypse. So then Val and Thorin have to protect her in a love triangle way. There’s also a villain who wants to bring about the apocalypse by killing Solina.

And then suddenly Solina gets kidnapped by the Valkyries who want to give her some free training because she has zero fighting skills. At that point, I really really wanted to give up and not finish the book.

I think Solina just loses track of her goals  halfway through the story. She says that she wants to bring her brother’s death to justice but believes some assumptions based on some mythological analogies with their names. Yes, they just assume the identity of the her brother’s killer, without much concrete evidence to support it. We don’t even learn much about her brother, so we don’t feel her grief and pain over that death.

I know I sound a bit like a mess and its because a lot of things didn’t add up. Like why Solina’s place was trashed if the bad guys’ goal was to kill her. Or why Val and Thorin let her go on investigating when they knew what was going on all along. Or why a group of warrior females would have the time and resources to give our heroine some free combat training out of nowhere. The climax didn’t really feel like a climax at all. I don’t feel like we ever got to that moment of absolute despair and desperation before the final battle. Too many questions and not enough struggle to make it believable.

If there’s one thing that was done well, it would have to be the love triangle. There is enough tension between Thorin, Val and Solina. Thorin’s a real hunk. He’s more like the quiet brooding type, while Val’s the playboy flirty persona.

The premise is really interesting. I’ve never read a book based on Norse myths. The references to Thor, Loki and Odin are really interesting. My main beef is that there are inconsistencies in both plot and character. Sometimes, the dots just don’t connect.

Rating: 2 Stars
Links: Goodreads | Amazon