An okay book. Not my favorite type of story but I will give credit for the good writing. I will definitely give the author another chance.

Fun! I want to read the next one now! I enjoyed how strong the man character was and enjoyed the development of the God's personalities. I can't wait to learn more about the rest of them.

HOLY cliffhanger. I'm genuinely on the fence with this one.
The heroine was likable. Traumatized from her past. A bit reckless. But relatable and most times realistic in her decision making.
The story was unique so major kuddos for originality.
I enjoyed the norse mythology woven throughout. The book is clearly intended as a reverse harem. Not my usual cup of tea but I did feel the book is heading more for menage than RH.
We'll see how things shape up in future books. I liked it. But I didn't love. Either way I'll probably pick up the next book because I am genuinely intrigued.

There are some books that are just so difficult to rate, and Claimed by the Gods is on of those. I am not sure what to give it - I really did enjoy it and yet I feel like 4 stars feels a little too high and 3.5 feels a little too low. I would go with 3.75 but that feels like I am over complicating things. But anyway, 3.75 stars which I have rounded up to 4 on Goodreads because I do intend to carry on with the series, and as I have said I did enjoy it. 

Now that I have the rating sorted I am going to start with content warnings, there is an off page sexual assault which has happen many years ago to a character. And on page there are occasions of her remembering things of the assault, though no specifics of what actually occurs. The character reliving the memory, or parts of it, happens maybe 3 or 4 times throughout the book. 

Claimed by the Gods the story of Aria and what happens after she dies, and becomes a valkyrie. It is a very different take on Norse mythology using some of the gods and goddesses, or rather goddess in a modern setting. The five who have brought Aria back as a valkyrie are Loki, Thor, the twins Baldur and Hod and Freya. 

Aria was an interesting character and I did like the chapters which were from her POV, she was an interesting read and I loved that she was so determined to do things her way. There were also chapters from the four Gods POV as well. I found Loki interesting, but I wanted him to be darker and to show more of his trickster nature. The differing POV worked really well and there was a clear difference in the voices between Aria, Loki, Thor, Baldur and Hod. 

The book touched on topics such as morality and forgiveness but, again, I would have liked a bit more on this. I felt like I just wanted to book to slow down a little and give more detail, but like it's main character the book was not going to be stopped and the pacing was really fast. 

The plot was interesting and I found Claimed by the Gods was a really quick read, and maybe a easy to predict in places, but that made it no less enjoyable. The ending of the book was a major cliffhanger and if nothing else I need to read the next book just to find out what happens! If you really don't like cliffhangers then this might be one to avoid, at least until the next book in the series comes out.

If you like urban fantasy, or Norse mythology then Claimed by the Gods in a nice, quick and interesting read and I would recommend it!

DNF. I didn't get very far into this because I discovered very early on that CLAIMED BY GODS would not be the type of book for me, unfortunately. The writing style, while fune, came off as childish and lacklustre. The main character, whose name I can't even remember, was irritating and I just couldn't grow to like her at all. I also didn't like any of the guys who were supposed to be her love interests whatsoever.

I DEFINITELY enjoyed this series a little more than the other one I started from the same author! It was the perfect combination of mythology and urban fantasy, mixed with a trope that I'm still somewhat of a newbie with but really enjoyed as a part of this series. Ari is a great heroine, tough-as-nails but still sympathetic, and it doesn't help that all of the gods are super hot to boot. After that ending I'm really looking forward to more in this series.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

DNF @ 20%

Generously rounding up from 2.5 to 3.

I tried. I really did.

But I felt no connection to the characters, no depth, no chemistry, no sizzle.

For a book being lauded as a hot summer read... I just didn't feel it.

ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

-Will not be purchasing for my library.

The initial reader's appeal for me was:

1) Cool cover!

2) The general book description because hey, Norse mythology is cool! Aria dies and is chosen to come back as a valkyrie to aide Loki, Thor, Baldur, Hod and Freya in their quest to find Odin and get back to Asgard. I mean that in itself sounds awesome.

Some issues lingered for me as a reader starting with POV. I'd have preferred the whole story told from Aria's perspective without switching to Lokie, Thor, etc. I think this would help with pacing and general plot and character development. I felt like I was deprived of some of the depth I'd expected. It seems as if Aria's love life is going to get complicated- LOL!

The plot remains intriguing with one journey seemingly finished and yet more questions and a whopper of a cliffhanger remain. Fans who enjoy reading mythology based romance and urban fantasy will be entertained.

Final rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Highly entertaining, emotionally thrilling, action packed romantic adventure filled with magic, danger, supernatural goodness and scorching hot passion....

Aria Watson is a street smart, sassy, charming and strong woman looking to save her brother and willing to fight like a valkyrie to win. Loved the mythology and reverse harem angle to this exciting and magical adventure. Sexy gods looking for a champion to help save their king and destroy their enemies ... whats not to Love? Could not put it down.

An action-packed take on Norse mythology that kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. A fantasy novel with hot males and a strong and sassy female heroine.

As for the romance, I wouldn’t call it a reverse harem novel, although I can see the potential for it. Since it’s the first book in the series, the author is laying the groundwork for the next books, introducing the characters and building the relationships.

Oh and it ends with a cliffy so let this be your warning.

Such a fantastic AWESOME read. I really didn't know what to expect,but was incredibly impressed. The story flowed well the characters are well written and fun to read. I expected a little more steaminess but was not disappointed. I can't wait to read more!

Let me begin by reiterating that serials are never a good idea. Honestly, unless the next part comes out, like lickety split - AND is brought to my immediate attention - I'm probably going to never read on. And I really like this story!! But, people read romance for escape. Which implies that theyre escaping FROM something (or somethings) and those things probably take up a lot of time and/or mental energy. (Work, kids, whatever). So why make it hard for them to find your work? Why make them work for it? Your series is going to get lost in the cracks of busy lives. Just an opinion.
Anyways, I loved Aria and all the Gods. They were written more deeply and with dimension than I'd expected from a reverse-harem point of view - if you'll excuse the generalization, they were individuals, not just a number of penises pointing in the same direction. I liked that. I was interested and engaged, the plot moved well and the characters were all getting fleshed out nicely. I am *currently* invested in where this story leads. Lets see if the rest turns up on my radar!

I went into this book with a higher expectation than I should have, honestly I didn’t really like how they treated her and just kind of knocked her out when they didn’t agree with her. I got to 74% and stopped reading it.

I'm a pretty big fan of reverse harem stories and I loved how this intertwined the Norse Mythology element. I liked the multiple points of view, very similar to several of my other favorite fantasy authors. It took me a while to become invested in the main character, but the story picks up halfway through and has good momentum until the end.

Okay, when I picked this up I didn't realize this was going to be the start of some LKH-style immortal love fest.

To be fair, the first book is more about our Valkyrie being a righteous badass. And she is - I loved her! She's tough and funny and cares so much about her little brother.

It's only towards the end of the book that you realize the subsequent books are going to be as much about her being 'Claimed' as they are about the fighting and the demon things and saving Odin and all that.

I'm not sure I'm on board for that. It gets squicky. (To be totally fair, when I grabbed this from Net Galley, the words 'reverse harem' were nowhere on that page . Of it if was I totally missed it. So I didn't know.)

So anyway, tough girl, handsome Gods, and I imagine she'll soon be doing the dirty with all of them (including a Goddess or two).

It was hard to really connect to the main character. I enjoyed the mythology but I just wish that I felt more invested in Ari. I liked getting to know the different gods and watching ari learn how to be a valkalrie.

Claim by the Gods was a very interesting book. Aria, the main character is simply fantastic. She is a very strong woman and very funny when telling her story, although she does not seem like a good person at first, as the story progresses and you get to know her, you can understand that she only did what was necessary to survive.
I love that the book is told by more than one character, because it allows us to know better the 4 gods. This is one of the things that helped me take off the image of Thor and Loki from Avengers XD.
Baldur and Hod were completely unknown to me, but they are very interesting and completely opposite characters. When I finished reading the book, my curiosity won and I did a little research on Norse mythology and now I can not wait to know what is the unforgivable thing that Hod did to Baldur.
The relationship between the gods and Ari begins when they teach her how to use the valkyrie powers that each of them gave to her, so the personality of each of the characters is presente one by one, being my favorite definitely Hod.
The story is very quick to read and has a good thread that keeps you interested in the story till the end, which has a too good turn that leaves you anxious to know what will happen next.
The only problem I had with this book was with the romance. Most of the relationships are well formed and felt real, but I do not like the idea that Ari was interested in the 4 gods and even less that the 4 are interested in her, this doesn’t sound believeble to me . Although it is possible that this has a good explanation in the following books and I'm just getting ahead of the facts.
Anyway, I think it's a completely recommendable book, with solid characters and full of action, humor, romance, intrigue and I even some tears near the end. I didn’t know it was a reverse harem when I started reading this book and I do not like this style but the story captured me and I will read the next part anyway. However, I do not recommend it if someone is overly sensitive because the story of Aria is really hard and there are many shocking facts in it, but they are not presented in the story all at once, so they are easier to cope with and and they only increase my affection for her.

This story was action packed and entertaining , it was interesting!I loved Ari's character, she is tough and strong!I also really liked the guys. The different POVs in the story really gave us the opportunity to get to know them better than we would be able to from Ari's perspective alone. I also liked the writing!

Claimed by Gods is a unique and, at times, quite thrilling. There’s action, adventure, mystery and, my favorite, a kick-ass heroine who isn’t afraid to speak her mind. She’s a survivor and she isn’t afraid to do what needs to be done. The one downside is that I didn’t connect, emotionally, with some of the guys. I couldn’t get a feel for how they felt about her and how she felt about them, other than sexual attraction with a select couple.

I would recommended this series for its unique take and kick-ass heroine, but I’m hoping I’ll be able to feel more of an emotional connection in the next installment.

This first book in Their Dark Valkyrie series was a really enjoyable book with some awesome written Norse mythology and an author who dares to give her own spin on things, a kickass female lead who happens te become a Valkyrie, and swoon-worthy Gods - and what's not to love about Gods and Valkyries, right? RIGHT.

Ari finds herself summoned by the Gods and made into a Valkyrie after dying in an accident. The Gods made a new Valkyrie so she could find their Allfather, Odin, who's been missing for quite some time now. All the other Valkyries made before Ari, have gone missing as well after they've been sent out to look for Odin, so Ari's in for a world of danger, that's for sure. Each of the Gods(Loki, Thor, Baldur, Hod and Freya) train with Ari to get her aquinted with her Valkyrie skills, before she's to head out and start the search.

It was a joy to get aquinted with each of these Gods. All of them having their own character and (magical) skills, made for a very diverse set of characters in this story. Each of them was interesting right from the start -reading from all of their POV's definitely helped building a 'bond' with the characters and I could totally see why Ari liked them so much. Each moment with Loki, Thor, Baldur and Hod was just great to read about I think. Each of them had 'something' that pulled me in and I couldn't even say that I had a favorite among them, because they were all really great characters.

Ari has trouble leaving her 'old' world behind, since she's very protective of her little brother and she wants him to be safe. Safe from parents Ari has received nothing but trouble from in the past. So seeing Ari struggling with technically leaving her little brother behind, while she's training to become a real Valkyrie, made her feel like a very realistic character. I liked her feistiness and her protectiveness towards her little brother. I liked her character development throughout this book. She was a strong character right from the start, but after becoming a Valkyrie she somehow honed her strongest character traits to become a really awesome female lead character.

I have to say, that the developing 'romance/lust' between Ari and Several characters, wasn't something that felt all that 'natural' to me from time to time. Even though the writing was really great, it felt like those moments of lust present,because I really can't say it revolved around romantic feelings with these characters. It was lust, really. And that's okay though. Lust is a gread addition. To me, romance isn't particularly neccessary in this story since there's a lot of other things going on that had my interest weren't all that natural developed into the story-line and more like it was all a bit pressured into the story-line. Like there just Had to be some romance/lust scenes present in the book to make it more attractive to readers? That's how it felt to me unfortunately.

I really did like the relationship developments between Ari and the Gods, but I think it was a bit unneccesary to developed 'romantic/lust' feelings between Ari and almost all of the Gods. I think it would've been better that if there had to be a romance development, it'd be focused on one particular God and that she'd just develop a great 'friendship' with the rest of them. Now it just feels a bit off to me. And from my understanding it's supposed to be some sort of 'harem thing' but it wasn't fully developed enough in this book to my likings then. I Am curious though, to see where it'll all lead to in the next book! I mean, even though it felt all a bit 'off' to me, the way those particular scenes were written, was just really great and it did get to me In the heat of the moment. So I'm curious to see how the author's writing will develop in the next book regarding this 'harem thing' development because it Does have potential!
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Overall this story was a really great read!
I looooved the Norse mythology re-telling. I loved the twists and turns throughout the story-line. The characters were really interesting and a joy to read about. The writing was really great and left me curious for what's to come next. The romance development was a bit off to me, but it definitely has potential to become more and I'm excited to find out how it'll develop in the next book. So yeah, I'd say I recommend this book and love to see you read it as well!