This had soooooooo much potential, but fell flat for me. (sigh) I'm so sad about it too.

Erik is a fallen soldier. During a battle gone horribly wrong, he watched a woman fly through the sky and take his teammates one by one. Only to leave him on the battlefield alone after giving him a kiss. An image that has stayed with him for the past year while recovering and attempting to move on with what's left of his life. Then one day, this woman turns up out of nowhere. Except now she's trying to kill him. WTH???

Brenna is a fallen Valkyrie. Why fallen? Because she didn't complete her mission by bringing Erik back with her. So she's spent the last year tracking him in order to kill him and right her wrong. Although now that she's found him, killing him has become even harder. Especially now that one of her Valkyrie sisters has come down to finish what she couldn't, adding Brenna's death to the cause. Seems like there's only one thing to do...team up with Erik and try to stay alive.

Like I stated earlier, this had so much potential. The story line and ideas were all there. I'm a total sucker for Norse Gods and anything PNR, so this was right up my ally. But then it wasn't. Somewhere around the half way mark, this dragged. And then dragged some more. And then things were happening that had absolutely nothing to do with the story nor added to it. And then it dragged some more. And then the ending was just....blah to me. Yes, I'm a romantic at heart and am always looking for the HEA. But it was poorly executed in my opinion. So much so that I really thought about DNFing this, but was holding on for something to pull me back in.

I know that this is the first book in a series, but I'm not even sure I'd pick up the next one. Although if the publisher keeps producing amazing covers like this, I might....

reviewed by Chris

Unlike some previous reviewers of this book, I found it to be a perfect blend of general romance, mythology and suspense. Was it full on mythology, no. But I didn't expect it to be. I t was quite clearly set in the modern day and contained a good dollop of Norse mythology, enough to whet the whistle of a history and mythology nerd like myself but not enough to put off those who aren't into the esoteric.

Erik has a severe case of survivors guilt. He was saved on the battlefield by a beautiful angel but he has to live knowing his friends died. He now essentially lives off the grid making a living as an MMA style fighter.

Brenna has been banished to the Earth realm for not taking all the worthy warriors to Valhalla. but something made her save Erik. Now she has to kill him and right the scales or one of her sister Valkyrie will, then kill her too! But before she can strike at Erik, she is beaten to the punch and she realises that they are both now in the sights of her sisters!

They begin an off the grid journey across the states with a motley but truly loving bunch of veterans from different conflicts.

Wonderfully creative story and an intriguing premise. Can't wait to see what happens next!

3 1/2 Star Review.....

While this is not my usual genre, I loved the Norse mythology and the uniqueness of the plot. The storyline had a bit of everything; emotions, intrigue, laugh out loud moments and times I wanted to scream! The book was a little slow getting going, but it had interesting characters and good world building, so I hope there’s more to come.

Sadly I struggled with this and parted ways at 40% which was a shame as I loved the sound of the blurb. It could very well be a case of it’s not you it’s me though—the authors writing style was sound so definitely worth checking out for yourself.

This book was something intriguing as it had parts where I was emotional, I laughed, I was angry.
Add of Norse mythology was cool. Added something even more exciting and feeling of unsure! and last twists were like OMG, HOW? I LOVE IT! - my exact thoughts!
I hope more books are on the way in this series!

It took me a few chapters to get into it, this is not my usual romance I read. Am actully happy that I took a chance with it, ended up really enjoying the story. Looking forward to reading her previous books.





Thank you to Netgalley and Entangled Publishing

Actual rating: 2.5 stars.

This fantasy book didn’t feel like a fantasy. Maybe that's my fault. It wasn't listed on NetGalley under "Fantasy" - it was listed under "Romance". But I looked at that cover, read that synopsis, and had expectations. I envisioned an epic fantasy romance with Norse mythology. What I got… was pretty much a contemporary book.

You can easily strip out all the Norse stuff and have the exact same story. It’s basically about a cage fighter who’s also a veteran who winds up with this girl and circumstances happen to cause them to go on the run together. They meet up with some other veterans, have a road trip, and romance follows. It completely reads like a contemporary romance with a small amount of thriller (on the run) stuff sprinkled in. That just wasn’t what I expected at all. I expected a fantasy romance and it didn’t read like one. Even the on the run stuff was very contemporary — using social media and websites to plant false leads.

So in that sense it wasn’t necessarily a bad book, it just deviated completely from my expectations. It didn’t feel like a fantasy at all except they talked about Valkyries occasionally.

This was a huge disappointment for me… Maybe just because I really like the cover and I had so many hopes and dreams for this book! I mean, how good does a Norse mythology fantasy sound?? Ugh. Upset.

Two other smaller things of note:

1) It was a little bit cheesy. Kind of a “love conquers all” type thing. I love a good romance but sometimes the wording can just tip it over from “awesome romance” to “cheesy romance”. This was on the cheese side.

2) They kept acting like being on the run was this huge deal and they were putting “so many lives at risk”, but it was a little hard to take it seriously when we didn’t see the person chasing them for like 95% of the book. It was just hard to feel really invested in how big of a deal it was when the threat was practically invisible.

Anyway if you like the sound of this book with all the fantasy elements stripped away, then go for it. It is kind of a fun contemporary romance and I loved the cast of characters they hooked up with. That was probably my favourite part of the book. It just sucked that I went into this book expecting a fantasy and I feel like it wasn’t one at all. That really messed with my enjoyment.

Former soldier Erik Harrison is a dead man walking. The sole survivor of an ambush, the guilt of losing his friends is crushing. He questions his own sanity, remembering the vision he saw as he was dying –– a battle angel come to collect his friends' souls.Valkyrie Brenna Lund doesn't know why she failed in her duty to reap Erik's soul on the battlefield. He deserves his place with the other mighty warriors in Valhalla, and if she wants to return home, she has to kill him.When I started reading I couldn't put it down.Sheryl Nantus is magnifysent writer.I cannot wait to read more of there books.Keep up the great work.You should definitely read this book.

3.5 stars

This book had a very interesting and unique premise. I liked all the different characters and found it to be an engaging story.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.