The Weight of a Soul follows Lena’s journey as she tries to bring her beloved sister, Fressa, back from the grave with the goddess Hela’s help. Her death was mysterious. Lena knows it wasn’t supposed to happen and tries to reverse it. Yet, greater things than the love she has for her sister are at play and Ragnarok is approaching.

I loved the setting of this book. I haven’t read anything mythological in a long time, and seeing the Norse gods portrayed fairly accurately was a relief after watching Thor: Ragnarok last year. I loved reading the author’s note. Elizabeth Tammi mentioned that she took some liberty with portraying the Vikings—mainly because of the lack of historical knowledge about their traditions and customs. Her inclusion of Amal was a choice that reflects that maybe Vikings had more diversity than we thought due to their extensive trade routes. She put a lot of thought and creativity into the setting, and I really appreciated that.

The plot had me intrigued the entire time. I struggled to get into it, but that’s just the way I am when I read ebooks. However, I loved Lena and the exploration of what she would do to get her sister back. It’s such a different take from many of the books I read where the characters are morally sound and find ways around the rock and the hard place. The arranged marriage wasn’t exactly something that I saw as necessary, but it definitely showed that the other characters were willing to move on after Fressa’s death. I was hooked, and continued reading with anticipation and fear as to what Lena would do next.

The characters were the only part of this book that didn’t wow me. Lena was a little hard to love. I loved the exploration of her morality, but as a person I didn’t really see many reasons to root for her. Her sister was a vibrant character who did seem worthy of saving, and their relationship as sisters was believable. Amal was a good friend but didn’t really stand up for himself or for his love with Fressa.

Overall, this was a great story! It explores the characters’ morality in ways that I did not expect and presents a story filled with vikings, mythology, and sibling love. I was satisfied with the ending, the execution of the story, and the creativity put into making the world.

So I didn't realize this was from the same author as outrun the wind. I really didn't like that book and I felt like this book was going to go through the same thing. Now this wasn't my favorite but it was better. I enjoyed the Viking and Loki. I figured out who the person was they wanted dead tho halfway through and I didn't really start enjoying this til like 60%.

The Weight of a Soul is an interesting fiction novel with roots in Norse mythology. The novel tells the tale of Lena, who after the unexpected and untimely death of her sister, starts a tango with the gods, one which she cannot understand the depths of. She continues to make sacrifice after sacrifice to appease the gods in hopes of getting her sister back. She has to come to grips with her actions in order to continue pursuing her goal.

While I enjoyed the book, I felt as though the ending left something to be desired, it felt abrupt and unfinished. My other dislike was that I found it to be fairly predictable. I enjoyed the slightly different take on Norse mythology and the development of the various gods and characters.



Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book.

I found this book super interesting for a super weird reason, but I loved it because of the tie in's with Marvel movies! I know this probably wasn't the case or the inspiration for Tammi, but it is immediately what I thought when they introduced Loki, Hela, and Ragnarok. It was super awesome to read a book that involved these legends. Only was missing Thor!

The Weight of a Soul followed the daughter of the clan chieftain, Lena. Her sister Fressa died early in the book and Lena is trying to get her back, refusing to believe that she is gone. She strikes up a deal with Hela that will make Lena compromise everything she believes in.

I found this book to be interesting, with good characters and a solid plot. I believe the timing and pace was a little off for my taste, but it wasn't a huge point of contention for me. The ending caught me by total surprise and was very sad - but made a lot of sense after I thought about it for awhile.

For fans of Sky In The Deep and Warrior in the Wild, Elizabeth Tammi brings The Weight of a Soul, which makes you question a person's worth and value in relation to the weight of their soul compared to others. A tale about love, family, and how far one will go to protect their sister.

I am always a fan of Norse-themed fantasy, and was really excited to dive into this one. I loved the relationship between the main characters, and the way the plot unfolded as they explored the mystery of her friend's death. The worldbuilding was really interesting, and I loved the beautiful prose.

First of all, the cover of this book really drew me in--it's just lovely. I also love the premise of this book: Lena's sister dies under mysterious circumstances and she strikes a deal with Hela, goddess of the underworld, to get her back. I'm very much a fan of the show Vikings, and I was eager to get into a book based on Norse mythology.

However, I just can't get into this one (I'm finally going to DNF this at a little under 60% finished). The writing is gorgeous, and Tammi paints a marvelous picture of Lena's grief, but this one is just...slow. I found it hard to get into and difficult to get through, and in many cases I was skimming just to get to something better. And though the Viking gods and goddesses were named, nothing felt particularly Nordic.

I did like that there was a reference list at the end, as I'm always interested at looking at sources used for historical fiction.

Thank you to NetGalley and Flux books for providing this review copy.

Okay, I loved that this is a Viking book and features Norse gods and goddesses! There aren't enough of these books around so I'm always happy to read them. This started out strong, fast pacing and lots of questions about what's happening. I liked the relationship between Lena and Fressa and that Lena would do anything to help her sister. As I got closer to the ending, I thought there must be a second book because there's no way all this will resolve. Well, I was (mostly) wrong. Things wrapped up so quickly that I wasn't quite sure what was happening. I'm still holding out for a sequel because I still have questions and the ending is abrupt. Still a good, fun read!

The Weight of a Soul presents an interesting moral question - what would you do to bring your sister and best friend back to life? Kill a stranger? What if that murderous goal turns closer to home? How do you measure the weight of your loss against the loss of others you love?

Lena is devastated when her sister, Fressa, is taken from her. A warrior of great skill, Fressa is found dead with no visible illness or wound. Lena believes there is more there than meets the eye and demands the opportunity to speak with Hela, the goddess of death, to learn how she can change her sister's fate. Hela lays forth a challenge - bring her a soul of the same heft and Fressa's soul will be released from Valhalla.

This story was a slow beginning with one exception - Fressa is killed before we can even truly begin to care about her as readers. Over time, we learn to care about Lena and therefore want this situation resolved for her sake, but I found Fressa to be a figment of Lena's memory more than a character we desperately desired to save. This made Lena's descent more and more difficult to empathize with as she considers more extreme actions to meet Hela's challenge.

For me, the story picked up enormously about halfway through. We had more interaction with Norse gods, but you don't need any familiarity with the canon to enjoy the story - something that is often a barrier to entry for a less-known group of gods (unlike Greek/Roman, for example). We also had more interaction with the very small, insular community in with Lena lives. She is the daughter of the chief, tasked with leading the group when her parents pass away. I wished for more mother-daughter relationship building in particular, but overall the expansion of the story to encompass this small community strengthened the narrative.

Ultimately, if a second book is introduced here I will absolutely read it. By the last 20% of the book, I was eagerly flipping through the pages, hoping for Lena's sake that she failed in her quest. The tension quickly heightened in a way that was very engaging indeed. I would recommend this as a quick read with a digestible moral, but some bigger questions about how far each of us would go when pushed to fight for the ones we love.

**My thanks to Elizabeth Tammi, Flux, and NetGalley for a free ARC of this book in exchange for a honest review.**

I honestly don't know what happened with this book. When I first hear about 'The Weight of a Soul' I was so excited to be able to get me hands on it. i love Viking tales, especially the mythology, but this book was just slow. I don't know how else to describe it. Even when we get into it and meet Hela (the part I was most excited about. Hello? goddess of death, yes please) I couldn't even be excited about it. I think it was just the pacing of everything. No doubt the author knows how to tell a story and her writing is beautiful, this just missed the mark for me.

When Lena's younger sister Fressa is found dead, their whole Viking clan mourns—but it is Lena alone who never recovers. Fressa is the sister that should've lived, and Lena cannot rest until she knows exactly what killed Fressa and why—and how to bring her back. She strikes a dark deal with Hela, the Norse goddess of death, and begins a new double life to save her sister.

But as Lena gets closer to bringing Fressa back, she dredges up dangerous discoveries about her own family and finds herself in the middle of a devastating plan to spur Ragnarök –a deadly chain of events leading to total world destruction. Still, with her sister's life in the balance, Lena is willing to risk it all. She's even willing to kill. How far will she go before the darkness consumes her?

This book has a mix of mythology and family.

I am quite conflicted on how I feel about this book.
The writing in this book I felt was beautiful and the books starts out great but at the middle of the book it got really slow and was hard for me to push through but I did but then the ending was a disappointment for me as it felt rushed and was muddled. That aside I did enjoy the relationships between the characters if though i personally didn’t get along with them the chemistry that was between them was good. The start of the book has a great family dynamic, sadly this was lost and there could of been more in the middle and end of the book. The plot was okay but the flow of the book like I described before was off despite this there were some good plot twists.

Overall I give this book 3.5 stars

This was just...weird. The storyline, the theme, the characters, the ending...just unnatural, forced, and strange. It didn't seem like a Viking world at all, and the characters seemed too orchestrated to serve the very strange plot. Maybe I missed something? And also...the ending had way too many loose ends. I like endings with loose ends. But this one had way too many, which led to confusion and a lack of emotion over the characters and their lives. Would not recommend.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I would rate this book a 3.5/5 - thank you #NetGalley for this ARC!
After finishing this one in one day (!!) I would have to say I'm still mildly conflicted on this one. The writing was excellent and beautiful. I've already bookmarked Elizabeth Tammi's first book to read because I did enjoy The Weight of a Soul. I found there were a few things missing rather than having issues with the story itself. I have to say this is my favorite Norse tale that I've read so far, and the mythology was done well so that - with my very limited knowledge of this previously - I was not confused. This is a great beach read. I can see it being a stand alone with the possibility for a spin off? I shall address that in the rest of my review!

*Stop Here For Super Super Spoilers*

The Weight of a Soul starts out very strong. I love the set up of the family dynamic between Lena, Fressa and their parents, and the drama that starts of right away (Amal knew the whole time he was betrothed to Fressa's sister?! The nerve!) I've been a big fan of strong sister relationships lately. Lena and Fressa did not disappoint. I felt their relationship right away, and I believe in Lena's devotion to her other half.

Right away, we get Fressa's mysterious death that ignites Lena down a wild trail to bring her back - her sister's soul in exchange for one of equal weight. Fressa needs to return in order to save them all - Lena believes this beyond a shadow of a doubt. This concept of the weight of a soul is present throughout the book and I absolutely loved it. I predicted one of the options that Lena choose and enjoyed the twist when it didn't work. I was sad as Lena when she realized she would have to exchanged Amal - I honestly thought that would have been fitting - and was...disappointed? when the soul she ended up needing to exchange was her own. I think that would have made for a more powerful epilogue - if Fressa had returned to find her sister had to sacrifice her love to bring her back to save them all? The broken relationship they now have to mend rather than Amal leaving the village he was trained to lead with Lena? Now that would have been a nice spin into a second book.

This is why I have trouble with the ending that Fressa got with Amal.

Moving on...
So, Loki wants Fressa back, but Odin is keeping her, so to switch the souls without Odin nothings, they need one of equal value. Because, Loki is Fressa's true father after he became him before she was born. Which explains their 'fathers' strange behavior. And Loki needs Fressa to help him with his general plans. But there were a few things missing with this. This needed more support. The establishment of the mythology was so strong, and I felt this part at the end was rushed.

I wish that there was more of the family dynamic throughout the book. I loved the relationship between Lena and her mother, and wanted to know more about Fressa's relationship with her parents and their people. We get glimpses, when Lena mentions she's acting as Fressa would, but I want to know more of the impact that Fressa's absence has on the village. Lena was raised to lead her people (with Amal) and I believed in Lena's strength and determination.

I just feel like Fressa's got the short end of the stick in character development while being the chosen one all along? Lena went through a whole heck of a lot to bring her sister back because she knew the good it would do. I know Fressa was dead and everything...but she seemed like a strong fun character from the moments we get with her. I wanted more.

Amal. The supporting character I don't know what to do with. He needed some more complexity to him. Same with Bejla. Not bad characters, just not excellent characters. They had so much potential. I want more!

The first half of this book started out very strong, and I feel like as it approached it's ending, things became a bit muddled, but still delivered an ended that ties up most of the questions asked while reading. It was all most as if there was a rush to get everything out at the end - I would say from when Nana passes on - to no lose readers. I did highlight a few things that were never explained, but they were all small. I enjoyed this book and would recommend giving it a read! I'm nit picking due to it being an ARC :)

Well, this was a fun read! The Weight of a Soul has a mix of mythology, family, and the sense of doing right or wrong. Definitely enjoyed this one, and I would have finished it way sooner if I didn't have a busy week!

The writing
I adored the writing style of the author. It was emotional and philosophical for me as it touches the topic of family—specifically a sister's love and estranged family members—and the morality of a person.

The characters
I liked the characters enough but I wish it had more characterization. We see Lena get consumed by grief and her dangerous determination to see her sister again. We see Amal try to get back up and put on a brave face. And Fressa, though she was a constant topic throughout the book, I don't know much about her or I didn't get to relate enough to her.

The plot
The plot was okay for me—it was interesting but I feel like the pace or the flow of the story seemed off. The first few parts were really interesting, the middle parts got a bit slow and uneventful, and the remaining parts of the book got really fast-paced.

I liked that the author pulled some exciting plot twists that I didn't see at first! I loved that. The ending (as in the last two lines!) were shocking as well! I also expected more action, a battle or some sort of showdown, but those few great plot twists did it for me.

Overall, I give this book 3.5 stars!
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Review posted on my blog: https://enthralledbookworm.wordpress.com/2019/08/11/arc-review-the-weight-of-a-soul/ (Aug. 11, 2019)
Review posted posted on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2922330609 (Aug. 11, 2019)

Omg! Love Lena's character so much. From the beginning she pulls you in with her love for her sister Fressa and her duty as a Viking. I love the entire story, her devotion to bringing Fressa back from death. This is a book that I was not able to put down at all, I was able to connect with Lena and I know it will be hard to forget her. This is a must read, for everyone that loves mythology, and love strong female characters. The ending unexpected, I'm still crying.

I requested this because of the premise that Hela is going to make an appearence. Because you know, you gotta have an interesting time making deals with the Norse goddess of the dead!
Happy to say that we even got some more of the gods (which I was not-so-secretly hoping for)!

Lena is the oldest daughter of Fredrik, the chief of the village and head of his clan. She has two best friends in the world: her younger sister Fressa and Amal, the boy who came to live in the village from a foreign land. Lena is learning to be a healer and she's to be the chieftess after her father, while Fressa is already a more skilled swordswielder than most young men in the village.
When Fredrik returns from one of his raids, Fressa dies under mysterious circumstances before she could tell his father about her and Amal's engagement.
Lena can't accept her sister's death and summons Hela to bargain with her for Fressa's life, but soon she gets caught up in something much bigger than she expected as the gods have plans with Fressa's soul.

Norse mythology and settings are one of my favourites, so I just enjoyed being in this world a lot, and I could picture it quite easily.
I feel like for some people this story could prove to be slow-moving, there's a lot of inner monologue and not much conversation, but I didn't mind that at all. To me, it was kind of slow, and I felt being kept in the dark for the most part, and at the end everything got dumped all over me.

Lena is quite a likeable main character, I was surprised to see how fearless she was when it came to getting her sister back. I feel like she didn't think twice before conjuring a dangerous, fearsome goddess, and I like this kind of duality to her. She is so surprisingly fierce while I first pictured her as someone calm and peaceful practicing to be a healer.
Her grief is SO STRONG, so moving! I think it portrays that heart-wrenching, never-ending feeling of losing someone dearest to you very well. Actually, most of the book I felt like Lena pretty much lost her mind in her grief and I was thinking: "OMG, how is this going to play out now?".

The only thing that I had minor problems with was Lena's thinking at times: she could've understood what Hela was going for in the first place (she made that teeeeeerrible bargain by the way!), but again, she was kind of crazy with grief, so I can't blame her all that much.

I loved the epilogue with Fressa, and I'm confused because I feel like this totally ends like a first book in a series?! Will there be more? I'd read it.

How far would you go to save your sister? Would you kill a stranger? A friend? In Tammi’s novel The Weight Of A Soul Fressa is faced with those questions when her sister mysteriously winds up dead in the forest by her village. Set in the times of vikings we are thrown into a plot that is ever more complicated due to the mysterious Norse gods that Fressa meets along her journey.

Fressa is given the near impossible task to find a soul that weighs the same as her sister’s so that Hela can retrieve her from Valhalla. Time is running out as Fressa’s parents, the aloof chief and chieftess of the village pressure Fressa to marry her sister;s betrothed. Fressa struggles with the loss of her sister and the fear of betraying her love,

I struggled deciding how I was going to rate this novel. I will be honest the pacing is very slow and it was not the grand adventure I expected. Almost the entirety of the novel takes place in the small village where Fressa lives. To me it was a little bit boring to stay in the same place for so long, the same setting played over and over. For a fantasy novel to really stick out the setting has to be unique in some way, I didn’t feel a particular draw to the landscape. I kept waiting for this novel to take me to places I had never seen, and the one place it does take you to is seriously lacking in the detail department. So that was a little disappointing.

Something Tammi handles really well is grief. When Fressa finds her sister dead you can feel the Earth shattering pain that Fressa feels and you can see her depression thicken around her like a cloud. This is important because it helps us to understand Fressa’s descent as a human, she becomes a cold-hearted killer. She sinks low and is constantly trying to work out who is worthy to take her sister’s place in Valhalla, strangers become enemies and friends become potential victims. Everywhere Fressa turns a deadline is looming and her desperation grows.

In my head I went back and forth about whether I thought that the Norse mythology was used effectively or not. The gods play an important role in this novel and the symbolism is outstanding, but to me the gods themselves felt a little flat. Most history/mythology buffs know who Hela, Loki, and Odin are so I can understand why Tammi may have lightened their character development, but to me they came off as uninteresting. I was very excited for the mythological angle, but it left me wanting.

As I dug through this novel I was constantly debating with myself over whether this book is a 4 star rating or not, and the ending almost convinced me. The ending really wraps the story together and gives it a warm feeling, but it was also a little bit predictable. I absolutely did not dislike this novel, in fact it was quite good, but it had some boxes that needed filling to satisfy my reading expectations and it didn’t do that.

This book is a solid 3/5 stars. If there was a continuation of some kind I would read it out of curiosity, but I won’t be adding it to the top of my TBR pile.

The Weight of a Soul by Elizabeth Tammi.

I received an ARC copy of this via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.
(I will not be uploading this review to Goodreads or my other social media platforms.)

I apologize as I've decided to dnf this book at chapter 3. About 14% through. I'm just not enjoying it. There is an awful lot of info dumping right away in the plotline. And a trope that is glaringly not well handled.
A lot of characters were introduced right in the first chapter, and I feel like the pacing is too fast for the genre.

*I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

4.5/5
Wow. This book really surprised me. In the best possible way. I came into it with no expectations but I ended loving most every part.

The Weight of a Soul by Elizabeth Tammi is about a girl named Lena who wants nothing more than to bring her sister back no matter the cost, even if it means hurting others to do so. In this fast-paced semi-fantasy novel based greatly on Norse mythology, comes a heart-wrenching story of grief, honour, family duty, and most importantly, sisterly love.

The beginning of the book started a little clumsily for me. I couldn’t quite get into the hang of Tammi’s writing style until about 2 chapters in. Looking back, the opening of the novel makes a lot more sense in how the whole story played out.

I can’t get enough of Lena. I love her. I love how emotionally deep and interesting she is. I felt for her every page. I want more of her and other of Tammi’s characters cause she writes such a well developed world with actual not boring characters (bless).

I can’t even be mad with that ending. It was so beautiful. And I don’t say that often. It left you wanting more while also being completely satisfied at the same time. I really hope for a sequel or companion novel to this book cause I would just eat it up.

**Will be posted to my blog http://pastmidnight.home.blog on November 3, 2019 - nearer to publication date**

Thank you to Flux and NetGalley for giving me a chance to read this eArc.

This was an interesting read and what kept me reading was watching Lena deal with the grief of losing her sister. But as the story went on and Lena makes a deal with the goddess of death to bring her sister back, I thought Lena was at some points, truly losing it.

Making that deal made her do some heinous things and all because she wanted her sister back. Talk about sisterly devotion.

What I liked:

*The Norse mythology with the involvement of gods and goddesses in Lena’s life was something I enjoyed. It definitely made Lena make some interesting choices.

*Lena’s love for her sister is admirable and tragic. Everything was motivated by Fressa’s death, or so we think.
The portrayal of grief and how it can make someone spiral into depression and despair was well written. I could totally relate to all of that.

*I like the expression of a “weight of a soul” and how it is explained. That was quite fascinating.
I love the cover and the gray palette!

What I didn’t like:

*Poor Amal (Lena’s friend), I felt like all he was doing was crying in this book. But his life is so messed up by Fressa’s death and then Lena’s actions. He couldn’t catch a break. But I felt like he could have stepped into the role of future leader of the clan much better. But all we see is someone falling apart as much as Lena is (understandably) – and here I am now not cutting him some slack! Sorry Amal! 😂

*I felt like most of the book was just going through Lena’s grief and not much else. It was a bit slow for me in certain parts and some chapters were really short, I don’t know if that was on purpose or an error.

*With all the Norse mythology represented, I felt like it was lacking something – not enough mysticism? It was dark for sure but I think I wanted it to delve more into Lena’s darkness. Is it bad that I want this dark book, to get darker? 😅

*I mostly liked the book but was left feeling the story was just okay. But the writing is good, I think it’s just I’ve read a few Viking inspired stories the past few months and they were much grittier, harsh , brutal, and you get my drift. So I felt like this book could have gone deeper, especially with Lena’s character. But that’s just my personal preference though!

I think most people who like Viking-inspired and Norse mythology stories will actually enjoy this one.

To be completely honest..from reading the summary of the novel, I was fully expecting something different than what this story provided. It sounded as if there would be a lot more adventure to the story but I found myself with a mythical family drama.
Magdalena's grief over losing her sister was the driving factor of the entire book and for the most part,she drowned in her own grief for a good chunk of it, with very little going on otherwise.
I wish I wouldn't have set any preconceived notions for myself before diving into this book because the writing was fantastic, characters had substance and it was not a bad book overall. I just could not help but continuously wait for something exciting and crazy to happen, and when things finally did happen they felt pretty mild and anticlimactic. This was 100% my fault though.
As long as you don't go into this with the same mindset as I did, this book should be enjoyable. Just don't expect an action packed adventure .
3/5