I found The Weight of a Soul pretty tricky to get a handle on in terms of writing up a coherent review, so bear with me...

I read Elizabeth Tammi's last book (her debut) Outrun the Wind in 2018 and I really enjoyed it. My review is here. When I saw she had a second book -- tackling a different mythology (Norse instead of Greek), with an intriguing summary and stunning cover -- I jumped at the chance to review it. Life got in the way and I'm a little behind schedule, but I still had very high hopes.

And, in a lot of ways, The Weight of a Soul is a very good story that does a lot of things well but, clearly, there were also things that just didn't work for me.

The Weight of a Soul is a very fast paced and readable story. I was actually shocked when I checked the page count, because I fairly flew threw it and assumed it was shorter.

I loved the idea of the story and of the main character, Lena. I'm a sucker for morally grey, complicated, potentially unlikeable characters and, as driven and ruthless as Lena is, she certainly fit the bill. However, I think Lena may actually be the story's downfall. As the summary says, Lena must kill to find a soul to take her sisters place. My issue was, from the Lena we first see, even driven by grief, she seem to accept this idea far, far too quickly.

She has one quick meeting with Hela, and then she's just ,"Okay dokey, off to Dexter a village".  There's never any moral quandary, any real debate or any complexity to her character. Even as things spiral out of control and she goes to great extremes she never seem to agonize over her choice. Even that I could forgive but, at the same time, Lena also never feels truly invested in her goals. She willing to kill to save her sister, but it almost feels like she's working through a shopping list of things to do for the day: clean house, walk dog, murder neighbour.

I needed either more debate and inner conflict, or more zeal and conviction.

Overall, I feel that The Weight of a Soul had a great premise -- and I wanted to love it -- but something in the execution lacked spark.

Whenever anything even briefly mentions mythology of any kind it immediately piques my interest. For this reason I was very intrigued by this novel, however, I found that the Viking culture and Norse mythology elements were one of the only strong parts to the story. The overall atmosphere and concept were things I should have liked, but I found the pacing to be inconsistent mixed with unlikeable characters.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book. A full review will be posted on Amazon and Goodreads

Unfortunately this book was not for me. I am very picky about YA fantasy and this one did not make the cut. I like the overall atmosphere of this story but i did not enjoy the execution. Thank you for giving me the chance to read this novel.

I would give this book a solid three stars. I liked the Norse mythology flavor it had, and I really love the concept for the storyline. However, I think the synopsis gives far too much information as well as inaccurate information. This book just didn't do it for me. I will continue to seek out other books based in Norse mythology but am a little hesitant to pick up other things by this author.

You can find this review and all of my others over at www.readbookrepeat.wordpress.com

Actual rating of 2.5

Lena and her sister, Fressa, are one and the same, they know everything there is to know about each other, and no one is closer to them than each other. So when Fressa is found dead in a forest clearing, Lena's entire life begins to unravel. She is desperate to find out what happened, and will go to any lengths possible, some even impossible, in order to get her answers. After making a deal with Hela, the Norse Goddess of Death, she begins to do things that the old Lena never would have considered, not even if her life had depended upon it. As she falls deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole, she realises that things she thought she knew, are not so and that there is so much more going on than meets the eye. The threat of Ragnarok looms on the horizon and Lena finds herself caught up in it all. How far will she really go in order to learn the truth of what happened to her sister, who's life hangs in the balance, with time running out?

The first thing that caught my eye was that cover. Oh my, isn't it a beauty?! I absolutely adore it, it's simple yet absolutely beautiful. As soon as I saw the cover I had a rough idea that the story would have something to do with Norse Mythology, and I was right, which made me even happier because I have a small love for Norse Mythology. It intrigues me, and it interests me and I'm totally here for it. When I saw that this story also encompassed not only Norse Mythology, but a murder mystery of sorts as well? Well colour me green and call me Loki because I. Was. Sold!

We get a brief introduction to Lena, Fressa and their friend Amal (who also happens to be smitten with Fressa, and vice versa), before the tragedy occurs in the beginning, the strange, unexplained death of Fressa. She is found in a forest clearing, with no marks of death upon her body, and no signs at all that she was attacked. It's almost like she just laid down willingly and went quietly into the dark abyss. Lena will not accept this though, she knows that something happened to her sister and she is determined to find out what. Lena's determination actually borders on obsession...actually, let's just make that straight up obsession. Lena literally cannot eat, barely sleep, or function in life because every waking second she is thinking about Fressa, and what could have possibly happened to her. She looks for any explanation that seems even remotely plausible and she runs with it, hoping that she can get to the bottom of it.

I found Lena to be quite unlikable if I'm honest. At first I did feel sorry for her because she had lost her younger sister and I couldn't even imagine losing a sibling and having to do life without them. But instead of going through the normal stages of grieving and dealing with what had happened to the best of her ability, she completely shut down and just refused to believe that it was Fressa's time and that she had travelled onto Hel where she was meant to. I guess in a way, this could be seen as her way of grieving to a degree, but it just annoyed me. She didn't take into account how anyone else around her who was connected to Fressa was feeling. It was sort of spoken about in brief passing, but she was just pissed mostly because she felt like everyone else was moving on when she didn't want to, or didn't feel ready to. She came across as an incredibly selfish character to me and I just found her whiny and unlikable. Fressa I never got to know, we meet her briefly in the beginning as stated above, and then she's dead, so while I felt for Lena's pain at the start, I didn't really feel anything for Fressa because I didn't know her. Amal I felt for the most because he's just doing his damned best and everything that has happened to him is sad, but I still didn't feel a strong connection with any of the characters, Amal included, that I felt I should have. I just felt incredibly disconnected from all of the characters, and it made me sad. I'm wondering if it's because the narrative was written in third person, that we lost some of the emotion the characters were experiencing?

In Norse mythology, I believe there are many afterlives, the two most spoken about, however, are Hel, and Valhalla. Valhalla is where the warriors chosen by Odin and the Valkyrie go, to live out their first death until such time as Ragnarok comes, and they then are called to arms to battle for the survival of the worlds. These are the two that are spoken about a lot in this story, and a few of the Gods and Goddesses are named as well, however, we only meet two of them, and I feel like this was a lost opportunity maybe?

I love the Tammi has obviously done some research into Norse mythology and viking culture as the story definitely had a good feeling of 'real' to it which I enjoyed. Though I worked out very early on a couple of things that were happening, even if one of them wasn't quite in the way it turned out, so I sort of went through the whole story wondering if I should continue because I felt I'd already worked out most of the mystery of it all. Granted the reasoning behind certain things I hadn't worked out, I still didn't feel overly blown away by their reveal.

I questioned whether I should DNF this book a few times, the pacing was pretty slow and a lot of the time I felt like not much was happening. The plot also seemed pretty all over the place at times and the narrative became a bit confusing for a hot minute as well. The pace did pick up at about the 70% mark which was good, I just wished the whole story sat at this speed for me. There didn't appear to be a sense of urgency throughout the story either which I feel made the pacing fall short at times. We had a timeline given to us, but I feel like it didn't really hit me how it should because I just didn't really care about the characters.

All in all, this was a really well researched book, and the story idea was there, I just feel like it wasn't executed to it's full ability which is a bit sad. I held high hopes for this story and it didn't quite reach the mark. It wasn't terrible, but it just doesn't seem overly memorable for me either. I feel like a lot more could have been done with the story than what we got. Don't take my word for it though, give it a shot if you're interested in Norse Mythology, it might surprise you!

I love the concept of this book. The world-building is great and the story felt very original. I really hope this series continues!

The Weight of a Soul is an absolutely breathtaking journey that will grab you by the feels and never let you go! A powerful, page-turner, it's a book that sticks with you long after the last page. I can't wait to read it all over again!

I love mythologies of all kinds but I don’t think I have dived enough into them as I want to, so I was immediately sold on this book when I read the synopsis. This book should have been perfect for me, I was so excited, sadly this wasn’t the case in the end. The only thing I liked about this book was the mythology, but nothing else really stuck with me, but I did find this book to ultimately entertaining.

This is one of those books where there was more that I disliked more than I did like. This all starts with the pacing in the first half of the book being choppy and confusing, and the second half I just found boring and easily could have put me asleep.

Another thing that I feel like I need to talk about the main character Lena, and unfortunately I didn’t end up caring for her at all. I found her to be unlikable, which isn’t always something that always bothered me, but I felt there wasn’t anything about her that was redeeming for me, and I had a hard time getting behind her as a protagonist. She was moody and she was said to be smart and clever, but I don’t think this was the case that was shown.

This wasn’t something that would deter me from reading another book by this author in the future but this book just wasn’t a hit for me, I did enjoy the mythology which was the only thing that redeemed the story at all.

I really wanted to like this book. The blurb sounded pretty cool and that cover is just gorgeous. However, despite the story-line showing much promise, it just dragged too much.
This book wasn't for me but maybe others will like it more.

I found myself waiting for this book to be over. I wasn't actively disliking it, I just found myself picking up other stories other than this one.

I'm a big fan of mythology and I really like norse mythology. I didn't enjoy this though. The story dragged on and I found myself 'reaching for it' less and less.

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?
Ok, so this book sounded really interesting. I loved finding a book wrapped in Norse mythology as I do love reading different books that have a mythological setting. However, something just didn’t work for me with this book. Part of it was Lena. I just didn’t really care for her as a character.
**I voluntarily read and reviewed this book

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for a honest review and I’m happy to say that this one was pretty good! I haven’t had much look recently with ARCs so I’m glad this one delivered

The author is clearly a talented writer. I really enjoyed her style and felt that her writing was engaging. I liked that romance was not the central focus of this book. Lena’s love and devotion to her sister was clearly the focus so that was a nice change.

My only issue with this book was some of the characters, Amal in particular. He was pretty boring and I didn’t quite buy the romance with Fressa or the friendship with Lena. I was taking notes while reading and originally felt that Lena was also underdeveloped; however, that did improve throughout the novel. She is a gray character, neither completely good nor completely evil, and this is one of my favorite types of character.

I hope there will not be a sequel to this one because I like where this one ended.

Thank you Netgalley and Elizabeth Tammi for the opportunity to read and review this book!

I wanted to love this story so much, as the premise seemed right to my liking so much.
The Weight of a Soul is a story of one sister that wants to restore her sibling after her death, but as the whole book was around this. Yet Fressa's death happened so early, that I was not able to keep my interest in that. I had high hopes that it was just a passing feeling, but it went through the whole book, it just made a book with such possibilities boring with this whole idea.
Norse mythology was for a plus as it was shown in an intriguing way. That I liked and made the whole intriguing ad twists even more unexpected and likable.

What would you do if your sister mysteriously died? What lengths would you go to remake the world if you felt so deeply that she was meant to live?

When Lena's sister mysteriously dies after being given an unnatural dagger by their father, Lena knows that something is terribly wrong. Unable to depend on her family and friends, Lena invokes the Viking goddess of death and begins a journey to bargain for her sister's life. Lena quickly realizes that she isn't just pitted against death -- something bigger hangs in the balance.

Readers will enjoy Lena's dynamic character and the lengths she willing to go for her sister. The story weaves Norse mythology into the plot flawlessly, though the plot moves slowly at some points. In all, fans of Norse mythology and will surely enjoy Weight of a Soul and readers will want to know what happens next.

A good book about Norse mythology, it has action and everything nice character dynamics. However I couldn't connect really with the characters.

Thank you very much to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC.

The Weight of a Soul had a very interesting concept and initially I was excited to read something which covered Norse mythology as a concept. There is a serious lack of young adult books which discuss it. The way in which it handles the "weight of a soul" within the afterlife is fascinating, and I believe that the author handled much of the book in a lovely manner, particularly when it came to Lena's character. Her descent into a much darker point of view truly allows us all to question our own reactions to the situation she is placed in. However I do believe that Fressa was a very intriguing character as well and it would have been suitable for the story to have been written from both perspectives. Overall, however, I would recommend this book to those who have any interest in Nordic culture and mythology, as it delves into that aspect wonderfully.

Loved the story, loved the concept but it was a little dull for me.

I was very excited to read The Weight of a Soul because I really enjoyed Elizabeth Tammi’s first book. Besides, I got sold when I saw that Norse Mythology was in the mix.

The story was all very exciting as we journey with Lena in her search for a way to return her dead sister who had no reason to die. However, there were many other complications in the story that slowed that process.

In my humble opinion, I would have loved to see more action in the working of returning her sister and the complications that happens after that rather than spending so much time solving all the other clan problems in between. Even so, I still appreciated that the issues within the clan were highlighted and their traditions made very clear.

As for the use of Norse Mythology in the story, I loved the idea and how it was blended into the story. Unfortunately, the war between the gods were pretty vague and I was somewhat confused by their motives. I would have loved to see more revealed in this war.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Flux through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I didn’t feel as excited or fascinated by everything in this book, but I liked a few things and overall was entertained enough to finish the story. I think the premise and the mythology aspects are intriguing and I really wanted to read more about those. I wasn’t too fond of the writing style and the pacing wasn’t that great either, but the mystery part kept me reading and guessing for a while and that was kind of fun. The world-building is alright, but I wish there was more depth. There’s a few twists here and there and I liked them, but some were a bit predictable so when they were revealed, I wasn’t as shocked as I should have been. The conclusion also felt convenient just to end the story and left me feeling not so happy. I do think this book definitely had potential and there’s some really fascinating concepts and themes that could have been explored more or executed better.

Lena is an interesting character, but she’s just so unlikable and unrelatable that I couldn’t sympathize with her. I did admire her determination and loyalty to her sister, Fressa. I can’t say if I like any of the characters since I feel like they weren’t developed as much. To be honest, I really don’t care that much about the characters and that made it quite difficult for me to connect with the story. I love being able to picture myself as one of the characters and unfortunately, I wasn’t able to do that with this book.

All in all, this was an okay and quite interesting read. The Weight of a Soul by Elizabeth Tammi has some intriguing concepts and I did like the Norse mythology aspects, but I just wasn’t as enthralled or into the story as I would have liked. I wanted more from the world-building, the characters, the mythology and the overall storyline.

If you’re looking for a short, fast-paced, and an easy read fantasy story with a bit of Norse mythology, then you might enjoy this book.

I received an advance reader copy of this book from the author and publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review and for participating in a Blog Tour hosted by The Fantastic Flying Book Club. All thoughts and opinions are my own.