I found this book unbelievably dull. I kept praying for my interest to at least catch a spark and for me to please get invested in the story or even just the characters but it never happened. I started The Weight Of A Soul four times before I finally made it through the first chapter and I admit that I skimmed most of the rest.

I wanted a Viking-esque world, I wanted strong characters, I wanted an action-packed plot and delightful insight in Norse mythology. Instead I got a messy romantic drama concealed as a young adult fantasy and a bunch of half-ass gods. Okay not fair. It wasn’t all exhausting love triangles but it certainly felt that way.

Lena is destined by birth to become chieftess of her clan, following in her father’s footsteps. Her father however, is no easy man to love. With him always gone at sea, forcing the other villagers to raid with him, there is little love lost between them. His disregard for others is (I wish I could say slowly but it really was more of an all of a sudden thing) weakening his position as leader. Which means that now more than ever, appearances are important. So when Lena’s sister Fressa reveals she is engaged to their mutual best friend Amal, it stretches already thin family bonds. A younger sister isn’t supposed to marry first and Amal is promised to someone else. But then Fressa dies. Sudden, unexpected and for no apparent reason other than she fell down and simply never got up.

So far not so bad, I suppose. It’s an interesting premise. But that’s where it went wrong real fast for me. Lena chooses not to accept her sister’s death. She chooses not to accept it. No grief, no denial, just “no”. In her grand plot to get her back, she summons a ghosty horse and goes to meet Hela in the underworld where the goddess of death spins a tale about well, death and Valhala and the weight of Fressa’s soul. And that right there is when I called bulshit. It was all so .. easy? Like, I’m nog going to accept my sister’s death so let’s summon a goddess and oh look it works and now a nice trek through some frozen wastelands and hi Hela can you please save my sister? There was some other vague but obvious foreshadowing talk but idk, when you lose my credibility it’s not coming back. Hela didn’t feel like an all-powerful creature of myth. She was just a one-dimensional character with the name of a god. Or so it seemed to me. Ragnarok was casually thrown in somewhere along the line and look that’s Loki passing by *wave*.

And that’s my main annoyance. I missed thorough exploration in every single line. This book has no soul, which is pretty ironic. It misses depth, it misses atmosphere. Show me what life in this settlement is like, give me more than just a few carefully chosen descriptive lines. Let me breathe it. Build this world, this plot. It has potential, now let it ripe. The father’s storyline and his demise was so… underdeveloped. Other plot lines could have been so much more. They could have made me care. I’m sure they could have.

And on top of that I didn’t even like any of the characters. If I had it may have changed my view on things but I was so indifferent towards it all. I had to look up most names for my review and it’s been less than a week since I finished the book. That shows just how uninvested I was. Still am. Maybe someone else would love this. I didn’t. Pity.

I received a digital copy of this book from Netgalley for an honest review.

Couldn't really get into this one. I'm not exactly sure why except the characters didn't hold my interest. The ending was unexpected but again I just wasn't thrown into the story enough to care.

When Lena’s younger sister Fressa is found dead, their whole Viking clan mourns her. Lena struggles to recover from her sister’s dead and just can’t let go. Lena is determined to found what and who killed her sister, and also how to bring her back. In her desperation, she makes a deal with Hela. In order to get her sister out of Valhalla, Fressa’s soul must be replaced by one of equal weight. Soon, she finds herself in the midst of a dangerous plan to start Ragnarök. Just how far is Lena willing to go to save her sister?

The Weight of the Soul had so much potenial – it could have been truly epic. The questions of morality could have been explored much more deeply. She also never truly suffers the consquences of her actions which was something that could have definitely be explored more. The mythology, which was an aspect I loved, could have been delved into much more.

Lena as a character was interesting, she was decent but so much more could have been done for her character and so much potential. She was impuslive and selfish and I adore unlikeable female characters and there was so much potential for character exploration that wasn’t really done. Fressa died early in the novel so we never really got to know her, never really got to connect with her, or even truly see her relationship with Lena.

As I mentioned earlier, I enjoyed the mythology aspect. I liked the twists near the end too. But, again, so much potential here! It just wasn’t explored and executed as well as it could have been. I would have loved some chapters from Fressa’s point of view while in Valhalla, that would have been so interesting.

Overall, The Weight of a Soul had so much potential and a really great premise that, unfortuantely, wasn’t executed as well as it could have been. An enjoyable book, but could have been better but Elizabeth Tammi is still an author I will keep an eye on.

This had some good points and some bad, but the norse mythology held it up! An awesome fantasy on a topic we very rarely see: vikings!! A female viking finding her power, both physically and emotionally after the passing of her twin sister. Ragnarok looming overhead and Lena making a deal with Hela, the stakes are high and Tammi delivers a wonderful story about how far one will go for their loved ones.

I am so sorry I didn't like this. The first book from this author was a delight but this one just wasn't it. My favorite part was the mythology. As a huge mythology nerd I devoured those parts. The problem was the rest. I just didn't connect with the writing style and the characters so unfortunately this one was truly disappointing.

I was intrigued by the title. I got pretty dissapointed in the storyline. It was too plain and confusing at times. I tried to enjoy the characters but it was too hard.
I guess this book did not meet my expectations.

Did you just see Frozen II and are looking for another story of sister love to fill that empty void in your heart? Elizabeth Tammi’s The Weight of a Soul might be just the book you’re looking for. The story opens with two sisters, Lena and Fressa, daughters of their Viking clan leader, who share a close bond between themselves and also with Amal, the healer’s son, who also has a romantic relationship with Fressa. Only pages into the book, Lena finds Fressa mysteriously dead in the woods and immediately knows that she do anything, anything, to get her sister back.


She finds an answer from the goddess Hela, who tells her that her sister’s soul has gone to Valhalla, and if she can just find and kill someone with a soul the same weight as her sister’s, then they can make an exchange. Lena doesn’t even hesitate before agreeing to do this, but instead immediately starts looking for someone who fits the description. Everyone around her is moving on, trying to adjust to a world without Fressa, but Lena longs to cry out, “No! Stop it! She’ll still coming back!” Now that Fressa is gone, her parents drop a bombshell on her — they want her to marry Amal, her sister’s fiance. Lena tries to fight it, but with Fressa dead, even Amal has come to accept this fate. Time is running out for Lena, the walls closing in around her faster than she can handle. Can she find the right soul in time and bring her sister back before there’s nothing to come back to?

I really wanted to like this book. It’s an amazing concept on so many levels, yet at every step of the way, the potential falls flat on its face. I loved the idea of love triangle between Lena, her dead sister, and her dead sister’s lover, made all the more interesting because Amal and Lena are best friends. They love each other and they carry each other through their grief, only to find that they must both betray Fressa’s memory by wedding each other.

I also loved the idea of a story that focuses on sisters and the lengths we will go to save someone that we love. But unfortunately, these characters just did not compel me enough to care. Fressa is only on the page for a brief scene before she dies, so we know nothing about her personality. Amal has no personality apart from his grief for Fressa, which is understandable, but I still wanted more from him. And Lena, despite being our main character, made me feel nothing. She had no distinct qualities or personality traits that stood out to me and made her interesting. Even when she was grieving her sister, I felt like I was watching her from a distance instead of being right there inside her head, feeling that awful pain with her.

The idea of souls having weight and having to kill one person to bring back someone else is also intriguing and prickling with moral problems. Lena had never killed someone before, yet over the course of the novel, she kills multiple people quite easily and she never once grapples with the morality of her actions. On one hand, it shows her devotion to her sister, which I appreciate, but on the other, it just didn’t seem realistic and it missed out on an opportunity for huge depth, which the novel so desperately needed.
Overall, reading this book made me a bit sad, because I felt like it held a lot of potential, but was just extremely underdeveloped. There was a fair bit of Norse mythology, which I enjoyed and would love to see more of, but even that was underdeveloped. Ultimately, I think it was a story that deserved telling, it just deserved to be told better.

That being said, this is all my own opinion. If you are looking for a book brimming with Norse mythology and a Viking aesthetic, or a sweet sister story to make you feel all warm inside,

*******SPOILERS*******
In The Weight of a Soul by Elizabeth Tammi, the Freding clan has suffered the unexpected death of one of the younger women. Fressa, Lena's sister, has been taken, with no signs as to the cause of death. Unable to accept this, Lena seeks answers in the runes, and ends up visiting Helheim. The answers she finds there are not what she expects.

I wanted to like this. I really, really did. The synopsis held such promise, especially the use of Norse mythology. That was the most enjoyable part of the story for me. The hel-horse, visiting Helheim, Loki and Hela. Sadly it was also the only enjoyable part. I'm Rokkatru, and Loki is my main patron deity. However, I'm used to stories that tend to portray him as 'evil'. This story tended toward that direction, while still allowing that perhaps there is a good reason for Loki to spur Ragnarok. In fact, it was only the chance to see Hela again, or some of the other gods, that kept me from DNFing the book.

The rest of the story was epically infuriating. Lena was angry almost the entire time. She had bursts of irrational rage. Lena is supposed to have been training for years to be an apothecary. A healer. Yet, she doesn't even hesitate to start killing to try and bring back a dead person! She needs to find someone worthy of Valhalla, yet the first two people she straight up murders are either not at all worthy, or would never fit in. Neither would another potential victim. A final potential might've been worthy, yet I am pretty sure that Odin would, ya know, notice. The soul to be replaced was one ordered there by Odin himself.

The soul supposedly 'worthy' this whole time was Lena herself. No. Not by any stretch of the imagination. She was a selfish brat turned serial killer. One of the people she killed was someone very close to her. She just turned on this person without a second thought, pissed because that person had a part in Lena's arranged marriage. Marriages were political, and Lena was the eldest daughter of the chief. Yet, she cared nothing for duty towards the safety and health of her clan either.

Not only was Lena an unlikable character, but many of the others didn't engage me either. They all seemed kinda flat. My favourite human was Nana, an elder of the clan. Loki and Hela were the most interesting to me. I loved the descriptions of the ceremony before the wedding, and of the wedding ceremony itself.

***Many thanks to the Netgalley & Flux for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Lena could be a typical teenager in a Viking village. But she has a great difference from every other: as the firstborn daughter of the village Chief, she knows that one day, the village will be hers. But that comes with duties. And her first one is to marry her sister's, Fressa's, beloved one.

When Fressa is found dead with no apparent wounds, Lena will do anything to find out what happened to her beloved sister. Her cold, distant father leaves for another quest. Her mother prepares her wedding to the boy her sister was in love with. But Lena is determined to get her sister back.

So determined, that she'll travel to the underworld to plea with the gods.

Soon, Lena will come to realize that her sister's death was part of a far larger scheme than what she had ever imagined. Gods have a part on what is happening. Her whole village, and the whole Nordic world is in danger. Can Lena really do something to bring her sister back when it will anger her Gods?

The Weight of a Soul is a quite unique story that interweaves fantasy with Norse mythology in a very amusing way. Although at times it can be a dark book that revolves around a harsh era, duty, and death, it's also a book about sisterly love, resilience, and determination.

With wonderful narration and intricate characters, The Weight of a Soul is an absolute must-read for all fans of fiction, especially those interested in Norse fiction and mythology.

I got an arc of this from netgalley and the publisher, thank you to both.

I think this had so much potential but in the end really wasn't for me. It was a book I was really excited by and the cover is STUNNING, but while it was an easy read it wasn't what I wanted.

The main character Lena did not inspire any sort of emotion in me at all. I couldn't connect with her at all, and I didn't like her. I found her to be impulsive and irrational, and also I got a weird emotionless disconnect from her. This was strange, considering this plot is based on her supposed love for her sister, which I really didn't see any good examples of. We have barely any time with the relationship between the sisters and so it didn't feel 'real' to me at all. Fressa was barely in the story, we see her for all of less than a day, then suddenly she's dead. Lena has shown she is jealous of her sister, and is a third wheel in her friendahip with Amal now he is dating Fressa, and thats all the emotion we get. Lena then gets a weird plan to speak to 'Hela' in 'Helheim'.

Which brings me to the mythology. This is what I was most excited about. I LOVE Norse Mythology, and anything themed with it. But this wasn't the mythology I know. Hela is the marvel comics version of the goddess Hel. I get that here Helheim is 'hel home' as heim means home, but I found it jarring, and it felt like it was just all a made up version of the mythology, and ended up making me feel this hadn't been researched. It wasn't what im familiar with, nor what I was hoping for.

I felt the attempt at a forced romance here was also extremely uncomfortable, and a lot of the choices made here (the person whose soul Lena chose, then the rushed ending) made me dislike Lena even more. I didn't understand the reasoning behind Lena's parents forcing her to marry Amal. As well as the fact that Lena would have made a terrible leader, and shows no qualities of leadership or care for her people. She has no real skills aside from healing but even then that is limited. She wasn't a believable character for me.

Despite that, I have given this 2 stars because the premise was good, I liked that it was based on sisterly love, and that Amal and Lena didn't suddenly fall in love when Frissa died. I think this book could have been amazing, but I went in with too high an expectation. I also think this would have been better if it had no knowledge of Norse Mythology, or had only seen marvel film versions of the stories!

Note : I received an e-ARC of this title, many thanks to Netgalley and Flux for this opportunity.

The Weight of a Soul is a YA fantasy steeped in norse mythology. It follows Lena, a chieftain's daughter. After the death of her sister, Fressa, Lena becomes obsessed with somehow saving her by finding a soul of equal value to give to Hela, a norse Goddess of death.

At about the 20% mark I was very drawn into this title and finished it in one engaged sitting. That's been hard to do as of late, so there is a magical aspect to the author's writing or something about it that really appealed on a personal level. The writing style is dramatic, sometimes overwrought, but does well in conveying the painful inner conflict of the main character. Definitely not recommendable for everyone, but it worked out for me when it comes to readability.

I really did not like Lena for the lion's share of this story. She is consumed by the loss of her sister to the point where I can't say much about Lena aside from "She loves her sister." She has few talents, goals, or noteworthy attributes outside of a truly one track mind and willingness to do anything (even ponder truly awful, amoral possibilities) to fulfill that singular goal of resurrecting her.

Lena could be considered an anti-hero, which would normally be a source of intrigue, but I was often frustrated with her character and the flow of events. There is a rich tapestry of norse mythology to draw from, but major characters (Odin, Freya, Thor, etc) are referenced rather than directly involved. Barring a few exceptions later on and the aforementioned god of death. There are still some wonderfully described portions pertaining to norse mythology.

Most of this book consists of Lena being unsure how to move forward and in a state of frustrated ennui which didn't make this a very pleasant reading experience. A large amount of space is also devoted to the newly strained friendship of Lena and Amal, Fressa's lover. It was mostly awkward and miserable to read sections pertaining to the two of them as there is low key tension between the two but I was quickly convinced that they would trade each other for Fressa in a heartbeat.

The ending was a mixed bag of extremes for me. On one hand, there is real development and a frenzy of activity that was great to see and helped pick up the pace.

On the other hand, (while not going into detail, and just aiming to keep this review spoiler-free) this is one of the most ill-conceived and just plain awful endings I've ever seen and it's of a nature that is particularly mind-boggling to find in a YA novel.

Though I'm giving this one star, it occupies perhaps a more favorable space within that rating. It's not the worst book. I think of the worst books as sparking no feelings or being unreadable/unfinishable. The opposite of love is indifference and I definitely was not indifferent to all that occurred here.

As soon as I saw that this book contained elements of Norse mythology I was intrigued. As you may know, I love reading stories about mythology (no matter from where). Sadly I was rather disappointed by this book, I didn’t end up liking it as much as I hoped I would.

The mythology aspect of The Weight of a Soul I enjoyed greatly. It was very interesting to read about it. Everything else I had my problems with. I hated Lena, the main character. She was completely unlikable and, while I don’t have anything about unlikable protagonists, in this book it felt like I was supposed to like her. She made some really obvious dumb decisions, despite being described as smart. She was very frustrating to read about.

I didn’t feel any connection or sympathy towards any of the characters, which made me not care about what was going on in the story. That in turn made the majority of this book boring to me. Overall, I really didn’t enjoy The Weight of a Soul, as you can clearly see by my review. Personally I wouldn’t recommend you to pick this book up.

I think this is probably the first in a series as the way it ended leaves it open for another book.

This is steeped in Nordic legend & focuses predominantly on the story of sisters Lena & Fressa and their friend Amal.

It is dark but easy to read, intriguing & mystical.

Overall, 4.5 stars!

The mythology behind it was very interesting. I felt very invested in the decisions Lena had to make throughout her journey. It really made me stop to think about my own life.

Damn, this synopsis really hooked me when I first read it so it was incredibly disappointing when I ended up quitting just a few chapters in. 

Here's the thing, I love Norse mythology and the history of Vikings. So when I read a book about them, I want it to be very historically accurate and this book was not. From the writing style, to the names to plot points, I was sitting there feeling very skeptical the whole time and I just couldn't stand it.  The name Lena is even a Norse name, but rather Estonian. This seems like a vital detail that should have been double checked!

Also we're told that Lena's sister Fressa is a good fighter, but that their father the chief doesn't recognize this because she's a woman. But Vikings had female fighters all time, this would not have been a novelty.   From just the few chapters I read I had to wonder if the author did any research at all. 

On top of all that the writing style was so hard for me. At times it would sound too modern and at others it would sound like it was trying to be old fashioned (but failing the entire time), it was so annoying. 

So in the end I only got about 8% into my kindle copy.  I don't recommend this book and I gave it one star.

I enjoyed this story, although there was a fair bit of exposition in the world-building. Weaving Norse mythology into the story was enjoyable - I have wanted to read more since reading Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology - and this book included the mythology in an interesting way. Although I enjoyed the book I don't think I would purchase a sequel (which the ending seems to imply will be coming). A solid 3 stars.

Disclaimer: I DNF'd this book at the halfway mark.

This book was not for me. The summary really hooked me, but it failed to deliver. I haven't seen many norse god/viking books in YA fiction, and this sounded like it would be right up my alley. However, I failed to connect with the story and the characters. I wasn't able to fall into the story and just found myself reading words on the screen page after page.

It had promise, but the delivery just fell short. I would have liked a little more world building, and some more atmosphere in the read. I don't feel like a star rating is fair since I didn't finish the book, but for what I read, It was a solid 2 stars.

I’ve read a few Vikings stories in the past year or so and largely enjoyed them all. Mythology is always a win for me, so it’s been fun to see Norse mythology getting its day in the sun after Roman and Greek had staked out the genre for so long. Combine those things with a story about sisters and this book was a no brainer for me to request. Sadly, all of those things together still somehow didn’t prove to be enough for me to really enjoy this book.

Lena and Fressa have grown up together to be as close as sisters can be. But while Lena is set out to lead a quiet, predictable life as a healer, it is Fressa who draws people to her with the sheer force of her vitality. So it is a shock when Fressa is suddenly found dead. But the life of a Viking is one of violence and sudden endings, so life moves on, for everyone but Lena. Driven to discover not only what happened to Fressa but to bring her beloved sister back, Lena sets out on a mission that will test the boundaries of life and death and draw her into the dark places of the world and herself.

So, as I said, this book wasn’t a hit for me. Even the things I liked are couched between things I disliked. For example, I liked the sisterly relationship. However, the story jumps through plot elements so quickly in the beginning that I was never able to feel fully connected to Fressa, thus lessening the impact of her death and my own commitment to the lengths (some pretty bad) that Lena went to in her attempts to bring her sister back.

I also enjoyed the mythology aspect of the story. However, again, there was really very little of it and only two god characters played a part and even then were more plot devices than anything else. The goddess, in particular, I felt was underwhelming and non-threatening, not something you want from an all-powerful being.

The pacing of the story also felt very off. As I said, the beginning of the book rushes through many important plot points. It’s attempting to not only set up the relationship between the sisters, but between them both and Fressa’s fiance, the girls’ parents, and a few of the other village members as well. Between this and the brief attempts at history and world-building, the story feels like it’s simply jumping from one plot point to another. And then, suddenly, when Lena begins her journey, the brakes are pumped, hard. The rest of the book felt plodding, meandering, and frankly, rather boring. This left the overall pacing of the story feeling jarring and mismatched.

Beyond this, Lena was simply not a very likable character. The story is all set up to explore some deeper themes with regards to grief and the morality of choosing who lives and dies. And Lena, being a young woman presumably studying to be a healer, seems like a character primed to interact with these tough situations and choices in a compelling manner. Not so. While her descriptions of grief were at times beautiful and touching on some good ideas, the morality of her decisions was pretty terrible. And, even worse, she seems to think nothing of the terrible things she does.

It’s all well and good to have a character get so caught up in their own sorrow that their worldview becomes myopic to the point of a loss of their own morality, but the interesting part there is having the character explore this topic in some meaningful way. Or simply be from there after written as a villain. But Lena is unquestionably the hero of the story and yet she never seems to really care about the things that she does. As I said, it seems even more questionable when paired together with the empathy that it would have taken to be a healer. I was also not a fan of the romance of this story. It felt unnecessary at best and at worst it made Lena even more unlikable.

The idea of balancing a lost soul with the “weight” of another equal soul is a very interesting idea (though the end result is fairly predictable for fans of the genre), but much its potential was wasted behind choppy pacing and an unlikeable main character. Frustratingly, it seems like only a few minor tweaks could have really improved the story. Flashbacks, for example, would have worked better for the scenes before Fressa’s death and would have broken up some of the more plodding bits of the last half of the book. Ah well, what could have been alas was not! Fans of Norse mythology may like this book, but I think in the end it doesn’t live up to its own potential.

Rating 5: The unlikable main character was the last nail in the coffin for a book that unfortunately wasted several good aspects.

I'll be upfront in stating that this book is not some happy, exciting adventure where the reader walks away feeling joyous and entertained at the end. Instead, it's the type of book that dives head first into the deep end with some weighty issues such as loss, grief, murder, and healthy dose of mental instability. Tammi doesn't pull any punches when she goes down the dark and twisty road, with the overall feeling of the novel mimicking the cold and oppressive trappings of Helheim. But with so much YA giving an issues-lite reading and a guaranteed HEA, I honestly didn't mind the ominous tone. 

I appreciated how honest Tammi is with her manipulation of classic Norse stories, claiming that at the heart of these stories is contradiction which leaves room to play. The core elements of Loki as the trickster, Hela as the goddess of death, the Valkyries as warriors, and Odin as the all-father are tactfully maintained while new layers of character and depth are created to suit the story. It is clear from the outset that Lena, Fressa, and everyone in the their village are nothing more than pawns in the gods master plans, and it's difficult to watch them try and change their fates when there areas many factors beyond their control. 

I enjoyed the depth of the bond shared by Lena and Fressa, and the lengths that Lena was willing to go in order to preserve the life and immortal soul of her sister. My only real complaint with their relationship is that a little bit more time could have been spent building Fressa up before her death as there wasn't around long enough to really get attached to her and feeler loss as a character. Had this happened, it wouldn't have taken anywhere near as long to get behind Lena's mad-cap agreement with the goddess of death to retrieve her sister's soul.

With that being said though, Lena's grief and denial read as absolutely authentic. We've all done some pretty illogical things in the wake of a loved one's death, it just so happens that Lena's actions are in keeping with with viking setting and the prevailing beliefs of the time. Her descent into darkness is the kind of gradual that you don't notice until she's doing some absolutely horrible things, and all the while you can't help but pity her and hope that she succeeds.

Amal too is an easy character to like. And maybe it was because Tammi made a point of acknowledging the diversity of Viking trade routes, and the reality of ethnic diversity during these times, but I instantly appreciated his presence in the story. He is calm, respectful, and overly logical about almost everything. His approach is the exact opposite of Lena's which makes him an interesting ally in her quest and a subtle balance to her overwhelming grief. I really wanted him to fight more against their parent's desires, but at the same time I understand and appreciate that my desires in this regard are not necessarily the reality of their situation.

Dark and gritty, the slow-burning action will carry you to other worlds and beyond. Lena's world is magical, mystical, and meticulous wrought with details that you don't want to miss. Guard you hearts though, because this is an emotionally brutal read that leaves little in the way of warm-fuzzier at the end. But, and I say this with great joy, this has all the makings of an incredible series with so much more left to come.

I tried and failed twice to get into this book, but on my third try, I managed to keep reading and ended up really enjoying it! I really liked the Norse mythology incorporated into the book, and I liked Lena's interactions with Hela. Hela is such an interesting goddess in mythology, and I would have liked if she had been a more prominent character.
Of course, I really loved the relationship between Lena and Fressa, even though Fressa wasn't even alive for most of the book. Lena was such a strong and determined character, and it was easy to see that her love for Fressa was unconditional. I also liked Amal, Nana, and Bejla. Bejla in particular was really interesting and I would love to read her story as well.
Lena didn't have a love interest, which I thought was good considering her situation. I think a love interest would have just added unnecessary complications. However, Lena does mention that she's had dreams about both men and women (Bejla),
The ending bothered me a bit, even though I understand where the author was coming from and agree that it was the best resolution to the novel. Still, I was hoping for more interactions between Fressa and Lena that I didn't get.