I enjoyed reading this book! As a lover if Norse mythology this made for me. It blends well known Gods of Norse mythology with the story of a young girl named Lena who just wants to get her sister back from the dead. But this book also deals with the politics of the tribe and the question of how far would you go to save the one's you love. I would a hundred percent recommend this book especially if you like Norse mythology, hela and Loki and a main character who isn't flat but a fleshed out character.

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)

2.5/5
The Weight of a Soul had a lot of good things going for it. I loved the premise of this book, a girl losing her sister and going to the ends of the Earth to bring her back by making deals with gods, all with a Norse/Viking backdrop. I loved the focus on family dynamics versus a typical romantic love story.
The last 25% of the book had me hooked, with all the consequences, good and bad, of our the MC Lena's actions through the first 75%. The wicked hook at the end has me still thinking about it days later.
That being said, the first 50-75% of the book is slow. Not a lot of stuff happens, so I did feel a bit exasperated with the MC by time things started happening around the 75% mark. She takes a while to put things together but also doesn't show a internal struggle on page to pass the time either. It felt a bit stale and flat when Lena did try to show her inner turmoil over her sister's death. I wish I could have connected better with Lena and felt her pain.

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.

When Magdalena finds her younger sister Fressa dead, her world is shattered. Losing herself within the madness of grief, the only thoughts she has are of her sister and returning her to Midgard at any cost. Finding herself in Helheim, she seeks to make a deadly deal with Hela to return Fressa. Night has fallen in the middle of summer, and Lena knows that only Fressa can fix it. But the weight of a new soul is needed, and Lena must provide it. Now, Lena must decide if freeing Fressa from Valhalla is worth the risk of losing herself.

The Weight of a Soul is a viking-esque story in which there was little warfare and action. Instead, it's focus was on Norse mythology. Being somewhat familiar with these gods, I was excited to dive into this story, and I think it was done really well. The story and characters seem to fit with what I know of these gods, and I loved the little tidbits that were added to the story to flesh them out.

The stories main drive is Fressa, and Lena's obsessive need to return her to Midgard. It really delves into the madness of grief, and a character who literally loses her mind over the loss of her sister. While there is certainly a darkness to this story, I really wanted more. I think the author does a good job of representing grief, but I wish she would have really allowed Lena to lose herself in her task of returning Fressa. Also, while obviously losing a sister is heartbreaking, I found that I really lacked a reasoning or a connection with Fressa. What drives her sister into this darkness? What makes Lena feel that she needs her? Fressa is found deceased very shortly within the story, and the little that we do know about her, doesn't make me want to go to Hel and back for her.

With the focus being so much on Lena's grief and getting Fressa back, there is very little attention given to the secondary characters as well as the setting. With the exception being Amal, there's really no other character that stands out, and while I felt bad for Amal and his situation I felt his character could have used more personality.

The stories ending makes me think there is a possibility for a follow-up book, and my hope is this is the story where we will get more action and darkness.

This ARC was provided to me through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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

Character and plot development was good. It was very slow at the start, but the climax and ending really pick up the pace and wrap the book up together nicely.

I loved Lena, and I was so sad at her ending. I think she deserved more, the poor girl had been through hell and back for her sister.

My one, and biggest gripe about the story were the GODS. I am not familiar with Noors legends, and I feel a good backstory and explanation of the gods would have been very nice. We get a few stories here and there, but at the end of the day I still don’t know very much about any of them and they are such key parts of the story I wish the author had delved into that more. Plus I just love mythology, I wish the author had breathed life into the Gods.

I think this was a very touching story. In the end, I enjoyed it. There were a couple slow parts, like the wedding was not one of my favorite scenes, I thought it was overdrawn and long. I wish there had been more storytelling and life in the gods. But it was an entertaining read, and it kept my attention well. I would recommend!

This review will be published on my Goodreads on August 2nd 2019.

ARC provided by Flux, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

The Weight of the Soul by Elizabeth Tammi is a story about love between sisters - (Magda)Lena and Fressa. They are part of a Viking society and are daughters of the chief of the clan, who during the book goes back and forth between travelling (aka raiding) and being your typical brawl-y father figure. Their mother, Val, is present but is not given much of a character. Early in the story something happens to Fressa and it's Lena's love towards her sister that drives the story forward. She goes back and forth between Helheim and Midgård and meets up with the gods on her quest to help her sister. Meeting with the goddess of death, Hel, she is given terms she must fulfil to get the goddess's help in the matter. Terms that are harder than Magdalena intentionally thought they would be.

As a Swede it's always interesting to see Norse mythology being used in works written by non-Scandinavian authors to see how the stories may differ from what I was taught in school and the material I've read on my own as I happen to enjoy mythological stories (from any pantheon really!) - I did like the way the mythological side was used, it felt well-written and not that out of character from any of the deities that Magdalena encountered on her quest. I also enjoyed that the actions she took during the quest had consequences for her life which isn't something that every writer takes in consideration. They have their characters do horrible things with nothing bad happening to them, and Tammi took the opposite route - good choice!

Other things I didn't enjoy though. First thing - the main character's name - in Sweden, at least (can't speak for the rest of Scandinavia), the name Magdalena did not appear in historical sources until 1455 (Lena even later in 1481) and this was something that took away a lot for me story wise. I realise that this is a fantasy story, but there were still enough elements in there that showed the author had at least read a book or some articles about how life in the 900s in Northern Europe. Names are important to a story.. .

I also did not get why the sisters were so important to one another more than that they grew up together. From the get go we, the readers, are told that these two characters mean a lot to one another. I have a sister too, but I'm unsure if I'd go to the underworld and back to try to get help for her. My point is that there is no explanation to why the sisters love each other that much more so than that they are related!

I give this a 2 star rating.

**Thank you to NetGalley for a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.**

3/5 stars due to missing passages.

Unfortunately I think my e-ARC was missing quite a few pages, as it often jumped to the next chapter in the middle of a sentence, which also meant I missed crucial parts of the story. I loved what I was able to read enough to try and keep going, but I ended up missing large chunks of the plot that made it impossible to continue.

From what I was able to read, The Weight of a Soul is packed with Norse mythology, which was what caught my eye in the first place. At its core, however, this is a story about the unbreakable bond between two sisters, and the varying dynamics in the Freding family were what kept my interest. Lena and Fressa's relationship is unique in that Lena, as the eldest, will be chief one day and is training to be a healer, while Fressa is their village's most promising warrior. Rather than the younger sibling feeling as if they are being overshadowed, Lena is the one who must prove herself against her sister, but it's never treated as a rivalry. Instead, Lena's sole mission is to bring her sister back, even if it means dealing with Hela, the goddess of death, in order to do so.

Despite the problems I experienced with my e-ARC, I look forward to buying a copy of The Weight of a Soul and finding out how Lena and Fressa's stories end.

DNF at page 114

Wow

This book started out so promising. The blurb sounded amazing and I was really curious to the characters and their journey.... But this just wasn't it for me. The characters fell flat and there's more politics and mulling in thoughts then there is searching for her lost sister and meeting with gods.

I was provided with an electronic ARC by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for honest review

The Weight of the Soul was based in Norse mythology tales and is what really intrigued me, however, that was really the most interesting part of the book. Lena the main character goes on a quest to bring her sister back from death. There were a few twists and turns that I enjoyed but for the most part most of the book was not as intriguing as the beginning and the end.