I don’t know. Feels like a lower stakes 21st century tech and culture take on Gaiman. I have a feeling that the audio version (full cast?) is quite a bit more engaging...still...not too shabby.

Thank you to Netgalley and Serial Box for this ARC.

This serial is an interesting mix of: gods based on the greek pantheon, romance, and mystery. Lead character Iris is a Justix for goddess Themia. Her job is to investigate when humans and gods run afoul of each other. Though, her role is really supposed to be to investigate when the humans involved with the gods do something possibly criminal. Not to investigate the gods and their potentially criminal or reprehensible behaviour.
So Iris is sent to the site of a murder of a devotee of Aestros, the Windtamer. She's assigned a partner, a ne'er do well demigod, Andy, son of the Seamother and brother of Tilamon, Goddess of Tides. Iris has issues with Andy's constant skirting of the law and the way problems don't tend to stick to him, so she's less than happy to have him along on her investigation.
Pretty soon, they both find, using their various individual resources and methods, that there's something fishy, and possibly quite horrible going on. And the more they dig, the more certain they become that the case isn't anywhere near as clear cut as Themia would like, and that they're attracted to one another.
I liked the mix of slightly noir-ish detective story and gods behaving badly. (Though, when don’t they?)
Iris and Andy are both interesting point of view characters, so it's fun watching them use their different skills to come to similar conclusions about the case.
The pacing is good, and I liked the characters. It's not a deeply complicated mystery, but enjoyable nonetheless, and I could follow this story easily, and look forward to the next instalment.

I’m honestly pretty surprised that I liked this as much as I did. The characters were good, I loved the world and the mythology, the little bit of romance was fun, the mystery was intriguing and I didn’t guess the ending at all. It was definitely short but since it’s an audio series and not a book, that makes sense. If it were a book series with additional character and world building I think it would be fantastic. I hope there’s a second season/sequel and that I get to read it.

Thank you NetGalley, author and publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

An intriguing start to a new serial. There's a lot of world building hints that make me want to know more, as well as the tantalizing and strange murder. I'll definitely be continuing on with this story!

This was like Lucifer meets Percy Jackson... omg so good!!!
I love Andy, his pov was amazing to read!!
I also love the way it was written like a tv show.
Can't wait to read more of this author.

Firstly, I want to thank Netgalley and Serial Box Publishing for giving me a chance to read and review this book in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis from Goodreads: Gods make everything complicated. When a young woman is found dead on the altar in the wind god’s temple, Justix Iris Tharro, a human agent of the Goddess of Justice, has to investigate. But she’s not in this alone. Andy, a disgraced demigod trying to win back the favor of his sea goddess mother, is more than happy to help. Iris is entering a dangerous web of Pantheonic politics, black market artifacts, exploited nymphs, and the ghosts of her own past.

Okay, let me talk first about the characters; I love the dynamics between Iris and Andy, they are so balanced all together. I love Andy’s character, he’s like an open book but still mysterious while Iris’ character is like a closed book that refuses to be opened. The mix of their personality is well-written and not boring to read. Even though they have issues on their own it’s not annoying to read. And their character developments are realistic and interesting. As for the other characters, I like how the author wrote the characters of the Gods with similarities to Humans. But still, you can see or feel that this certain god is more powerful than humans. In spite of them having a “godly atmosphere” they are not boring to read because of their very own sets of personalities.

As for the concept of the book, I love it! I love that this is a fantasy/mythology book with the investigation of a crime involved. I find the world of this book so fascinating and very unique. I like how this fantasy book set in Modern Times, unlike most of fantasy book with Gods/deities involved set in medieval times, this book has even a God of Telephones! It is so interesting to read a world where every branch of human’s daily life is somehow connected with a much higher being.

My only problem with this book is that it’s not clear to me what the characters are saying sometimes. When they reach a certain point or clue in the story I don’t really get what they actually mean. Unfortunately for me, i didn’t get what the characters are trying to say. Like they already know the “how”, “where”, and “why” this crime happen and I was like “what? What’s happening?”. Lol.

I feel like i’m that one girl on a math class who doesn’t understand how the formulas work while the whole class was like “I knew it!” or “oohhh, now I get it!”. And i’m like “Wait, you can buy cupcakes with a human soul?”. Lol.

What i’m trying to say is, I am clueless what the characters discovered and meant! I just wished that some of the clues or points in the plot have a more thorough explanation of what they really meant.

But aside from that, the book was so entertaining to read. It’s so unique and fun! Even though i’m clueless with some things I still enjoyed reading it. Honestly, i’m curious to read the season 2.

All in all, I rated this 3.5 out of 5 stars. I am looking forward to the next book in the series.

I never knew how much I needed a pantheonic murder mystery in my life, but here we are.
Iris and Andy make a perfect team-- a human justix and a demigod both screwed over by the pantheon, both of whom find themselves pursuing the same case for very different reasons.
I found myself unable to put this one down, and I'd love to read more set in this universe.

Gods & Lies was an enjoyable book, but not one that will stay with me . I really liked the writing style and the mythology. The author has a lot of imagination that I would like to see put into practice in a full novel. I liked the world that was constructed and the examination of how society would work if gods were real entities who freely got mixed up in the business of humans. Also, the mystery was interesting. It had a lot of twists I didn’t expect and the ending was truly surprising.

As much as I think the ending was a surprise, I didn’t like the execution. It’s probably a me thing but I would’ve liked for our detectives to find out who the criminal is, instead of the criminal showing themselves in an attempt to kill them. It’s a pet peeve of mine regarding mysteries.

I also didn’t really connect with the characters. They felt like your stereotypical badass and punk duo. And while they were fleshed out to an extent, I didn’t feel like they were actually three dimensional, well-crafted characters. So I think that’s something the author needs to work a bit on.

But overall it was an entertaining read.

I'd read a few series from Serialbox before, at least till they stopped allowing people to download and keep the files they'd bought and started forcing people to use their app or the website to access everything. In general, the quality was pretty good and I'd enjoyed most of them enough to want to pay out. This particular title was a new one to me, as was the author, so I was happy to pick up a copy for free via Netgalley and check it out.

It's essentially an urban fantasy story set in a world where the gods are still around and people try to get their favour or ally themselves with a particular deity as a way of attempting to gain protection (mostly from other gods, by the sound of it). There are also plenty of demi-gods knocking around, for the usual mythological reasons, including one who plays a significant sidekick role to our protagonist and also a heavily foreshadowed future love interest, though that doesn't happen in this particular 'season'.

Our protagonist is Iris, who works as a justix, investigating crime and meting out punishment at the behest of her deity Themis. Iris has a tragic backstory (what good investigator doesn't?) and is pretty driven, ending up working with the demi-god Andymion when he gets himself involved in the case of a missing girl who subsequently turns up dead and transformed into a kestrel. The issue, it seems, is missing relics and a strong black market trade in said items, for which Iris needs Andymion's help as he's a bit shady himself, to the point of pretty much deputising him to help her out.

The overall plot-line is competently done and the world-building is okay but our protagonists are a bit two-dimensional. Even though it's told in alternating first person, that doesn't really help make the characters that much stronger and, in some ways, actually makes them more annoying as they fail to correctly interpret signs of interest in each other. It's bordering on TSTL (that's Too Stupid to Live, in case you haven't come across that) and at least they seem to be a little more competent when it comes to actually solving the case.

It's not something I would have bought, given the overall setting but it was an enjoyable read, though not gripping enough to make me want to find out what happens to these characters next. There's a teeny cliffhanger at the end of the story but also it's clearly going to be resolved, if you care about that sort of thing.


I received a copy of this book from the publishers via Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Iris has been tasked by the Goddess of Justice to investigate the death of a human found transformed on the wind god's alter. Andy, a disgraced demigod, has been paid by the girl's family to find her and bring her back to them. The two end up working together to try and find out who and why the girl died without overstepping the bounds of their authority. It makes for an interesting look into a world bound by Pantheon of goddesses and gods loosely based on Greek mythology brought into the 20th century. And the nice thing is that there is likely to be a sequel!

Thanks Netgalley for the opportunity to read this

Part fantastical myth-retelling, part detective story, <i>Gods & Lies</i> is a fun little read. I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect going in, given that I’d never heard of it before and wasn’t certain about it being a true retelling of any one specific mythology, but I was pleasantly surprised.

It doesn’t waste any time jumping into the main driving force of the story: the murder of a gods’ Favoured human. Right from the get go we follow Iris and Andy as they search for clues and try to solve the mystery. It was interesting to see how the gods fit into the crime scene, turning a regular mystery into something more unique and exciting. I also found that the relics and temples were well explained for such a short piece of work. Nothing felt confusing and info-dumpy, but at the same time nothing felt underdone. It was the perfect blend of information and assuming the reader is smart enough to know what’s going on in the new world.

The first thing that I noticed in this is that the pantheon is very unique. As soon as I saw the name Iris my mind jumped straight to the Greeks. But after making my way through this, I’m not so sure I was right. There’s definitely a Greek influence here, but I’m not 100% sure this is an actual mythology retelling - of any pantheon - as names were slightly off and nothing is explicitly stated. Either way, I enjoyed the pantheon and was able to relate it to certain mythologies when I needed to get my head around names, and I’m a sucker for mythology in all forms.

My one issue with it, however, is that the case starts to get a bit confusing towards the middle of the book. When new victims and new evidence was introduced, I found it a little hard to keep track of what was going on as things were quite similar. This may just have been down to the fact that I’m not a big mystery or crime reader, but it might also have been the execution. It didn’t hinder my enjoyment <i>too</i> much, but it definitely took something away from the big reveal at the end because I didn’t fully understand it.

I do think that this ended very well, even if I didn’t fully understand the gods’ involvement in the plot. I liked the epilogue and thought it ended on a funny and well-rounded yet open to a sequel way. If that makes any sense. I definitely wouldn’t be opposed to reading more about Justix Tharro if there was a continuation, as this was a fun little read.

Gods & Lies is a fun, quick-paced murder mystery with a hint of romance, and it was a really enjoyable read. The book follows two points of views: Iris, who serves the goddess Themia, of Justice, and Andy, a demi-god who she has met before and has conflicting opinions about.

Iris is called to Wind God's Aestros' temple, after being called by Themia, to visit a crime scene. Andy, at the same time, visits after being hired by a human family, to get in touch with their daughter, Pippa Marwol. They find the corpse of Pippa, killed and changed into a bird inside Aestros' own temple, and work together to solve the mystery of who did it, and bring justice to the dead girl.

Iris and Andy are great characters - Iris follows the truth and justice, while Andy is dealing with having to do things by himself instead of messing up and being punished by his Mother -, and I felt like they complimented each other well; at first I didn't quite feel the connection between them, and I wish we could see a bit more of their past meetings, but deeper inside the book they just got so tender and caring for each other I was rooting for them at the end, even if it felt like the start of a fragile relationship, instead of a true love thing (which I do hope gets developed in a following season/book!).

For the most part the murder mystery kept me going; I was curious, and the confusing hints the characters discovered added to the desire to learn, along with them, who killed Pippa and what were their connections to the deities. It was really interesting to see how gods and goddesses were around the world so easily, fitting well in every part of how the characters interacted and lived, especially Iris, since she's a human, but I wanted to get a bit more of worldbuilding, a bit more of information on how the worship came to be, how normal people (outside of Iris' job as a Justix, outside of Andy's personal issues) dealt with all that.

The ending wasn't as satisfying as I hoped for, but it did make me more excited for a possible sequel/next season, so I hope we get more of Iris and Andy's relationship and all that!!! I really enjoyed reading it.

Imagine if there were gods who had a protection agency where there were humans who had to solve crimes of other gods and goddesses? Sounds wild right? Well that’s exactly what this story is as Agent Justix Iris Tharro investigates the crime. But of course, this case is going to need more than the smarts of a mere mortal. Iris meets Andy, a demigod who wants to get back in the favor of his mother the sea goddess. Iris and Andy make an unlikely duo as they learn how to work together and even like each other while finally facing their internal issues together.

i really liked the use of gods in these novels, it was a fun read and I really enjoyed this first part. I hope there is more in this world.

Uhm?? Excuse me?? Where is the rest of this?? I am completely hooked and I need MORE.

Semi-professional review: I loved the world building, the twists of the plot, the hierarchy of gods and humans, and the tension between the main characters. I would love to see more stories in this world - fantasy/mythological detective stories are kind of my jam.

Truthful review: I am very, very gay for Andy. Like, oh my gods.

Gods & Lies is the latest Serial Box adventure that I decided to dive into, and man was it worth it! Written by Elizabeth Vail, and narrated by a combination of Cary Hite and Sarah Mollo-Christensen, this is an iconic read (or listen, depending on what you decide to do).

Has there ever been a tale involving multiple gods where they didn't make things more difficult for their human worshipers? In this world, there are gods everywhere, and in order to survive, you generally have to pick one to primarily worship, and hope that they keep the other gods off your back.

Enter Justix Iris Tharrow. She believes in the Goddess of Justice, and it's her job to investigate human crimes and bring justice to them. It's a tough job, but it is also certainly her calling. As opposed to Andy, a demigod trying to go clean from his life of crime, and struggling to do so.

Yet thanks to a murder, these two unlikely allies are about to end up working together. It is never easy to solve a murder, a fact that could never have been more true when the gods and their faithful get in the way.

“I knew something was wrong the moment I stepped out of the car.”

Warnings: Gods & Lies does touch upon a few heavier subjects, but the larger (and more dominant) moments and themes include sacrifice and animal death.

Will I ever get sick of diving into a series full of mythology? No, I don't think I will. Gods & Lies is full to the brim of gods, goddesses, and the humans who worship them. It is without a doubt the most unique take on this world that I've ever seen, and I feel like that's saying something.

This is a world where the old gods of legend exist, yet. But there are plenty of other gods to deal with as well. The god of traffic for example, or the one that loves all things text or phone based. Any convenience humans are used to is helped (or hindered) by the gods.

It's impressive and fun, all at the same time. And that's without taking the murder mystery into account. That in itself is a whirlwind of an adventure, fitting in thriller elements into a world that should be full of magic and lore.

Iris and Andy are such unique characters with huge personalities. It took me a little while to really get (and like) both of them, but once I did, I found myself fully invested in their stories. So much so that I'm basically sitting here waiting for an announcement about season two (which I'm assuming will be a thing, but I don't actually know that for sure).

“If you can't trust a priestess of the Goddess of Justice, who can you trust?”

Gods & Lies was the shortest Serial Box series I've tried, and yet the punch didn't feel diminished at all. Actually, I almost feel like a shorter format was better suited to this experience. It was quick, fun, and easy to impulsively dive into. It fit the world quite nicely in that sense. Here's hoping that any future season sticks to that format as well.

If there's anything I love more than delving into mythology is just knowing that gods and their offspring are messy and well, they do everything just like humans to try and cover up their mistakes and this book gave a series vibe, it took me for a thrilling ride and I enjoyed reading it.
Thanks Netgalley for the eARC.

While not following any sort of real-life mythology that I can identify, the world of Gods and Lies is one rich with the same gods, goddesses, and demigods you might find in any other Greek/Roman/Norse mythology retelling. In others words, lots of messy gods and godlings to contend with.

This book was serialized by Serial Life. Not the kind of formatting you typically see another. I love that instead of chapters and sections, this book was organized by seasons and episodes. Gives you a bit of a TV show kind of vibe, which I thought was fun. In fact, this book often felt like the love child of Netflix's Lucifer and Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series because it focuses on solving a supernatural murder, with gods as some of the key suspects.

Overall, it was a fun ride. The overarching plot is interesting and I was intrigued by the idea of each characters -- key word being "intrigued." I couldn't tell any of the POV characters voices apart from each other (made even more frustrating by the fact that's it's all first person, so they should be differentiated). This made it difficult for me personally to get attached to any of them because they all felt like one slight variation of the other in the end. I also wasn't fond of the dialogue because it came across as trying too hard to be funny.

My other main gripe with this book was that my eARC (somehow, someway) was missing several pages. Like, it would go from page 62 to page 65 inexplicably, no pages in between them. This sometimes killed the momentum of scenes or else was just infuriating to deal with. Not sure if this is a problem on Netgalley's end or the publisher's.

Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone super interested in mythology (mainly Greek/Roman, since it gave me those vibes more specifically) as well as anyone into a fairly lighthearted murder-mystery thriller.

This novel was a fun and interesting introduction to a world where Gods live among humans and their actions can have dire consequences for any human. The feel of the novel was reminiscent of American Gods by Neil Gaiman. I believe readers who enjoyed that novel would also find this one interesting. The novel was fast-paced and interesting full of twists and turns and while clearly drawing on fantasy it felt gritty and genuine.

The author, Elizabeth Vail, created a fully-realized world a mythos. She chose to write the novel from two perspectives, that of the main female protagonist and her romantic interest-come-partner. The main character, an investigator whose patron is the goddess of justice, is compelling and full of faults. Her backstory felt like a teaser story (that I wanted to read!) and I was able to connect with her motivations. The romantic interest. a demi-god of questionable ethics was likewise someone who you were able to sympathize with.

I hope that Ms. Vail has more to come in this series.

Very enjoyable world-building and character development. I'd happily read more from this world (perhaps a series?), but I would encourage the author to strip the "Season 1, Episode #" subtitles from the text version. I understand the novel is also serialized as an audio drama, but I think the inclusion of this information in the text version runs the risk of making the work seem less professional.