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.

thank you for the provided arc in exchange of an honest review!

this book was a quick read and because i have always loved myth books i was in for this! it was good, the dialogues were fun to read and it was kind of fast paced but in a good way!

Lies & Gods by Elizabeth Vail is a mythological buddy cop story following an agent of the goddess of justice and a disgraced demigod who is the son of the ocean goddess.
When a favored human is discovered dead in a god’s temple, Justix Iris Tharro is sent in to discretely discover if the culprit is a human who can be prosecuted or a god who is above the confines of the law. Iris is joined by an ex-criminal who she’s used as a resource in the past, Andy. The two of them begin to investigate but soon begin to realize that the case may be more complicated than they first thought.
This story was pretty solidly mediocre. The plot was not as interesting as I wanted it to be. The romance was forced the entire time. The plot twist was predictable. The reader didn’t get to see what the consequences of the crime were, which left the ending feeling half finished. My feelings towards the story are just straight up apathetic. It’s far from being the worst thing I’ve ever read, and it wasn’t painful to get through, but I also could have stopped reading at any point and been fine with it.
My other gripe with this book is how flimsy the mythology was. Some of the gods and goddesses are based on the usual things like the sun and ocean, but Elizabeth Vail also chose to include a goddess of traffic (literally named Trafficka.)
Overall, I would recommend this book if you like fast buddy cop stories.

What an action packed story that was for such a short book! For those who are fans of action, mystery, and mythology, Gods & Lies is worth a read.

We're immediately introduced to our heroes, Iris Tharro and Andy. Iris serves Themia, Huntress of Justice while Andy is a demigod, son of the Seamother (one of the three major gods along with Skymother, and Earthmother). Together, they try to shed a light on the death of a young woman in the temple of the wind god Aestros.

Reading Gods & Lies feels like watching a movie. The writing is fast-paced and easy to follow, despite not being familiar with the the gods and how the world works here. I would've loved to know more about the relationship between the gods and the mortals. What about the Outlanders, where did they come from, what's their story? Less than a 100 pages is too short to fully this world but the writer did a great job providing us the basics. They left the ending open ended so there's still chance for more world building!

I received this book for free in exchange for an interview.
Thank you Netgalley and Publishers.

I enjoyed it. The worldbuilding was pretty fun. The dialogue was kind of goofy at points but I think that added to the charm.

Its a quick read. My only issues is with the constantly shifting povs in first person when they are in the same area. It made it very confusing and hard to keep track of who was talking.

A paranormal mystery solved vt  a "detective" working for one of the pantheon of gods and a charming, neer do well demi god.

 It  was an enjoyable read.  The characters are fun and relatable, and the world building is creative. I just wish it had been longer 

The cover didn't go well with the contents.  However, I hope to see more of Ms. Vail's work in the furure.

I thank Netgalley for the ARC.  I am leaving my honest review

This was very short and for what it was it was really good. I enjoyed the quick-paced story. I like how the world was set up. It what done well considering the number of pages in this book. I wish there was more.

This was a great quick read! Though it is short the world is still built up pretty well and it is easy to follow. I love a good modern story that involves mythology and the crime/mystery element made it all the better. I'd love to read more stories set in this world- involving Iris and Andy or new characters! I definitely recommend this for a good quick read!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for access to this eARC!

I received a copy of this book to review from Netgalley. Thank you for the opportunity.
This book is quirky and fun, featuring a story of gods and crime mixed together. It stars a pair of opposite characters investigating a crime. It is a quick read that has the reader quickly turning pages. 
It is difficult to know what to expect from the cover and I would have liked the author to delve deeper into the world and further the world building as I wanted to learn more about this world. 
On the whole, an interesting book.

Percy Jackson for grown-ups! In a world where the patronage of a god or goddess is necessary to succeed, Iris, priestess of the goddess of Justice and the disgraced demigod son of the Seamother team up to solve the murder and transmorgification of a young woman found in the temple of the wind god. A thoroughly enjoyable story exploring agency in a world where humans are expected to obey the gods. Honestly, my main complaint is that I think it could've done an even better job of really digging into that idea with a little more length. Nonetheless, a really fun read.

Thank you NetGalley and Serial Box for the opportunity to read this book!

This is a short, fast-paced mystery featuring a detective pairing up with a charming troublemaker who's usually on the wrong side of the law, in a world where gods control everything from the wind and tides to television. While the cover copy makes it sound very serious and complicated, what really sold me was the Serial Box tagline "For fans of American Gods and the Maltese Falcon. Fun, fast-paced fantasy noir," which turned out to be an excellent indication of what to expect.

This book does a LOT in less than 100 pages. The pace moves along and you're never bored, and the serial structure makes sure every one of the 7 sections ends on an exciting note. I LOVED all of the worldbuilding going on. Essentially, this world is full of gods and demigods, with mortals tending to serve one specific god or goddess. Our heroine Iris serves Themia, the goddess of justice, investigating crimes. Her friend Amelia serves Imemba, the goddess of death, and is basically a coroner. Meanwhile, our hero Andy is a demigod, the son of a mortal and the Seamother (one of the ultimate three goddesses, Seamother, Earthmother, and Skymother). While Iris is serious and determined, Andy is a charming rogue, constantly getting into trouble, who tends to be on the wrong side of the law but also has connections because of his parentage, so helps Iris get in touch with gods and criminals.

The opposites-attract pairing of Iris and Andy made for lots of fun character interactions, and the worldbuilding seamlessly flows along as Iris and Andy conduct their investigation. The mystery is not the most complicated one I've ever seen but again, this book is less than 100 pages, plus I was busy paying attention to all the details about this world woven into every paragraph.

I almost bypassed this one because the cover is a little odd and doesn't give you a sense of what to expect, but I am so glad I looked into it a little more because I had a blast! This is published as "Season 1" with 7 episodes and the ends does leave it open for a Season 2, which I am eagerly anticipating!

I really enjoyed this take on a modern pantheon of gods and other deities interacting with their favorites and humankind. It was a great mystery with a fast moving plot and wonderfully developed characters that I have found myself becoming invested in. I look forward to the next book/season 2 of this series.The main character of Iris was relatable and I look forward to learning more about her backstory.

I would like to thank Elizabeth Vail, Serial Box and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange free fair and honest review.