Ever since 'American Gods' was a hit, authors have been exploring what it means for ancient deities to be living and relevant in the modern world.

This is both that and so much more.

Following a pantheon that I wasn't immediately familiar with, I quickly became attached to the protagonist, feeling her family relationships as those I'd seen in similar households over the years! These gods are real people as well, and just as cynical, flawed and yet insightful. Being a police officer is then an excellent choice of work.

A unique scenario, winning characters and lovely writing. I've already been recommending it.

I apprecitate the publisher allowing me to read this book. I found this a really interesting read and the characters are quite engaging. it kept me reading until the end. I highly recommend.

I gave this one a shot and opted to DNF it - it's not quite my cup of tea. Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a copy for review!

Sara is a Hindu goddess who has rejected her divinity and lives in London, working as a police investigator instead.
One day, weird and tragic events start taking place, such as people acting weird, people dying, floods etc etc.
And Sara's godly sense is tingling, because she can tell that behind these events, hides another god.
Will Sara find who's doing these or will it be to late for the world to be saved?

My thoughts.

This is a mostly pleasing book.

I liked the premise, the diverse cast of characters and the dialogue. I also enjoyed the humour and I liked how food was used as a way for characters to bond over (something I've seen other people giving this book lower ratings for.)

What I didn't like, was how the built up to the final climax was all over the place.

Like, we are lead to believe by almost every other god that we meet in this that there is a major event coming up, which totally does, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't involve them. For example, when Sara visits Olympus, Zeus is away because he is preparing for the big war and the rest of the gods are about to decide what they will do. But then they do nothing.

Also, there were scenes that felt like they were gonna play some part in the action later on, but if you'd remove them, nothing would change. For example, in this one, gods who become known to the larger public scene through movies, also become separate divine entities all together.
Like, you have the actual Heracles, and then there is Hollywood Heracles, who through people's adoration, has become a god, but also not exactly, because he can't do much.
So, there is that scene where Sara goes to where the Hollywood gods live and they're about to slaughter each other, and then..... Nothing. They serve nothing. You could remove that scene from the book and nothing would change.

I also wasn't a fan of how, the final boss was defeated. Like, everything was done because an older god felt like she had been forgotten. But then needed Sara to show her how people have not actually forgotten her. Give me a break!

Oh, and I don't really know how to feel about the trans rep we got in this one.
Because on the one hand, yeah, we got some trans representation!
But on the other hand, it feels like an afterthought. As if the writer thought "Okay, I really need to make one of my characters trans, that'd please the younger readers."

There were also some other elements that I didn't like, such as the protagonist/the author making some inaccurate comments on other religions, particularly about the ancient greek pantheon and possibly the scandinavian one, us being told to care about a character who only appeared for a couple of paragraphs and some plot inconsistencies in the story.

I've come to believe that this would have worked better without the whole "end of the world" premise.
Like, keep the outcast god element, the trickster mom who sabotages everything element. Keep the divine aunties who want to marry their niece to another and pressure her to accept her powers and keep the whole romance with a mortal element and turn it into a rom-com! It would have been better. Like, most of the humour and dialogue, already feels as if it's coming from a rom com!

Overall, it's not a bad book.
But it could have been better.

This novel seemed to have everything I wanted to be a fantasy and a mystery. However, I thought the novel moved at a very slow pace. The world-building was very confusing! Still, I recommend this for fans that like mythology!

📚"Goddess of the North" by Georgina Kamsika📚

This book was kindly given to me as an ARC by the publisher via #netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Disclaimer: I DNFed this book at 70% and therefore can't give any feedback for anything that happens after that.

Heavily inspired by Hinduism, this book had a very interesting premise. For the most part, Hindu deities are in the spotlight but mythologies from all over the world are involved too. Since the MC is one of these HIndu goddesses AND a detective, there's also a murder mystery going on.

This was done well:
📗light tone and descriptive writing style
📗lots of descriptions of food
📗well developed MC
📗involvment of Hindu deities and doctrines was fascinating
📗queer representation

Why I DNF'ed:
📕I didn't feel "hooked"
📕side characters felt underdeveloped
📕very slow pacing
📕the interaction between the deities and the real world didn't work for me
📕the part about gods splitting into different aspects really confused me and wasn't further explained up to the 70% mark

Allthough this book unfortunately wasn't for me, it might work perfect for you! There's not a lot of representation of different religions in fantasy, so if you think it sounds interesting, check it out and leave a comment!📝

#GoddessoftheNorth #fantasyreads #bookreviewer #fantasybook #mybookfeatures

While the setup sounds like a familiar urban fantasy, the execution is a little more different. Sara is a great character, using order and her methodical nature to great effect rather than strength and power making her a less typical urban fantasy protagonist and her struggles between her human appearing life and her nature as a goddess are dealt with in depth and with great detail.
This is unfortunately one of the drawbacks of the book, while the story is full of interesting descriptions and vivid interactions with various pantheons and gods from them, it does get a little bit bogged down in the middle section.
However, its worth it in the end as Sara’s resolution is ultimately satisfying and ties up the various story elements well. Although it uses the framework of a murder mystery the focus is more on Sara’s self-discovery and acceptance and a late-story decision may frustrate those who are reading for the mystery element.

I enjoyed the premise well enough and the characters are interesting, but the writing style felt stunted to me.

Had to DNF this one at 66%. Nothing was really happening and there was only a vague semblance of a plot. Also the author seems to have a general lack of understanding/distain towards European paganism (which as a Celtic witch rubs me the wrong way) and gods? Anyway, just not for me.

The cover doesn’t give a lot away, and I was grateful for that. A new urban fantasy (mythology?) series that tries to do a lot, and mostly succeeds. Not only do we get your basic police procedural, suspicious murder and a fanatical religious group, we also get the more immediate mystery of Sara’s estrangement with both her mother and her culture. We also get discussions of race, class, and sex, as well as a thoughtful examination on an immigrant experience thoroughly unique and yet so similar.

It was super interesting how there was a variety of religions represented and none of them felt like they were given more importance. Ancient British gods, the Hollywood versions of Greek gods, the Norse, the little Jedi nod, it didn’t feel like any of them were treated as lesser.

I didn’t mind the romance too much, as it wasn’t pushed to the forefront, but I would have liked more on the platonic relationships Sara had built for herself in her chosen community. The banter she had with Bill, and the moment with Kish towards the end of the book, I would have liked to see more of those.

I actually also really enjoyed how all the little mysteries weren’t interconnected at the end. It seems to be a common thing that all the storylines would come together in some fashion. That’s what I expected, and what I kept searching for clues for.

This was engaging and kept a good pace going, so I will definitely be searching out the next book in this series.

Really enjoyed this book - the combination of magic realism, mythology and police procedural worked really well. After finishing this book I found myself still thinking of the characters, which is always a good sign. I'm looking forward to reading more books by this author.

It has been some time since I read this novel. TBH time got away from me in November (hello busiest season of the year). That being said Goddess of the North was a great read. It paints a complicated, magical world that mixes faiths, cultures, and a little murder mystery.

Sara, a Hindu goddess, lives and works in the human world as a police officer. She likes her neat little life, where she can let go of the godly world and just focus on bringing some order to the human world. When a murder brings these two worlds together, mixing them in many unexpected ways, Sara is forced to combat what she has been avoiding in the godly realms and things she didn't know she was avoiding in the human realm...

Georgina does a wonderful job painting a world where the Gods walk among us. She has gracefully brought so many gods and cultures together and represented so many things in this novel. If you like police procedurals with a mix of mythology, then this book is for you!

This book is fantastic, amazing, I cannot rate it highly enough I should be able to give it 10 stars. I loved the fact it’s set in the UK (and the north a lot) but I also love the fact it covers all the bad things as well as the good, so it covers xenophobia, race, class as well as dealing with self acceptance , identity and forgiveness, I mean with the British empire and colonialism as a source there’s always going to be a vast source there (appropriation included) but its still a celebration of multiculturalism , plenty of diversity and romance (albeit a tad on the sweet side) Overall, this is I everything I could hope for in a book, you need to read this

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

loved the use of the mix of mythology, scifi and mystery, it had a great story going on and this had interesting characters.

This clever book manages to cover more than one story at once. In some ways, it takes on some of the best parts of fantasy, but equally manages to be a captivating crime fiction novel.

There have been many attempts at finding this balance in modern fiction, but this really does crack it. Sara is a goddess, but when a crime she's solving ends up having divine qualities. Fun, clever, and geuinely intruiging, I highly recommend this for fans of the likes of Rivers of London.

Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this book.

I enjoyed this! Mythology, mystery and just a side of romance- good mix here. I enjoyed the cop banter as well. Would definitely recommend giving this a shot!

A dark yet tintilating mystery story with a well thought out magic system and standard. I thought the story dragged at times but was ultimately strong and I was interested enough to continue reading as I went along. Sometimes I found the prose stagnant and slightly predictable, but it was a good story overall.

I liked the overall premise of this book, and I liked the various mythologies incorporated. It was refreshing that the main character was a Hindu goddess, a mythology that I feel isn't represented enough. This book runs in a similar vein as Gaiman's "American Gods," so fans of his novel might like Kamsika's book as well. I wish that I liked "Goddess of the North" more, but it didn't keep my attention. Kamsika is a talented writer, but I don't think that this was the book for me.

The writing need to be improved, I couldn't go with the pace. It was difficult for me to catch up and it felt like an info dump

The premises of this novel seem to be based on a concept expressed by Neil Gaiman in "American Gods", namely that peoples, in their migrations, bring their gods with them. As E. Fuller Torrey's "Evolving Brains, Emerging Gods" also says, the power of a god lies in the devotion of its worshippers: the greater the devotion, the greater the power of the god. Gods that nobody prays to any more leave the altars and end up in museums. This explains why Sara Nayar, a Hindu goddess who has moved in one of her aspects to modern England, has very little power and has to solve her assigned cases as any other police inspector would. All is well until a man is stabbed to death in the town where she lives, and at the same time a micro-earthquake occurs...
The book is really funny until well past the halfway point, then a catastrophe happens: the main character falls in love and a very boring back-and-forth begins, unbelievable and tacky as a Bolliwood movie. A real shame.