“I might look like a youthful Bollywood actress, but my hair singed as Rome burned; I was in the alley when Jack the Ripper took his first victim (they never found her), and I watched as Marie Curie Shaped the twentieth century.”

If that quote doesn’t pique one's interest, then I don’t know what will. Goddess of the North is an original, complex, and an overall thrilling read. It’s a murder mystery involving gods and goddesses of different mythologies. The main character, Sara Nayar, is a detective inspector in Sheffield but is also a badass, time-controlling, kind-hearted goddess of order. So, naturally, when a mysterious, possibly divine attack happened, she was set on doing everything she could to protect and restore order to her city.

I have never read anything quite like this before. I thought it was a brilliant concept. On top of the thrill of a divine murder mystery, the mashing of gods and goddesses from different origins/myths added another layer of excitement and intrigue. Sara’s best friend is the Greek goddess of memory, Mnemoseyne. How interesting is that? We also see her occasionally interacting - or feuding, to be exact - with other gods and goddesses from the Greek and Norse mythologies. It’s honestly so freaking cool!

I enjoyed Kamsika’s writing style as well. The language wasn’t lyrical or complicated, which was perfect for me because of: 1) my lack of knowledge in mythologies, and 2) the complexity of some of the scenes. The characters she wrote also felt like actual, real people. She included topics like racism, anger issues, and it was done quite well in my opinion in that it didn’t feel artificial.

A downside for me is the pacing. I felt like the pacing was way too slow for me. It took me awhile to finish this book because of the pace. I kept putting it off because just thinking of having to drag myself through the story was exhausting. However, it might just be a preference thing.

Despite the negative, I would still recommend this to anyone interested in mythologies. The uniqueness and creativity of this book definitely deserves a read, and I hope more people will know about this book because it totally deserves the recognition!

This was SO GOOD!!!

An absolute MUST READ for fans of Kevin Hearne and Ben Aaronovitch.

It reads like it could either be a stand alone or the beginning of a series and I dearly hope it's the latter, because WOW. A smart, wry protagonist who was just a delight to read and a fascinating urban fantasy take on myth and legend.

I just can't say enough how how good this was!

I liked this mix of fantasy and mystery. It was an engrossing and entertaining read that kept me hooked.
The world building is interestesting, the characters fleshed out and the mystery is solid.
I hope to read other books featuring these characters
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Goddess of the North by Georgina Kamsika is an innovative, genre-bending mix of fantasy and police procedural. Sara Nayar is both a Detective Inspector and a Hindu Goddess. As a minor goddess, she possesses the ability to stop time for split seconds. Here are two quotes from Chapter One where Sara explains her powers in relation to other gods:

"Humans think we're special. We're not... In my family, the top three gods - Vishnu, Brahma, and Shiva - get all the god-juice, while the tiny amount that trickles down to me, one of the million aspects of them, is barely enough for me to play with time the way I have right now."

""I'm not the Saraswathi - guardian of the earth, sister to Lakshmi and Ganesha. It's just a name I've picked for this particular human lifetime, because I'm a tiny aspect of her, a million times removed... I certainly don't have Auntie Lakshmi's powers of luck. If I had, I would've lucked myself far away from this."

The story starts with a murder that Sara is sent to investigate. She soon suspects that other gods are involved. In the author's fantastic fantasy world, the real-world city of Sheffield is filled with gods, fae, and other magical creatures that disguise themselves as humans so that they won't be found out. The story includes characters from Hindu, Old Norse, and Greek myths, among others. I found this aspect of the world-building to be very interesting. The blend of murder investigation and fantasy reminded me of another wonderful book I read recently: A Master of Djinn by P. Djeli Clark. Although that book was "deeper," I found this one a bit easier to read.

One highlight of this book was the protagonist Sara. As an Indian, she has to deal with racism from white people in England, and I thought that the way the author weaves those PoC experiences into the plot of this fantasy novel was flawless. I enjoy fantasy books that reflect real-world problems. Her relationships with other characters like her mother and her love interest Higgins were also interesting. If you're looking for romance though, there was probably only one chapter devoted to their relationship with Higgins. The majority of the book was focused on the police procedural aspect of the plot. Overall, I highly recommend Goddess of the North for anyone look for a fresh mix of fantasy and police procedural. I found this book to be very original and a fun read as well. If anything from the description intrigues you, you won't regret giving this book a try!

*2.5
Considering my love for mythology this book was right up my alley. Especially considering that the main character was a Hindu goddess and the mythological fiction world is definitely in need of more diverse stories. When put together, the mythology & police procedural aspects should have created my perfect book. However, as you can probably tell from the use of the words 'should have' I was left a bit disappointed. The book wasn't bad but something about the writing and pacing was just not up my alley, I really wanted to love this book but it somehow just didn't work for me. Overall, it isn't a bad book, just lacked an important something for me personally.

I am a massive religion and mythology fan (geek), so as soon as I saw this title I knew I had to read it!

Detective Inspector Sara Nayar is a Hindu goddess of order with very little power, living her life as a human Detective Inspector in Sheffield, England. After she witnesses a murder, it’s clear there’s something more at play. Chaos is creeping into her city, and the gods are acting out. Working hard to solve the crime, Sara finds herself vulnerable, jumping between the human and god realms, fighting to retain order.

This book blends murder mystery and fantasy, with a mix of mythologies like Hindu, Old Norse, Greek, that I absolutely loved. I also really enjoyed the trans and BIPOC representations throughout. Oh, and the food descriptions had my mouth watering so bad!

I wish there was a bit more romance between Sara and her love interest, and the ending seemed a bit rushed after the nice pacing at the start and middle of the book, but overall I really enjoyed this and would defiantly recommend!

✨ 3.5

Sara is a Hindu goddess of order. Daughter to a goddess of chaos, their differences could not be more drastic. Unable to forgive her mother for events that transpired more than three thousand years ago, Sara left her true goddess form to live, more or less, as a human. Without believers to provide Sara with “god-juice”, Sara has limited powers. But she does maintain the ability to rewind time for a few moments. An interesting addition to the complexities of this book.

Sara has chosen to lead her human life as a Detective Investigator based in Sheffield. With her immortal memory, and the ability to sense when gods are meddling with the mortal world, Sara has positioned herself well to keep order in a world prone to chaos.

And with that, it’s time to step into the aether and hurl yourself into Sara’s complicated world.

Goddness of the North begins with an unusual earthquake, so centralized it appears to only rattle the grounds of a particular food market. A man dies during the earthquake, and at first glance it appears he died due to falling debris. But Sara was wandering the market when these events transpired, and this was no accident. It was a murder, marked with the unmistakable sign of gods meddling with mortals. But why? Well, hold on, because Sara is about to get to the bottom of it, and it’s a wild ride.

You know that 1939 phrase from the Wizard of Oz,"Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!", well Goddness of the North is just like that, except “Valkyries and Lokis and Gods, oh my!” Casting a wide net, Georgina Kamsika includes mythology and folklore from a variety of regions.

I thought that Kamsika did a wonderful job with all of the characters, bringing each of them to life. I loved that Kamsika did not shy away from including real world problems. It added an extra layer that made the characters more relatable and real. The food descriptions in this book deserve an honorable mention here because this book made me so hungry. There is a bit of a romance that blossoms in this book, though it is minor by comparison to the mystery at hand, it was a nice touch.

Unfortunately, there were a couple things I didn't like. Goddess of the North lost one star due to Sara being able to interfere with history with little to no consequence. Yikes. Half a star was lost for editing. By no means does it impact the wonderful story that Kamsika has written, but it did impact my reading experience. Stumbling across duplicate words, periods where a comma was clearly intended, misplaced apostrophes, etc. was quite distracting and I wish the editing had been stronger.

Overall, the pacing of this was just right, and the ending was satisfying in that it brought a majority of the loose ends together. Although Goddness of the North could easily be a standalone, I see the potential for a series.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

There is nothing to dislike here, but that's only indicative of the watery impression it left. The food descriptions were enough to keep me going, honestly.

This book was a nice surprise. I loved that the main character, Sara, was an incarnation of Indian goddess who is living her life as a human police officer in Sheffield , England. She finds herself trying to solve the mystery of some murders that seem to have a connection to some gods of the Norse pantheon. However, the more information she finds, the more she is convinced that there are others involved.
I found myself engaged in the story, and wanted to find out who was responsible for the mysterious happenings in Sarah's investigations. And I also liked that we encountered gods and goddesses from a wide range of pantheons; Indian, Greek, Norse and the British Isles in the story.

I loved this book!

Detective Inspector Sara Nayar is a Hindu goddess, originally brought to England during Queen Victoria’s reign. She's now working as a goddess of order, as a police detective in Yorkshire.

And then there's other gods from various pantheons, which were great fun (the Hollywood gods especially), and the recent gain in power Loki has experienced.

If you like the Rivers of London novels, then there's some similarities (British detectives, a form of magic, occasional issues with people expecting detectives to be white, etc).

Looking forward to the next book in the series!

PS: nearly forgot - copy received in NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

How am I just now hearing about this book? With the current love for mythology, I am shocked this title isn't floating around more within the reading community. I received an e-galley after it was published, and 30% into the book, I immediately ordered myself a physical copy.

The Goddess of the North follows a low-ranking Hindu goddess as she lives amongst humans...as a human. A cop, no less. Cutting ties with her family due to a past conflict, Sara chooses to abandon her goddess nature and live life simply. Having no followers, believers, or worshippers of her own, she is only capable of rewinding time for a few moments. She keeps her life, both personal and professional, in strict order. That is, until a sudden earthquake plus stabbing happens right in front of her. Soon, she is found unraveling a mystery that can only be tied to another god or goddess that is wrecking havoc in her town.

Things I loved:
- this book made me hungry non-stop. Every single time Sara or her mother started cooking, I immediately got a craving for Indian food. I see take out in my near future
- the main character is a HINDU goddess. I'm so tired of seeing Greek and Norse used over and over and over again. Don't get me wrong, I love those stories. But it's such a breath of fresh air to get a taste of a different pantheon and culture, especially as a main character! There is also trans representation in a supporting character.
- the police procedural aspect wasn't overdone and had just the right amount of lingo dispersed throughout the story. If police procedural normally isn't your thing, you won't have any issues with this book. It's woven into the story so perfectly and it's not a snoozefest.
- the side story that deals with Sara's past conflicts with her family. It had a coming-of-age vibe, even though she's technically immortal and way beyond that stage.
- the potential for a series is HIGH. Kamsika fleshed out just enough of Sara's life as both goddess and human that literally anything is possible at this point. I almost even want to say I got a whiff of a sequel vibe from a certain sentence or two. But maybe that's just me hoping?

Things I didn't love:
- the pacing towards the end of the book lagged a bit more than I would have preferred. I also felt like the two storylines were competing for closure at the same time, rather than one being given the spotlight.

But seriously, this was a great book! Do yourself a favor and order a copy. I will be eagerly awaiting any and all that Kamsika does in the future!

Thank you, NetGalley, for this digital ARC. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and unbiased.

This book was amazing. I could call it a British version of American Gods, but I don't think that would even do it justice. The main character is the Hindu goddess Saraswati living as a human being, working as a police detective. Her day to day investigations are interrupted by a murder that has obviously (to her) been committed by other gods. Many different gods appear: Greek, Norse, British, and of course other Hindu gods.

The writing is top notch, the plot perfectly paced, and the characters are well-written and interesting. Even the side characters at the police station are well-developed. This book was five stars all the way through. Sometimes I am not sure how I will rate something until the end, but with this novel I was simply dreading the end because I loved it so much.

4.5 stars - Can I have some more, please?

If you are a fan of crime investigation with a touch of the supernatural, this one is for you!

Sara Nayar investigates crimes with the Sheffield police, but she also is an ancient Indian goddess of order. Just one that is almost forgotten and therefore not very powerful. All she can do is manipulate time the tiniest bit.
We follow her as she investigate murders in which clearly some other gods were involved and tries to find out just what exactly is going on in Sheffield. Why are all sorts of Gods showing up and apparently preparing for war or the apocalypse? And how is she going to solve this while pretending to solve a perfectly normal case? And then there is her mother, a powerful trickster goddess, who keeps meddling and bringing up an incident in the distant past that led Sara to choosing a life among the mortals.

Now, crime is not usually my genre so I don't really know the usual suspects here. I have read a couple of the Rivers of London novels though and would put this one into the same genre. But, like, without the machismo, misogyny and cultural appropriation. In short, this one is SO MUCH BETTER!
Sara is Indian which (from what I gather) is also part of Georgina Kamsikas cultural heritage. Everything she mentions about India, the weather, the food, the atmosphere, feels authentic. Same with the descriptions of Sheffield and Great Britain. I had the distinct feeling that the author is equally at home in both cultures and also loves them equally deeply - which helps me as the reader to truly connect with the story.

I also cannot say enough good things about the fact that the love interest is a good guy. He has a beautiful soul and this is what makes him attractive to Sara - thank you for refusing the sexy bad guy trope! Also, thanks for including a trans character and not making a big deal of it. See, representation can be so easy!

This story is just a lot of fun with plenty of on-screen-time for gods from all sorts of mythologies and the shenanigans they come up with. We have the Norse with Loki, his daughter Hel, Odin, Thor and some Valkyries thrown in for good measure. We have the Greek, with the Titan Mnemosyne being Sara's best friend, but also plenty of other gods make their appearance. In some cases it is even the original ancient Greek aspects versus their modern Hollywood equivalents. Because movies create belief - and this book is full of reflections on the power of believing. It is also full of references to pop culture and how belief in supernatural beings has changed in modern times. (There's even a cameo of a human turned god just by power of believers in his character in a universally known Sci-Fi franchise.)

I enjoyed this read immensely and would love to read more. Can this become a series, please?

(There was just one caveat for me: very early on in the book Sara missed something that was so obviously relevant for her case. She just dismissed that bit of information, which felt like it should not have happened to someone with her experience.)

Goddess of the North piqued my interest originally because of a couple of things - firstly, that it's an urban fantasy set in Sheffield, rather than London and secondly the main character being a goddess of order who is working in the local police. Our protagonist is Sara Nayar, currently a Detective Inspector, and also a transplanted Indian goddess who is juggling her desire to live as close to a normal human life as possible with the fact that she is going to watch all the people she knows age and die because of her own immortality. She's able to manipulate time, allowing her to see the past of murder victims, which is a skill I'm sure most detectives would think handy to have.

Her power is limited, however, due to an incident when she first came into being - the gods are sustained by belief and worshippers and her own mother had interfered in Sara's development as a deity, meaning that when the more powerful gods start messing about in her adoptive home city, there's not much Sara can do power-wise to counter them. That is, if she can figure out exactly who is responsible, which takes a significant (and slightly frustrating) chunk of the book to happen.

It lost stars from me (3 seems a bit harsh but I'm struggling to push my rating upwards) for a couple of reasons: firstly, I don't know what research was done around the police but there seemed to be some basic things going on here that didn't work for me, as someone who spent quite a few years working adjacent to police investigations. There seemed to be a surfeit of Detective Inspectors - our main character is one, so is her putative love interest and so is the guy who thinks she's done him over for an impending promotion. That seemed very top-heavy for me, as what's portrayed in the book is a murder investigation run by two DI's, one Detective Sergeant (rank never confirmed) and a couple of uniforms putting stuff into the computer.

Secondly, the pacing of the book really struggles in the back half - there's a lot going on and I found myself skimming the supernatural stuff as Sara tries to figure out just who's responsible for what's going on. She also messes with history without any major repercussions and that always makes my skin crawl a little. This dropped another star for me, as I might well have DNF if I hadn't picked this up on Netgalley.

At the end of the day, it's a competent enough urban fantasy with some interesting things going on and clearly set in an area of the world the author knows very well.

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

Goddess of the North follows Police detective Sara Nayar, but she has a bit of a leg up on her competition since she is also a Goddess. Specifically she is a Hindu Goddess brought over to Sheffield whit immigrants from India.

Plot: The plot follows her as she attempts to solve a murder she witnessed while out shopping one morning but there is more to this murder than meets the eye. This isn't one human killing another there is something supernatural happening here. She has to figure out who exactly is causing chaos in her city and what they are trying to do. At the same time she is working closely with Michael who she has to admit she finds interesting and maybe even falling in love with him a bit. She is also dealing with her family while Sara is a god she has lived as a human for thousands of years. As a goddess of order she can get bits of power and use the peoples belief in the police rather than direct worship of her to stay alive. But she is greatly diminished and the centuries of living like a human are starting to take their toll. She doesn't have the power to deal with big names messing in her town now even if she can figure out who is behind it and her mind is starting to go causing her to forget things and make solving this case even more difficult.

World building: Set in modern Sheffield in Britain the world feels very familiar. There are police and shops and people doing their shopping. However there are also all of the gods who have ever been worshiped in Britain. Loki, Odin, Hel, Athena, Mercury, Hercules (Both the Hollywood version and the original Greek hero raised to godhood), and angles. Sara is the only one who lives in the human world but the rest show up to make trouble as needed. While this kind of idea has been done before it was done well here and I enjoyed seeing which gods were around and trying to figure out who was causing trouble. In a more realistic side this book also contained a group called Edmund's Angels or EA they are xenophobic and shown to be generally racist. They are unfortunately rather realistic and echo the existence of Neo-Nazis and other hate groups. At no point in the story are the shown in a positive light, they are very clearly in the wrong and connected to the murder. But they do exist and while they aren't on screen very often plenty of time is spent discussing them and how they are connected to the problems.

Characters: Our main characters are Saraswathi or Sara and Michael Higgins are the main characters of the story. Mostly Sara is the focus as this is a 1st person POV book narrated by her. I enjoy their slow burn flirtations. I also thinks Sara's relationship with her mother is really well done. Sara does not get along with her mother but is still in contact with her. While Sara is a goddess of order her mother is a goddess of chaos but her mother also did something to Sara's first worshiper and so on some level Sara can't forgive her and tries to avoid her as much as possible. It is a good representation of complicated family relationships. Mnemosyne (Nem) the Greek goddess of memory is a friend of Sara's as well and it is always good to have a friendship between two women on screen.

Where are the LGBTQIA, BIPOC, and women characters?
Well the lead is a BIPOC woman so she is front and center and while none of the other police detectives are women Sara's mom, aunties, and Nem are in and out of the story so there is no shortage of women. I also want to say that while none of the other detectives are Women Sara's boss who is on screen a few times is a woman. In addition Michael's brother is a trans man so there is LBTQIA representation on screen, although he is a more minor character.

Final thoughts:
This was a fun books, and I was curios to see who was behind it all and how it was all going to come together. The ending was well done and brought most of the threads together in a satisfying way. The one big complaint I have is that Sara's fracturing as a goddess who has repressed her self leads to memory problems which keep her from solving the case before everything goes wrong. This felt just a bit contrived and like at times the author was relying on memory problems to keep the case unsolved rather than actually mystery or intrigue. That is a rather minor complaint though and not enough to keep me from recommending this book.

Might well have received five stars if the author knew how to use (or rather, when not to use) coordinate commas - those were a near-constant irritation. Some other copy editing issues too, not major - dangling modifiers, misplaced apostrophes, a couple of homonyms. Although I got it as a review copy from Netgalley, the publication date is in the past, so I assume these errors are in the published version.

Otherwise, a fine piece of urban fantasy writing, let down by the editing and the murky cover. It deals excellently with themes of immigration, racism, and who belongs to a place, through a mythological lens. It's absolutely woven into the plot that an immigrant can care for a place more, and have more stake in defending its people, than a "native" whose focus is on themselves and what they feel they've lost or are in danger of losing. It also questions the very idea of "nativism" on the way through. It's far from being a political screed, though, and the characters are an eclectic balance of flaws, foibles, and strengths, all of which cross ethnic lines. There's no simplistic "four legs good, two legs bad" going on here.

The protagonist is an aspect of a Hindu goddess who's living as a human and working as a police officer (she's a goddess of order). She has to balance imposing order on a world filled with supernatural beings with keeping the humans unaware of their activities and providing mundane explanations for the crimes they commit. She's also striving not to use her goddess power (because it will make her less human), and still dealing with her feelings about a betrayal by her mother thousands of years before, the nature of which is gradually revealed.

All of this provides plenty of tension and plot momentum, even before disaster strikes. As an urban fantasy, it's inevitably compared to Jim Butcher, and there are similarities: the characterization is rich; there's a layer of insight into human (and humanlike) nature and the way the world is for people and how they tend to behave; and multiple potential disasters of all sizes are constantly threatening the protagonist and those she cares about. <spoiler>Where it differs is that this author pulls her punches a little and uses literal divine intervention to prevent the disasters from having too much impact or much of a body count. Given that I don't enjoy "dark" stories, I can hardly complain about that, and yet it does rob the story of some of its edge. </spoiler>

Has very strong potential, and a better copy editor could easily take it into five-star territory. I will be following this author, and looking eagerly for future books in the series.

<i>Goddess of the North</i> is a fun combination of urban fantasy and police procedural following Sara, a minor goddess of order from the Hindu pantheon who has chosen to live, for the most part, amongst humans; she expresses her divine aspect by working as a detective inspector in Sheffield. When a murder with clear evidence of supernatural involvement occurs, Sara must investigate it alongside her human colleagues while also trying to figure out which deity or deities might be behind it. On the one hand, the book focuses on Sara’s everyday experiences as a woman of Indian descent working in a very predominantly white, predominantly male police station in an English town. On the other, it focuses on Sara’s experiences as a god – the daughter of a goddess of chaos, a member of one pantheon amongst many, trying to navigate her dedication to humanity and her own divinity. While it took me a little while to get into, by the end I was really enjoying the story – I’d happily read more by Kamsika; I have no idea if the author has plans to feature Detective Inspector Sara Nayar in future works, but if so I’d happily read them.
Thank you NetGalley and REUTS Publications for providing me with an ARC.

Crime drama meets mythology in this witty, whimsical and diverting read. Captivating and amusing, while subtly highlighting the everyday experiences of a WOC in a western country. Very enjoyable read.

This was a well-written book with an interesting premise. The author's idea of a world where all gods and supernatural beings exist because they are created by human belief was one I hadn't come across in a story before. All signs pointed toward it being a good book, but somewhere around the middle I just started to lose interest in the characters and what was happening. Maybe combining a murder investigation with every pantheon imaginable and still expecting to keep the main drive of the story was a little too ambitious? Or maybe I just wasn't in the right mood to appreciate it. Either way, this was a fine book with no obvious flaws, I just didn't really get a lot out of it in the end.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC of this story.

So, unfortunately this was a DNF for me. I got to 23% and it just didn’t grip me at all. For me there was too much description, and not enough going on with the story for me to enjoy.
However, I am 2 starring this because of two thing I did enjoy.
1. I really like the inclusion of multiple cultures and gods, this isn’t seen all that much in books and I really liked that this book included all of these.
2. The concept of the aether travel intrigued me a lot. It was very well thought out.