Odin's Child is the first novel in Siri Pettersen’s The Raven Rings series of Norse-inspired epic fantasy. I loved the magic, mystery, romance, and intrigue. Our 15-year-old tailless heroine Hirka was brave, resourceful, and easy to root for. She has a very sweet friendship with the slightly older Rime, an elite warrior and son of a powerful ruling family. I found the other characters interesting as well, although I wasn’t sure which of them could be trusted.

The book gets off to a slow start, but the pace picks up if you stick with it. I found the story held my attention, and I wanted to know what would happen next for Hirka and Rime and the other characters. I still do, and I am eagerly looking forward to Book 2. I recommend this book for fans of epic fantasy, Norse mythology, political intrigue, and slow-burn romance.

The audiobook production was excellent, and I loved the narration by Siobhan Waring. She’s a joy to listen to, with a delightful accent and distinctive voices and speech patterns to suit each character, and the ability to convey mood and emotion effectively. The story works very well as an audiobook.

I received a free advanced review copy of the audiobook through NetGalley, and I also found it available as part of my Audible membership. I volunteered to provide an honest review.

Not my favorite. The plot had the possibility of Being really good but it wasn't executed well. I also feel as if there was a bunch of fluff writing in this book that made it longer than necessary. The narrating was good though, intricate and encompassed the reader in a way that you could picture each individual character.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for providing a free e-audio arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to like this book as it sounded right up my alley being based around Norse mythology in an icy medieval setting with a young heroine coming into her own strength and power, but this unfortunately fell very flat for me. The world building in this book was not great, and I had a hard time for the first 100 pages really getting a grasp on the concepts and setting of the book.

There is also so...much...dialouge. I understand when there's a lot of dialogue in a book that contributes substance to the storyline, but I feel there was so much unnecessary dialogue, especially in the third person. There was not enough action throughout the story until towards the end.

The characters were also void of personality, and I found it hard to relate to anyone and thus couldn't really make a connection enough to care about any of the characters.

I will not be continuing on with the story.

I liked the audiobook a lot. The narrator was really good. The pronunciation of the names sounded correct to me but I'm not Scandinavian.
Story also was great. Nice story about finding your place in the world and belonging. I'm not the target audience for YA anymore but I liked the characters and if I had read this when I was younger I think it would have been 5 stars :)
Hope to read the rest of the trilogy as well!

I was a bit surprised to hear camomile between all the foreign sounding herbs to be honest. Can't remember right now if there was something similar with trees. Other than that the world building seemed consistent to me.

This is such a unique trilogy and I was so excited to see audiobook releases!! Imagine being the only one without a tail...

Thank you to NetGalley for this audiobook ARC gifted in exchange for my honest review.

It wasn't my first time reading this book, but I couldn't help myself picking it up when I saw an audiobook available on NetGalley. It was my first time reading/listening to an audiobook and to an English translation. I do have the whole trilogy in Polish on my shelf – I don't have the first book because I did lend it and I'm not hopeful on getting it back.

The story itself is a fine piece of high-fantasy, but it's not an original one. I mean, we have a young, female character that's an outcast, a love interest that's worlds away, an enemy that she has to stand up to and the challenge to strive to survive. It's nicely written though. I really liked the world building and how the characters were portrayed.

It's not a 5-star, maybe a 4-star but since I already did leave a 3-star rating here I'll stay with it. It sounds right. I do remember wishing it was a stand-alone, because I didn't like the was the story went in the second book.

Narration, and the version I listened to was narrated by Siobhan Waring (I'm leaving the review under the paperback because I couldn't find the audiobook on goodreads), was very nice. It wasn't too much, just enough. The voice of the narrator was very calming.

I'd like to send my thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for providing a free e-audio arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

At the age of fifteen Hirka discovers she is Odin’s Child which explains why she has no tail. She is to be feared if discovered as she can bring The Blind into the realm and that means death. Brilliant book one of the Raven Rings trilogy.

Very well written and narrated novel (I listened to the audiobook). Great strong characters with depth. Loved the personalities in this well paced
, action packed fantasy novel. A thrilling book, full of action, adventure, fights, ravens, faith, leadership and fear for the future. Highly recommend.

The narrator does an amazing job on this one. I would listen to a book read by her.

The two main characters are fine for YA. I enjoyed their POVs. There is a third, rather important character, that lacked nuance. I kept wanting to know WHY he behaved the way that he did, but there wasn't really any explanation forthcoming. The worldbuilding was really well done, and I felt like I was dropped right into the world of Ym. I DO wish there had been more explanation of some of the customs and beliefs of the Ymlings, but maybe that will be more evident in the subsequent installments. Pettersen's writing is quite lovely, and it works well with the world that she's building. The only real complaint that I have with this one is that the plot had quite a few holes that needed filling. Again, this is installment one, so it's hard to judge the book too harshly for that - perhaps those holes will be filled in books 2 or 3. Definitely a worthwhile pickup if you like high fantasy, and are interested in a more Norse inspired world.

(3.0 Stars)

This book should be right in my wheelhouse; a Norse Fantasy!

However, this book was very slow in pace and just didn't make me feel the sense of urgency and despair that the characters were feeling. I won't say it was boring, but the action seemed anti-climactic and the character bonding didn't always make sense to me. I found most of the characters to be underdeveloped, or like they lacked motivation for the actions they were performing, and I never really got a great feel of the world they were living in.

For full disclosure, I am reading a translated version (into English) of this book, so there might be some cultural or linguistic features lost in that translation. The narrator was excellent and changed her tone and cadence to bring familiarity and recognition to each of the main characters.

If I had to compare this book to anything else I've read, I'd say it reminds me a lot of Christina Henry's The Chronicles of Alice series. Both, in style and in pace.

At the end of this book there is a preview chapter of the second book in the series (The Rot) which seemed to be a little more accessible... So, maybe this book is just a lot of historic/background for the main plot? I hope so because there was an immediate recognition of the world (modern), and the preview made me interested in reading (at least) the second book in the series.

Thank you #NetGalley for making this audiobook available for reading and review.