ARC Review--Struck by Amanda Carlson

When Phoebe Meadows gets struck by a strange light in the stockroom of Macy’s, life as she knows it flies out the window. As if being hit by lightning isn’t bad enough, she’s accosted in the subway by a man with a missing hand, arrives home to find a raven on her kitchen counter, and her neighbor, Ingrid, shows up dressed like a gladiator hell-bent on protecting her.

Before Ingrid can shuttle her to safety, Phoebe is kidnapped and tossed into one of the Nine Worlds where she’s quickly forced to come to terms with what she is: A valkyrie. The only problem is, she has no idea what that means.

After a narrow escape, she finds an unlikely ally in Loki’s son, Fenrir. Together the valkyrie and the wolf must battle their way back to New York City and reach the valkyrie stronghold where Ingrid is waiting for her. But with danger and obstacles at every turn, she might not live long enough to learn the full truth about who and what she really is…

I received this eARC from the author in exchange for an honest review. I was in no way compensated for this review.

Amanda Carlson brings us a new entertaining series that delves in Norse mythology! Yup, we’re talking Thor, Loki, Odin, and let’s not forget Fenrir! I’ll admit that I don’t remember much about Norse mythology and some things are probably now scrambled with what Marvel has taught me.  I mean it’s hard not to picture Chris Hemsworth from now on when someone mentions the name Thor! I mean, he’s CHRIS HEMSWORTH! Lol! In Struck Phoebe gets more than she bargained for when she learns who she truly is.

From the moment Phoebe was struck by lightning while working in Macy’s shoe department, things have gotten really weird. A man with a missing hand accosts her, her neighbor, Ingrid, proclaims to be her protector and she’s taking the job seriously by wearing armor and everything, and a huge raven flies into her apartment and he seems to be more than just a raven. It’s only the beginning of all things strange, for Ingrid then tells her they have to leave the city because it’s no longer safe. She begins making huge revelations telling her that Phoebe is a Valkyrie and that her true father is Odin. Phoebe is more in a state of shock than anything and kind of goes along with things, because scary things are happening, let alone the scary things that are chasing her.

She soon ends up in Asgard, one of the nine world of the mythical legends. It gets a little heavy on some of the mythological details, but that’s likely because I can’t remember ever really learning much about the Norse, I think my school just did a Greek and Roman course for mythology. But anyway, Phoebe basically does a lot of world hopping using Yggdrasil and soon finds herself in the prison of Fenrir the wolf, Loki’s son and the one who is destine to kill Odin in the big war that’s upcoming but no one knows precisely when. As I said, we get some heavy details on the Norse mythos and who’s who and all that, since it’s sort of new to me information I did more absorbing rather than implanting all details into my memory bank…which is pretty much over full!

Right away, we see a connection forming between Phoebe and Fen, as she calls him. They are trapped there together and Phoebe is determined to escape and get back home, but she needs the magical dagger that Ingrid gave her that Fen has claimed for himself while she was unconscious, more details and such.

This is quite the exciting read! There’s lots of running and chasing involved as it feels like Phoebe is always running from an enemy of some kind. Being the daughter of Odin has not led to her having many fans. Phoebe is also dealing with the knowledge that’s she a Valkyrie. And that comes with its own set of powers and abilities she’s still quite new to. Luckily, she’s got Fen at her side as well as her best friend and other new character which I won’t really get into.

This was a great first book in the series!! I feel like we learned a lot, yet there wasn’t a whole lot of moving the plot forward, but I feel like that’s typical of all first in series books. We have introductions, history and worldviews of a sort to get through and understand. But naturally, by the end, a course has been set. However small it may seem at this time, it can only expand as this series gets underway!

I loved learning about a new mythology by reading this one. Some things I did recognize, names and such and other terms. I might have had some inklings of Norse mythology in my education and of course some of it came from the Marvel movies. Sadly, Thor and Loki didn’t make any appearances, but it kind of feels right that they didn’t. Having Fenrir be the hero was a new course of things and it kind of feels like the lesser known people of Norse mythology get to shine in this one. Granted, I don’t know how many stories there were concerning Fenrir, so maybe he’s more popular than I know!

I really enjoyed the romance between Fen and Phoebe. It was both a slow burning and little insta-love. Maybe more insta-attraction, which then transformed into insta-love. It’s hard to describe, I guess some of it can be attributed to their not quite humanness, that’s why they suddenly become the power couple we see them as. But there’s still plenty of issues to work out between them, for one thing, Fen refuses to relinquish Phoebe’s magical blade and Phoebe is also harboring the secret that she’s Odin’s daughter to herself, mostly because she’s still not 100% sure. But they definitely have an intense relationship to this beginning!

The ending was just the right style of excitement! There’s not a cliffhanger per se, but more like a nice lull in the action moment. A calmness before a big ol’ storm that’s likely to come plowing through at some point! It leaves you wanting more, but at least you’re not screaming in agony over someone’s unknown fate or the like!

I highly recommend this one if you love mythology of any kind and want a little something different, as I said before, Norse mythology was somewhat new territory for me and I quite enjoyed exploring this new world!

Overall Rating 4.5/5 stars

Struck releases May 24, 2016