Review--Fallen Gods by Rachel Van Dyken

 

They said the Gods were myth. That the Giants were only stories told around dying fires. They lied.

The Gods aren’t dead—they’re only sleeping, locked in mortal bodies, scattered across the world, waiting for the right spark to wake them. And my father is the most ruthless of them all.

He raised me to obey. To bleed. To be his blade when the time came. Now he’s sending me to Endir University, a place filled with ancient bloodlines and deadly secrets, to steal back Mjolnir, the hammer of legend. If I fail, everyone I love dies.

But Aric Erikson wasn’t part of the plan. He’s the enemy’s heir. Distant. Dangerous. And…the one person I can’t afford to fall for. He’s closed himself off completely behind a wall of ice, but the more I’m ordered to unravel him, the harder it becomes to remember where the lies end and I begin.

There's only a mission I never chose—and a man I was never meant to love—standing between me and a war that will decide the fate of the world.

But if I’m the spark, maybe he’s the fuse. And the Gods? They’re about to wake up angry.

Rachel Van Dyken's Fallen Gods was a creative take on Norse mythology. Granted, it's not necessarily any kind of retelling that we know of. Really, there's just the names of familiar faces woven into a completely new and compelling story that had me intrigued from the get-go!

I do love a good mythological based story! Although the few courses I took on the subject were mostly focused on Greek/Roman, we did loosely touch on others like Norse mythology. Of course, we all know bits and bobs of it from the Marvel movies, but it's hard for me to say if anybody got anything right since I have barely any memory on the subject.

But luckily, Van Dyken has an author's note saying she took largely creative input on this one with only a few things ringing true. 

Anyway, our story follows college freshman Rey who is being forced to go to Endir University instead of the college of her choice. Her father, Odin--yes, that Odin--is making her go there in order to find Mjolnir aka Thor's hammer. It's been lost for ages but he believes that Aric, the son of their enemies, knows where it's at and Rey is to do whatever is needed to get the hammer back in their family's possession. 

Rey and Aric have a history, a complicated one as I didn't quite grasp how this rejection came about. They were meant to be together, but then they broke up before they even got together and just went back to being enemies so to speak. But Odin and their family know that Aric and his family are Giants...their mortal (or probably immortal) enemies. Except that Aric and his family's powers and abilities are "sleeping" so they don't really know who or what they are.

Yes, there was quite a bit of complexity happening here within the story. There are secrets galore and secret plots happening all over the place. We get both Rey and Aric's point of view, so we are getting each side to this R&J love affair they have happening. True enemies to lovers as these two loathed one another for about half the book before a change started to happen.

The story moved at a quick pace as Rey only has a week to find Mjolnir and if she fails, Odin will harm her stepmother (his wife). This Odin is basically a bad guy practically as he's always seems to be threatening Rey or someone she loves. Now if this rings true of our Odin of mythology, I can't say as, again, I don't remember much of those tales. I will admit that at times, the pacing did get slow down a bit when it came to searching for this thing and that thing. But otherwise, it was a bit of an up and down rollercoaster!

I did enjoy the dynamic between Rey and Aric. There's also a delicious tension when it comes to enemies to lovers stories and I ate it up! Of course, I was still a little unclear of their past history and what it was that set them apart from one another. It was quite literally a moment and I must have glazed over it. Distracted reading is not advised, my friends! 

But despite a few misses here and there, I was still able to follow the story along well enough and was totally invested in seeing Rey and Aric succeed. There were some shocking surprises at the end of the story which will definitely make for a stellar sequel, that's for sure!

If you're looking for a book with some possibly-new-to-you mythology based, then I highly recommend Fallen Gods! It was an intriguing and engaging start to what's sure to be an epic saga!

Overall Rating 4/5 stars