Tiana Warner

3.75
A sweet and chilly second chance Sapphic romance with plenty of cute dogs.

Getting dumped before a trip is the worst, but Avery decides to go the Yukon anyway only for her ex-girlfriend Summer to show up as one of the other guests at the lodge.

I love the setting. The Yukon adventure was really neat, and I loved a lot of the personal growth Avery experienced. She seemed to be stuck in a spiral, which is realistic, but it was kind of repetitive to read. A lot of the conflict focused on Summer's issues which was a little weird since the entire book is from Avery's POV. I know it's a romance, but I didn't love that Avery decided one thing then immediately went the other way with it. Overall, it's a cute holiday read.… (mais)

This was really good! This book picks up shortly after the events of the first book so you will definitely want to read the series in order. Sigrid is such a great character and she has a lot of overwhelming situations to deal with in this book and I couldn’t wait to see what she would do next. The story was really exciting with a ton of action to keep the pages turning. I am so glad that I found this entertaining YA series.

Things have changed dramatically for Sigrid since the previous book in the series. She is back home and has brought her friends Mariam and Fisk after a quick quest to rescue Ratatosk. Things change quickly when her aunt is crowned queen and asks Sigrid to move into the palace. Before long, they are under attack and Sigrid becomes a leader, along with the war horse Sleipnir. Unfortunately, they will have a lot of challenges to face before the story draws to a close.

Sigrid and the other characters go through so many things in this installment. I feel like Sigrid showed a lot of growth over the course of this story. I was thrilled by the progress in Sigrid and Mariam’s relationship and was pleased to find a few other romances sprinkled around the supporting cast of characters.

Overall, this was a very enjoyable read. I thought that this book brought the story to a satisfying conclusion but left the door open for future installments. I wouldn’t hesitate to pick up more of this entertaining series.

I received a digital review copy of this book from Entangled: Teen.… (mais)

Originally posted on Just Geeking by.


Content warnings:
There is a death of a horse and some moments where horses are handled badly, bordering on being mistreated.

I have always been drawn to books based on mythology and folklore, and the gorgeous cover for The Helheim Princess drew me in just as much as the title did. I’ve become quite familiar with the goddess Hel and Helheim through various fictional interpretations, and I was curious to see what this one was like!

I wanted to like this book more than I did because it has a beautiful sapphic love story, some great characters, and wonderful Norse world-building, but the sad reality is that it is chock-full of YA tropes. The first problem straight out of the gate is that the title and the synopsis gives the plot away immediately. You’re probably thinking, hold on a second, The Helheim Princess is for teen readers, and you’re a thirty-something year old woman. Of course, it seems obvious to you! Sorry, but teenagers aren’t idiots. This novel is listed as being for 12 to 17-year-olds on Amazon, and while I can see readers of the younger end of that age bracket not piecing things together, I can tell you from experience that older teens definitely will.

Despite the predictable plot, The Helheim Princess was an enjoyable read. I feel that it suffered from what I call ‘first book syndrome’, where the author sticks to a very basic plot to get the protagonist’s original story out and get them in position for book two. In this book, Sigrid finds out who she is, follows her destiny and decides who she wants to be, while falling in love, making friends and learning a few hard lessons along the way. It is a very typical coming of age story, so what made The Helheim Princess different enough for me to give it a decent rating? Well, that would be the world-building.

Warner has created a unique and magical interpretation of Norse mythology and the nine worlds, and offers an insight into her creative process at the end of the book. It was interesting to see where her path took her from original sources and academic texts as she explained how one of the few two sources we have of Norse folklore was written by a Christian, and the other, a primary source, is filled with gaps. The world she has created in The Helheim Princess is her interpretation of these sources and an attempt to fill in some of the gaps, creatively. The result is a fantastic world where baby Valkyries are born at the exact same time as a winged mare, rather than them being the traditional “chooser of the slain”. Instead, they are guardians, warriors who protect the nine realms. For the most part, the nine realms are the same, with a few changes here and there.

This is also a book for horse lovers. Warner is a lifelong rider, and it shows in every scene. She brings all that experience to provide authentic, fast-paced action scenes with the horses, and they are probably the best I’ve seen in a fantasy novel.

An easy read with lovely characters and a great romance, The Helheim Princess might not have scored high for me as an individual book, however it definitely put The Helheim Prophecy series, and it’s author Tiana Warner on my radar. I’ll certainly be keeping my eye out for book two because I want to see where Sigrid and Mariam’s story goes, and spend more time in the world Warner has created.


For more of my reviews please visit my blog!… (mais)

TW/CW: Fantasy violence, child abandonment, scary sequences

RATING: 2/5

REVIEW: The Valkyrie’s Daughter is the story of Sigrid, an orphan and stable girl who dreams of joining the Valkyries. When her town is attacked and she accidentally sees a prophecy, she heads off on her way to find her cosmic destiny.

This book was disappointing to me. It sounded so good from the description, but the book and story did not really deliver. Sigrid was a terribly annoying character who didn’t change at all and never really saw her mistakes as what they were. Her relationship with Mariam came out of nowhere and was a sort of ‘instaship’. Her training with her mother – which was so important – was only five days, a ridiculously short time for a training montage. There was really no tension in the book…something would start to build and it would resolve itself way too fast. I couldn’t find connection with any of the characters. And if the author referred to cheeks as ‘apples’ one more time I was going to throw the book across the room.

This is one of those books that is all the more maddening because it had the potential to be good. The writing wasn’t bad. The characters had the potential to be interesting (even though they really didn’t end up being that way). There were some parts of the mythology that were also interesting, but we really didn’t get into them.

This was not a book I’d recommend.… (mais)