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A review by nicolemhewitt
Grimnirs by Ednah Walters
4.0
This review and many others can be found on my blog - Feed Your Fiction Addiction
***This review may contain spoilers for the first two books in the series.***
First off, I want to say that, even though this book is called book # 2.5, it's a full-length book and I think it's a necessary read if you're reading this series. I think the author only called it book 2.5 because the story steps away (somewhat) from Raine and Torin, who are essentially the "stars" of the series.
I also want to point out that this book makes a pretty major jump as far as content is concerned (at least in my opinion). The sex in this book is not as explicit as some 18+ books, but it's getting there - it's described in a fair amount of detail (and is recurring). I was a bit surprised since the first book had nothing more than kissing and the second had talk of sex, but nothing more than that. So, just a little note here to warn people that this series has definitely gotten more spicy as it's gone on.
The synopsis describes the book relatively well, so I'm just going to jump into my review -
The negatives:
Didn't feel completely original.
While I really enjoyed this book, some of it felt a bit rehashed. Just like with Raine and Torin, we have an immortal and a mortal who are in love. The relationship didn't ever feel terribly doomed because we knew that Raine eventually ended up being immortal and I found myself pretty much assuming that the same thing would happen with Cora. Then, Cora doesn't remember "her" life (since Maliina actually took it over for a while), which reminded me a lot of when Torin had his memories erased by the Norns - yes, the circumstances were very different, but there were some real similarities. Even poor Eirik getting jilted for the bad boy was nothing new (one of my least favorite things about book #1 in the series! At least this time Eirik wasn't in the book enough for me to spend the whole time feeling sorry for him).
Dialogue without contractions.
Okay, this is a total pet peeve of mine, but it really bugs me when I read a book and the dialogue doesn't have contractions in it. This seems to happen often in self- or indie-published books and it drives me crazy! It just doesn't sound natural and it really interrupts the flow of the dialogue. There were a few other minor grammatical and editing issues as well, but this is the biggest one (and yes, I consider this an editing issue).
What I loved:
Cora vs. Maliina.
I thought it was fun to see Cora try and figure out why everyone seems to think she was still around the whole time she was in the psych ward. She has no idea that Maliina took over her life for almost a month. I did wonder a bit why Raine didn't just tell her exactly what happened right away (that would have been way too easy), but it was interesting to see Cora try to put the pieces together. She suddenly had new friends, a guy who claims she's been sleeping with him, better grades ... the list goes on and on. Maliina changed a lot about Cora's life considering she only took it over for such a short amount of time!
Echo.
Despite the fact that I felt sorry for Eirik, I did love Echo. He was the perfect bad boy with a heart of gold. His initial interactions with Cora were fun because he thought he'd been sleeping with her (though it was really Maliina) - obviously Cora's responses toward him aren't quite what he's expecting (and vice versa!). As we get to know Echo more, it's pretty impossible not to love him - he's sweet and sexy and fiercely protective (okay, sometimes a little over-the-top protective) and he only has eyes for Cora. The chemistry between Cora and Echo is also through the roof, so that certainly doesn't hurt!
World-building.
I loved that we got to see more of the Immortals' world in this book and learn more about how it all works. Grimnirs, Valkyries, Norns, gods and goddesses ... these mythological characters are all incredibly interesting and I loved seeing MORE of them!
All in all, I'd say this is another great installment in the Runes series. While I didn't think that the story was groundbreaking, Walters still managed to draw me in and make me care about her characters. I give it 4/5 stars.
***Disclosure: This book was provided to me by the author in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was given. All opinions are my own***
***This review may contain spoilers for the first two books in the series.***
First off, I want to say that, even though this book is called book # 2.5, it's a full-length book and I think it's a necessary read if you're reading this series. I think the author only called it book 2.5 because the story steps away (somewhat) from Raine and Torin, who are essentially the "stars" of the series.
I also want to point out that this book makes a pretty major jump as far as content is concerned (at least in my opinion). The sex in this book is not as explicit as some 18+ books, but it's getting there - it's described in a fair amount of detail (and is recurring). I was a bit surprised since the first book had nothing more than kissing and the second had talk of sex, but nothing more than that. So, just a little note here to warn people that this series has definitely gotten more spicy as it's gone on.
The synopsis describes the book relatively well, so I'm just going to jump into my review -
The negatives:
Didn't feel completely original.
While I really enjoyed this book, some of it felt a bit rehashed. Just like with Raine and Torin, we have an immortal and a mortal who are in love. The relationship didn't ever feel terribly doomed because we knew that Raine eventually ended up being immortal and I found myself pretty much assuming that the same thing would happen with Cora. Then, Cora doesn't remember "her" life (since Maliina actually took it over for a while), which reminded me a lot of when Torin had his memories erased by the Norns - yes, the circumstances were very different, but there were some real similarities. Even poor Eirik getting jilted for the bad boy was nothing new (one of my least favorite things about book #1 in the series! At least this time Eirik wasn't in the book enough for me to spend the whole time feeling sorry for him).
Dialogue without contractions.
Okay, this is a total pet peeve of mine, but it really bugs me when I read a book and the dialogue doesn't have contractions in it. This seems to happen often in self- or indie-published books and it drives me crazy! It just doesn't sound natural and it really interrupts the flow of the dialogue. There were a few other minor grammatical and editing issues as well, but this is the biggest one (and yes, I consider this an editing issue).
What I loved:
Cora vs. Maliina.
I thought it was fun to see Cora try and figure out why everyone seems to think she was still around the whole time she was in the psych ward. She has no idea that Maliina took over her life for almost a month. I did wonder a bit why Raine didn't just tell her exactly what happened right away (that would have been way too easy), but it was interesting to see Cora try to put the pieces together. She suddenly had new friends, a guy who claims she's been sleeping with him, better grades ... the list goes on and on. Maliina changed a lot about Cora's life considering she only took it over for such a short amount of time!
Echo.
Despite the fact that I felt sorry for Eirik, I did love Echo. He was the perfect bad boy with a heart of gold. His initial interactions with Cora were fun because he thought he'd been sleeping with her (though it was really Maliina) - obviously Cora's responses toward him aren't quite what he's expecting (and vice versa!). As we get to know Echo more, it's pretty impossible not to love him - he's sweet and sexy and fiercely protective (okay, sometimes a little over-the-top protective) and he only has eyes for Cora. The chemistry between Cora and Echo is also through the roof, so that certainly doesn't hurt!
World-building.
I loved that we got to see more of the Immortals' world in this book and learn more about how it all works. Grimnirs, Valkyries, Norns, gods and goddesses ... these mythological characters are all incredibly interesting and I loved seeing MORE of them!
All in all, I'd say this is another great installment in the Runes series. While I didn't think that the story was groundbreaking, Walters still managed to draw me in and make me care about her characters. I give it 4/5 stars.
***Disclosure: This book was provided to me by the author in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was given. All opinions are my own***