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Rune Awakening (The Necromancer’s Daughter – Book 1)
by Genevra Black
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Urban Fantasy
Available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited
Down and Dirty
A bit complicated, but entertaining. Read it.
What is it about?
Edie Holloway is a normal girl living a normal, if boring, life… or so she thinks. That all changes the night a gun-totting reverent crashes her apartment, yelling about duty, slavery, her Father and something about her sick hamster, Hervey. Suddenly, everything she knew, or thought she knew, is upended. Monsters are chasing her, powerful people want to talk to her and the entire world looks different. The veil that had carefully shrouded Edie from the dark has been ripped aside… and she has no idea how she is going to survive it.
Thoughts
This book stumped me at first. There is SO MUCH going on, and so much information thrown onto the pages I struggled to make sense of it, or to keep up. Then somewhere around page 100, I realized I was fully hooked and beyond curious. Edie’s life, which had been so incredibly normal just hours before, is shaken, stirred and then poured into a canter of supernatural mischief, intrigue and apocalyptic level danger.
The best part? A Female Main Character actually responds appropriately in an Urban Fantasy novel, for once! Instead of blindly accepting that fate is messing with her, or that she has some grand duty, Edie steps back, shakes her head and tosses a solid WTF?! right back at the powers that be. Oh, she gets it together and succumbs to the whims of destiny eventually, but how many times have you been reading one of these books and thought to yourself, “Hey! No… that is NOT how you respond!!”
The author does a spectacular job of expressing Edie’s confusion, along with the struggles faced by the other characters strewn throughout the narrative. The plot is unique and lore heavy, pulling from pantheons left and right. Gods, vampires, elves, valkyries, werewolves, witches, zombies – they are all here, and they all play an important role in the lattice work of this world. While they may feel familiar to connoisseurs of the UF genre, their place and their mythos is twisted and revamped to suit this fascinating universe, building a foundation for the rest of the series – and possibly spin off works.
Honestly, I can’t wait to read book 2!
Perspective
Third person, Multiple POV
Pros:
- Complex and detailed – the research required here is staggering.
- Fumbling FMC who actually has the whole ‘Wtf??!’ attitude, at least in the beginning.
- Cal… love him? Hate him? I’m not sure, but he’s a great character!
- Marius… WHO is this guy?
- Is this a Paranormal Romance? Straight UF? RH? Who knows?! FMC surely doesn’t, and it doesn’t matter – this book is all about action and the secret world hedging closer and closer to destruction.
Cons:
- The pantheons and lore get confusing, along with the terms. Read the glossary.
- Suffers from information overload, as many intro books to a new series do.
- Took around 100 pages to really START to get a handle on what was going on.
- As of this posting, no word on Book 2 yet.
Favorite Line
“It’s a Samsung, Cal, not Saruman.” (39%)
Verdict
I really enjoyed this book, eventually. At first, I thought it was going to be a DNF (Did Not Finish) novel, but there was something about Edie, not to mention the gun-totting Reverent, Cal, that kept me reading. Thankfully. It morphed from an ‘eh’ book to a ‘Read this!’ book along the way, and I happily endorse it for your TBR (To Be Read) queue.
Published: January 2nd, 2019
368 Pages
Your Turn
What are you reading today? Have you read ‘Rune Awakening’? What did you think? Do you have any great recommendations for me? Leave a comment, send me a message – let’s talk!
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