Disclaimer: I received no compensation from the author, publisher, Free Ebooks for an Honest Review, or Netgalley for this honest review.
About the Book
Seventeen-year-old Raine Cooper has enough on her plate dealing with her father’s disappearance, her mother’s erratic behavior and the possibility of her boyfriend relocating. The last thing she needs is Torin St. James—a mysterious new neighbor with a wicked smile and uncanny way of reading her.
Raine is drawn to Torin’s dark sexiness against her better judgment, until he saves her life with weird marks and she realizes he is different. But by healing her, Torin changes something inside Raine. Now she can’t stop thinking about him. Half the time, she’s not sure whether to fall into his arms or run.
Scared, she sets out to find out what Torin is. But the closer she gets to the truth the more she uncovers something sinister about him. What Torin is goes back to an ancient mythology and Raine is somehow part of it. Not only is she and her friends in danger, she must choose a side, but the wrong choice will cost Raine her life
Here's what I'm giving it:
Rating: 3.5 stars
Here's why:
This is the first of two reviews that I'm doing for Ebooks For Reviews. Also, I originally received Runes via Netgalley back in 2013.
What I like about this first book is the fact that Norse mythology is used. I'm a huge fan of mythology (no matter the country) and especially of the pantheons that aren't often covered in fiction.
With that being said, I'd like to dive in to some of the good moments of this book. The main character, Rain with an E, is of the sassy breed of heroine that I like to dive into. The way she sparred with Torin St. James (her male counterpart) was refreshing.
She wasn't intimidated by him at all. If anything, her emotional response to him scared her more than his bad boy demeanor.
The secondary characters, Cora & Eirick, were well-fleshed out and were great foils to Raine.
Some of the other characters were not as developed which leads me to one of my peeves about stories. If you're going to use characters, please have them be more than a token drop in the bucket. The "baddies" were not very threatening and then some of them appeared and were going in the blink of the eye.
Also the romantic parts for certain characters felt rushed and awkward. Other than that, this was a good solid read.
Some of the other characters were not as developed which leads me to one of my peeves about stories. If you're going to use characters, please have them be more than a token drop in the bucket. The "baddies" were not very threatening and then some of them appeared and were going in the blink of the eye.
Also the romantic parts for certain characters felt rushed and awkward. Other than that, this was a good solid read.
Would I recommend this book? Yes, I'm reading the second one as we speak.
