Review Detail

I received this book from Strange Chemistry in return for an honest review.

I had been wanting to dig into this book for quite a while but with classes starting up and other review books taking priority I didn't get into it until now. Boy am I sorry I wasted so much time when I could be reading this book. It seems everything I have gotten from Strange Chemistry seems to be a really good read.

Imagine, if you will, a world in which magic is not just possible but a comfortable familiarity. Magic surges that cause electronics such as electricity, cars, and the like to go on the fritz and sometimes die completely is a common occurrence in Kyra's world. For some unknown reason, the gods of myth and legend are awake after an extremely long siesta. They come back with a vengeance and it is only the dutiful work of the Society of the Sun that keeps them in check. The Society makes an example of a single god by showing that the relics they had collected even before the gods awoke can not just wound them but send them into the Afterlife permanently. The immortal gods are no more it would see.

Kyra knows her father works as a library for the Society and that because of that his duties as a parent have become extremely lacking. Add to that a crazy mother who keeps her distance from her only daughter out of vision-driven madness. Kyra is utterly alone in her life, except for her close friends Bree and Tam.

She was accepting of her life and her mission to gain her father's attention, even if it is to be negative attention, comes to end abruptly when she is confronted by gods she has only ever seen on TV. Thankfully a ruggedly handsome Society operative, Oz, comes to her rescue. Kyra soon finds out that Oz's appearance was not as simple as a happy coincidence. He was sent to fetch her and bring her back to the Society. There Kyra learns of her father's thief of a powerful relic and his subsequent disappearance. Kyra feels she must get to the bottom of this mystery and find her father. With the help of Oz, Bree, and Tam she sets forth on a journey that will bring her face-to-face with horrific gods she never thought possible.

This book was easy to fall in love with from the start. Any book about mythology seems to intrigue me and draw me in. I found Kyra melancholy feelings toward the importance of her own life to be frustrating. I understand that with her parents never being there for her she has learned to be self-reliant but did she also have to learn to be so self-loathing as well. She was constantly blaming herself for everything, even sweating the small stuff that didn't matter in the end. She was a hard character to like. Fortunately, she had Oz to counter-balance her. Oz's faith in Kyra and the way he felt about her made me step away from her deputy downer personality and see her a little differently. I think that is artfully done for an author to take a slightly less appealing character and show them in a different light with the help of a well liked character. The book as a whole, dragged me into a world I want to read more of. I want to know what happens next. Sequel, please!

The Woken Gods will make it's readers wonder about the validity of such a world. Are there truly gods in reality? Are they just sleeping? Is there a chance they could awaken some day?

Review Posted on: http://www.ladybugliterature.blogspot.com