Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Urban Fantasy Romance
Length: 516 pages
Author: Randi Garner
Publisher: Self published
Release Date: April 28th, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

No gods or curses will keep them from each other.

Naia, the daughter of the High Sea Goddess, is an embarrassment. She holds no title and no power but is the key to a curse placed centuries ago on her mother: Naia must form a union with a god from an opposing family.

When the day arrives for her arranged marriage, she turns to the High God of Death and Curses for help.

He assists Naia under one condition—she must accept a curse, blindly. Willing to do whatever it takes to escape her mother’s kingdom beneath the sea, Naia agrees and flees to the Mortal Land.

When she wakes up in Ronin Kahale’s childhood home, she’s greeted by the warm, welcoming twenty-eight-year-old mortal. Distrustful of Ronin and his selfless hospitality, she’s convinced there’s more to him than what he’s sharing.

However, he’s her one-way ticket into Hollow City, an ominous concrete jungle infested with witches. Somewhere among its streets lies Finnian, Naia’s younger brother and the only one capable of helping her hide from their cruel mother.

Naia desperately tries not to care for another mortal, but as her life intertwines with Ronin’s, she questions the lengths she will go to keep him safe from the gods who hunt her down—and the curse that looms over her.

With gods, though, everything comes with a price.

The Goddess Of is not intended for readers under 18 years of age. Please check content warnings as some material may be sensitive for some readers.

Thank you Book of Matches Media and the author for the gifted copy!

COVER OBSESSION.

The way I am obsessed with this cover y’all. It’s the reason I picked this book up and I found a pretty good story inside too. This was a debut where I enjoyed the writing style and endeared me enough to be curious about the next book in the series (which I believe follows a new couple).

This wasn’t a FANTASY book for me though. It’s much more urban fantasy with a lot of contemporary amenities like cars, cell phones, etc. That threw me a bit, but it worked for the story. I liked seeing Naia navigate everything and make friends and find a home with those around her. I love the way the theme came full circle of Naia finding what she’s the goddess of. It’s such a clever title and the “ah-ha” moment was fantastic. She’s a soft spot in a dark fantasy and I enjoyed that contrast.

The romance was a bit more insta-attraction than I generally enjoy, but I was endeared as the pages went on. This had a fated romance quality to it and I really liked Ronin. I loved finding out his secrets and seeing some of that world building unfold. There’s some flashback chapters that set the stage well and added to Naia’s character.

I did find a few pacing issues where I felt like the timeline kept going from short to long and lacked a little flow. I do love a dark fantasy though and this had a lot of those qualities as well. I liked the story and themes a lot and will definitely be following the author to see what’s next.

Overall audience notes:

• Fantasy Romance
• Language: low
• Romance: 2ish open door; fade to black
• Violence: high
• Content Warnings: verbal/physical/emotional abuse, pregnancy/childbirth, plenty of blood/gore, sexual abuse, loss of life, suicidal ideation, grief, PTSD

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