Between the Blade and the Heart Blog Tour | Review, Excerpt, & Giveaway!

Greetings readers!

This is my first blog tour and I am very excited about it! I had the wonderful opportunity to read a new release, and share with you some fun treats, including an excerpt and a giveaway!

Between the Blade and the Heart by Amanda Hocking

When the fate of the world is at stake
Loyalties will be tested

Game of Thrones meets Blade Runner in this commanding new YA fantasy inspired by Norse Mythology from New York Times bestselling author Amanda Hocking.

As one of Odin’s Valkyries, Malin’s greatest responsibility is to slay immortals and return them to the underworld. But when she unearths a secret that could unravel the balance of all she knows, Malin along with her best friend and her ex-girlfriend must decide where their loyalties lie. And if helping the blue-eyed boy Asher enact his revenge is worth the risk—to the world and her heart.

Buy It!:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble |Books-a-Million |IndieBound | Powells

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Review

What I Liked:

Characters: 

Malin: Malin was an interesting character to follow. She was born to kill immortals as her job and she’s trained her whole life for it. Raised by a mother who really did not come off as “motherly”, Malin grew up to be thick skinned. She was definitely flawed, I’ll tell you that. Tough, angry and would-not-take-any-kind-of-BS are just a few ways to describe her. Her biggest flaw was believing she could not fall in love, just feel surface emotions which evidently led to many problems in the rest of the story!

Other characters like Malin’s best friend Oona, her ex-girlfriend Quinn and her new ally Asher brought in fun, quirky and intense moments to the story. They guided and supported Malin on her journey to revenge and you know, “save the world!” My personal favourite was Oona, she was the human of the group with no real physical strength to fight, but she had really amazing sorceress powers that I would love to find out more about!

Norse Mythology: I love all kinds of mythology and Norse Mythology is one I would really like to know more about. Although this book does not focus too much on the mainstream gods that most people know of, this book dives deep into the creatures and other immortals of the Norse. Hocking did a great job of introducing all these types of immortals and describing how they would come to influence Malin’s journey. Plus, I love that the names of creatures, weapons and immortals are written in an old Norse language, which gives it a little more authenticity!

Pace: It was fast, it was head first into the battle and there was never really a dull moment. After things would begin to calm down another event would come up making me just continue to read and read and read!

What I Disliked:

The Love Triangle: This is not your typical triangle because it’s not centered on two straight relationships. Malin is bisexual, so contending for heart is her gorgeous and ferocious ex-girlfriend Quinn and the New Guy with stunning blue eyes, and yep you guessed it, very muscular build, Asher. So while this triangle was more interesting than others….I still could have done without it! It added a whole lot of angst where there was no need and the romance tended to overshadow some more important things like fighting the evil monsters!

Confusing World: So I think this is really my fault, but this setting was not exactly what I was expecting. It is set in our world, but the Norse gods, creatures, and immortals live “peacefully” among humans and some schools are focused on teaching Norse history and magic and fighting and……yeah. I was just really confused about whether the world in the book was like the world today, or if it was set in another dimension or…I don’t really know…..

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Overall, I really enjoyed this book! It was fun, fast, adventurous, perhaps a tad angst-y, but we are dealing with young adults here! XD I look forward to the sequel, which I think will dive even deeper into the mythology and history of the gods and the worlds they inhabit!

Rating: 3.75 / 5 stars

Recommend: Looking for a new kind of mythology to get into, then try this one for a start!

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Giveaway!

One lucky winner will get one finished, paperback copy of Between the Blade and the Heart!

This is only open to my lovely US friends (sorry, my other lovely friends!) Please fill out the rafflecopter form below if you are interested! This giveaway will run for a week! You have lots of chances to enter, so enter! Enter! Enter!

Enter Here

The winner will have 48 hours to respond to me with their information or I will choose another winner! Please note: I will need your consent to share your mailing address with the publisher to get the book to you! 

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Author Info…

Author Bio:

Amanda Hocking is the author of over twenty young adult novels, including the New York Times bestselling Trylle Trilogy and Kanin Chronicles. Her love of pop culture and all things paranormal influence her writing. She spends her time in Minnesota, taking care of her menagerie of pets and working on her next book.

 

Social Links:

Author Website: http://www.worldofamandahocking.com/

Twitter: @Amanda_Hocking

Facebook: @AmandaHockingFans

Author Blog

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And some final fun….

Excerpt!

ONE

The air reeked of fermented fish and rotten fruit, thanks to the overflowing dumpster from the restaurant behind us. The polluted alley felt narrow and claustrophobic, sandwiched between skyscrapers.

In the city, it was never quiet or peaceful, even at three in the morning. There were more than thirty million humans and supernatural beings coexisting, living on top of each other. It was the only life I’d ever really known, but the noise of the congestion grated on me tonight.

My eyes were locked on the flickering neon lights of the gambling parlor across the street. The u in Shibuya had gone out, so the sign flashed SHIB YA at me.

The sword sheathed at my side felt heavy, and my body felt restless and electric. I couldn’t keep from fidgeting and cracked my knuckles.

“He’ll be here soon,” my mother, Marlow, assured me. She leaned back against the brick wall beside me, casually eating large jackfruit seeds from a brown paper sack. Always bring a snack on a stakeout was one of her first lessons, but I was far too nervous and excited to eat.

The thick cowl of her frayed black sweater had been pulled up like a hood, covering her cropped blond hair from the icy mist that fell on us. Her tall leather boots only went to her calf, thanks to her long legs. Her style tended to be monochromatic—black on black on black—aside from the shock of dark red lipstick.

My mother was only a few years shy of her fiftieth birthday, with almost thirty years of experience working as a Valkyrie, and she was still as strong and vital as ever. On her hip, her sword Mördare glowed a dull red through its sheath.

The sword of the Valkyries was one that appeared as if it had been broken in half—its blade only a foot long before stopping at a sharp angle. Mördare’s blade was several thousand years old, forged in fires to look like red glass that would glow when the time was nigh.

My sword was called Sigrún, a present on my eighteenth birthday from Marlow. It was a bit shorter than Mördare, with a thicker blade, so it appeared stubby and fat. The handle was black utilitarian, a replacement that my mom had had custom-made from an army supply store, to match her own.

The ancient blade appeared almost black, but as it grew closer to its target, it would glow a vibrant purple. For the past hour that we’d been waiting on our stakeout, Sigrún had been glowing dully on my hip.

The mist grew heavier, soaking my long black hair. I kept the left side of my head shaved, parting my hair over to the right, and my scalp should’ve been freezing from the cold, but I didn’t feel it. I didn’t feel anything.

It had begun—the instinct of the Valkyrie, pushing aside my humanity to become a weapon. When the Valkyrie in me took over, I was little more than a scythe for the Grim Reaper of the gods.

“He’s coming,” Marlow said behind me, but I already knew.

The world fell into hyperfocus, and I could see every droplet of rain as it splashed toward the ground. Every sound echoed through me, from the bird flapping its wings a block away, to the club door as it groaned open.

Eleazar Bélanger stumbled out, his heavy feet clomping in the puddles. He was chubby and short, barely over four feet tall, and he would’ve appeared to be an average middle-aged man if it wasn’t for the two knobby horns that stuck out on either side of his forehead. Graying tufts of black hair stuck out from under a bright red cap, and as he walked ahead, he had a noticeable limp favoring his right leg.

He was a Trasgu, a troublemaking goblin, and his appearance belied the strength and cunning that lurked within him. He was over three hundred years old, and today would be the day he died.

I waited in the shadows of the alley for him to cross the street. A coughing fit caused him to double over, and he braced himself against the brick wall.

I approached him quietly—this all went easier when they didn’t have time to prepare. He took off his hat to use it to wipe the snot from his nose, and when he looked up at me, his green eyes flashed with understanding.

“It’s you,” Eleazar said in a weak, craggy voice. We’d never met, and I doubt he’d ever seen me before, but he recognized me, the way they all did when their time was up.

“Eleazar Bélanger, you have been chosen to die,” I said, reciting my script, the words automatic and cold on my lips. “It is my duty to return you to the darkness from whence you came.”

“No, wait!” He held up his pudgy hands at me. “I have money. I can pay you. We can work this out.”

“This is not my decision to make,” I said as I pulled the sword from my sheath.

His eyes widened as he realized I couldn’t be bargained with. For a moment I thought he might just accept his fate, but they rarely did. He bowed his head and ran at me like a goat. He was stronger than he looked and caused me to stumble back a step, but he didn’t have anywhere to go.

My mother stood blocking the mouth of the alley, in case I needed her. Eleazar tried to run toward the other end, but his leg slowed him, and I easily overtook him. Using the handle of my sword, I cracked him on the back of the skull, and he fell to the ground on his knees.

Sigrún glowed brightly, with light shining out from it and causing the air to glow purple around us. Eleazar mumbled a prayer to the Vanir gods. I held the sword with both hands, and I struck it across his neck, decapitating him.

And then, finally, the electricity that had filled my body, making my muscles quiver and my bones ache, left me, and I breathed in deeply. The corpse of an immortal goblin lay in a puddle at my feet, and I felt nothing but relief.

“It was a good return,” my mother said, and put her hand on my shoulder. “You did well, Malin.”

Copyright © 2018 by Amanda Hocking in Between the Blade and the Heart and reprinted by permission of St. Martin’s Griffin.

Let me know what you think! What is a mythology you would like to read more about? Are you interested in picking this one up? The sequel is coming in March so it is not too long a wait to read the finale!

Happy reading!

~ Rendz