ARC #Review: ARCTIC DAWN by Karissa Laurel

ARCTIC DAWN

Author: Karissa Laurel
Series: The Norse Chronicles #2
Source: eARC via the Author
Publisher: Red Adept Publishing
Publication Date: July 5, 2016
Rating: 3/5 stars

Summary:
Alone and exhausted after her month-long sojourn as a shooting star, Solina Mundy flees to southern California to lie low, recuperate, and plot a survival strategy. The one person she trusts to watch her back is her best friend, Skyla Ramirez. But Skyla has been missing for weeks.

The arrival of a dangerous stranger and the discovery of a legendary weapon of mass destruction forces Solina out of hiding and back into the fight for her life. Solina knows she won’t last long on her own. She must find out what happened to Skyla and unite her contentious allies if she hopes to track down this devastating weapon before her enemies use it to burn the world to ash.

Purchase:

Amazon | Chapters

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is the second book in the series! See my review of MIDNIGHT BURNING!

I definitely enjoyed reading this one but it also gave me a bit of a headache. There was so much happening that I couldn't keep track of everyone or everything. I think there is a good concept here and I enjoy the look at Norse mythology but I sometimes think there is too much of it and explanations of it that really hinder the story from growing in a way that is natural and feels right to me.

I think the characters are all really well developed. I liked that Solina really found her stride here and started to make decisions that everyone else (semi) agreed with and they listened to what she had to say. Solina was also doing more proactively to try and save herself. She also was angry at the right times and sympathetic at others. I had a really good grasp on what made her tick and what she would do for others.

I feel like the secondary characters developed a lot more as well in this one and we really got to see everyone's true colours. I am a huge fan of Thorin and it was nice to see the subtle shift of his feelings for Solina. Especially with the amnesia at the end. I thought Skyla's development was meh and kinda quick. It was also obvious that she was the Valkriye just from how the story was progressing. In that sense, it was also obvious that Val was "evil" and Loki's son. I pretty much thought that from the beginning until he was supposed to be Odinson and then was like "I bet it's revealed he's not." 

I thought there was a lot of convenience in terms of characters though and they were always spread out in pairs so that they wouldn't be too powerful imo. It was as though every time they were heading into battle, something else came up and they had to be separated as a group. This made the fights "more fair" or whatever but started to irk me after the second time it happened (which, I think it was a total of four times). 

Also there was SO MUCH HAPPENING. It was really hard to keep track of what should be important and what should be overlooked because both those things got equal screen time. Should I be that concerned about Nina? What about the wolves? The Valkrieye? What is most important for me to focus on? Shouldn't it actually be Helen?? You know, the evil woman who wants to START THE APOCALYPSE AGAIN?? I just felt like there was too much drawing my attention away from what was important and not enough focus on the main plot of the story.

I really liked the exposition of Norse Mythology (and the fact that I got to picture Chris Hemsworth while reading this because DAYMN BOY) but I did think there was too much happening in this one with not enough time to really focus on what was truly important. I would recommend checking out this series if you are looking for something different, but maybe have a notebook handy to keep track of the different plot lines and where everyone is.