Between the Blade and the Heart: Valkyrie Book One (Valkyrie, #1)

by Amanda Hocking

Game of Thrones meets Thor: Ragnarok in Between the Blade and the Heart, a gripping story of love and revenge from Amanda Hocking, author of the Trylle trilogy and the Kanin Chronicles.

Malin is a Valkyrie-in-training. It's her responsibility to slay immortals, returning them to the afterlife to maintain balance in the world. She also struggles to maintain balance in her own life - between her studies, her duties as a Valkyrie and her conflicting feelings for her ex-girlfriend.

But when a beguiling stranger breaks into her home on a quest for vengeance, Malin's carefully balanced life falls apart. Asher is hunting the rogue immortal who murdered his mother, and he thinks Malin may have information. Her loyalties are tested, as she uncovers a betrayal that unravels everything she thought she knew. And she must decide if helping the mysterious Asher enact his revenge is worth the risk - to the world, and to her heart.

• ISBN10: 1250084792
• ISBN13: 9781250084798
• Publish Date: 2 January 2018
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 1 August 2022
• Imprint: Wednesday Books
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 336
• Language: English

Reviews

[readingwithwrin]

3.5 stars

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

Between the Blade and the Heart is Hockings new fantasy series. I have started her Kanin Chronicles and plan to finish it this year and so far have really enjoyed it. So when I got the chance to read/review and be apart of a blog tour for this one I was really excited.


This world is very different from her other series I believe as this one now deals with Mythology and Fantasy elements at the same time. As this is the first in a series we get a lot of information and it was a little confusing at times with a lot of new terms and a whole new world. Some things from the human world are still apart of this and humans are mentioned quite a bit as Valkyrie's are just humans with super strength and the ability to use certain weapons. There are also a lot of Immortals that are demons, etc. this means that the Valkyrie have to send these Immortals back to the underworld when they are supposed to die as they can otherwise life forever and take over the human world. The main character Malin is still in training and her mom is supposed to be helping her but they have a strained relationship and her mom hasn't always done what she's told which ends up being a whole mess that Malin has to take care of with some help from her friends. I don't want to go too much into the word because I think that's part of the excitement of starting a new duology and I don't want to give too much away.

Overall I enjoyed this book. I could have done without the love triangle and so much emphasis being put on the romance when they really should have been focused on saving the world and dealing with all that after the fact. I did like that the main character was aware of the problems that she had, and that she was openly BI as that is something we're still not seeing much of in YA. I love Malin's friendship with her roommate and how a few of the other side characters ended up helping her out when she didn't feel like she could ask anyone in charge for help. I can't wait to see what happens in the next book after that cliff-hanger at the end. Why do you do this to me, Hocking? I need answers!

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[tweetybugshouse]

This is an exciting buffy the vampire slayer kind of novel. I not sure why we get the comparison to blade runner with a games of thrones reference as i did not get that at all. I did thoroughly enjoy the novel, We got malin who is in training to carry out death sentences for those people who she been told number is up. She not the judge just the person carrying out the death sentence. Then she finds out that her mom has failed at least once to do this. End result she has to go out and take care of the problem that now been created by this. So the whole story ends up centering around Malin going into the underworld so to speak to take care of business and then we end up with a cliff hanger that ends up having you want the next book like yesterday. I enjoyed all of amanda tyrlle series and this one was just as good.