Midnight Burning (Norse Chronicles, #1)

by Karissa Laurel

[brokentune]

"I inventoried my attire: one huge T-shirt bearing the logo of Thorin Adventure Outfitters. The T-shirt was the entirety of my wardrobe. Inventory concluded.
“After you help me to the couch, your mission is to find me some pants,” I said. “I don’t even want to know how I got in this state.”
“Thorin—” Skyla began, but I signaled for her to hush.
“Like I said, I don’t want to know.” "

I admit that I bought this book purely because I love the cover. Yes, I am that fickle. This isn't even a genre I normally read, and to date is probably the only paranormal urban fantasy book I have read.
What is even more surprising is that I really liked this story of a young girl travelling to Alaska to pack up the belongings of her brother who recently died under strange circumstances.
Once she arrives, Solina is drawn into the wild world that her brother was part of and decides to find out more about his death. This comes at a high cost as Solina's own life is threatened by forces beyond her expectations.
Seriously, this storyline would have had me running for the hills. In the book's own words:

"It was about as believable as a lion wearing bunny ears."

However, the story was written in such a funny and charming way that I found it really engaging - the book did not try to be literary fiction and instead embraced being a fun read:

"She unlocked a door and towed out a silver and neon-green kayak. “This is Molly.” “Your kayak has a name?”
“It’s good luck.”
“I thought that was only for ships.”
“Shhh,” Skyla said, patting her boat. “She thinks she is a ship.” "

And just when I thought the story would turn into your middle of the road werewolf legend, Midnight Burning hooked me Norse mythology that was detailed enough to make want to research further legends of the same origin. Norse mythology - who'd have thought it could work even though the setting of Alaska was a bit odd in this context?

The only disappointment I felt was the end, which was not satisfying my need for closure and obviously is supposed to open the story to a sequel. I am not a reader of series and had I known that this story was going to spill over into a sequel or series, I would have passed on reading this - the lovely cover notwithstanding.

So, 1 star taken off for a rubbish ending.

"I had put my foot down and bent three ancient heroes to my will. Thorin even condescended to make a pot of coffee. Suck on that, Wonder Woman."