Review: Odin’s Ravens by K.L. Armstrong and M.A. Marr

Posted December 27, 2014 by Lola in Fantasy, My To-Be Read List, Mythology, Review / 12 Comments

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Because reading is better than real life

My To-Be Read List is a meme hosted by Because Reading is Better Than Real Life where at the beginning of the month visitors can choose which book I’ll be reading this month. On the first saturday of a month the poll will be up, then on the second saturday of the month I’ll announce the book that won and on the last saturday of the month I’ll post my review of the book.

odin ravensOdin’s Ravens (The Blackwell Pages #2)
by K.L. Armstrong and M.A. Marr

Blurb:
Seven kids, Thor’s hammer, and a whole lot of Valkyries are the only things standing against the end of the world.

When thirteen-year-old Matt Thorsen, a modern day descendant of the Norse god Thor, was chosen to represent Thor in an epic battle to prevent the apocalypse he thought he knew how things would play out. Gather the descendants standing in for gods like Loki and Odin, defeat a giant serpent, and save the world. No problem, right?

But the descendants’ journey grinds to a halt when their friend and descendant Baldwin is poisoned and killed and Matt, Fen, and Laurie must travel to the Underworld in the hopes of saving him. But that’s only their first stop on their journey to reunite the challengers, find Thor’s hammer, and stop the apocalypse–a journey filled with enough tooth-and-nail battles and larger-than-life monsters to make Matt a legend in his own right.

Authors K.L. Armstrong and M.A. Marr return to Blackwell in the epic sequel to Loki’s Wolves with more explosive action, adventure and larger-than-life Norse legends.

My Review:
Odin’s Ravens was exactly the kind of book I needed to read at this moment, filled with action, adventure and a compelling story with likeable characters. They face the end of the world and have to do difficult things, but there isn’t as much drama as in a YA book and it was all still manageable. This book managed to surprise me on more then one occasion and had some great twists that I didn’t see coming. The story kept a nice pace and there was always something happening and something that needed to happen next. Add in the nice pictures every few chapters and I was hooked. I easily read this book in a few sitting and finished the book with a satisfied, happy feeling and surprised at the last plot twist.

This book just made me happy and delivered on everything that it promised. I liked the direction of the story and the new discoveries the characters made. There’s some nice character growth in there too, all the main character go through some significant change in this book and it felt like this book really added something, lots of things happen and at the end of the book the characters are all in a different place then were we started. Certainly no middle book syndrome here!

Let me talk a bit more about the characters. Matt is one of the main characters, he a nice guy, a good guy, but he’s also very important. He;s the descendant to Thor and he’s really living up to that title, there are a few scenes involving him that were really done well, especially the battle scene towards the end. Then there’s Laurie, she’s a great character as well and I really liked seeing her grow and learn more about her self in this book. I also liked her connection with Owen. I can’t say much more about her, but I really liked the changes and she’s just such a nice and likeable character. I also have a soft spot for Fen, he’s grumpy and seems the outsider sometimes, but he really cares about the others. I liked seeing his soft side underneath his cold and grumpy exterior and ofcourse there’s the whole changing into a wolf aspect which I like. He is really protective of Laurie and while sometimes it feels a bit too much, but I also liked his protective side. He’s a bit more of a complex character and I might even like him the most out of all the three, life hasn’t been easy and there are some difficult changes from him in this book and I am curious to see where he ends up. The other side characters are nice as well, Owen sounded a bit older then the rest and I liked how he tried to do what was best even though it might not seem that way sometimes. He was an interesting character. And then there is Baldwin who is always there to provide soem comic relieve.

Another thing I like about this book is that it doesn’t feel too young. Sure there are kids stopping the end of the world and they make mistakes, but it’s glaring in your face the whole time and actually the age fits them. It’s one of those Middle Grade books that I am just able to enjoy because of the fabulous story and makes me consider picking up more MG books because they can be so much fun. Less drama and more story and adventure, which is exactly what I want sometimes.

I never really was into mythology that much, but this book proves me wrong on that account. I liked learning more about all the Norse mythology and it was great to see how much world building and thought there was behind everything. I also liked those scenes were Matt spoke up with another bot of myth knowledge that he knew. The focus is mostly on the story, but through it all you still notice there’s world building behind it and I liked that. Everything made sense.

To conclude: this book has everything I look for in a good book, a nice story, good pace, fabulous writing style and a great cast of characters with some plot twists that managed to surprise me. All in all this book left me feeling happy and satisfied after finishing it. It just was a great book and I am curious were the last book will take the characters.

5-star

You can add Odin’s ravens to your to-read list on Goodreads

You can buy Odin’s Ravens here:
Amazon
B&N
Kobo
The Bookdepository

Other books I read and reviewed by these authors so far:
– KL Armstrong and MA Marr – Loki’s Wolves (The Blackwell Pages #1) – 4 stars

– Kelley Armstrong – The Gathering (Darkness Rising #1) – 5 stars
– Kelley Armstrong – The Calling (Darkness Rising #2) – 5 stars
– Kelley Armstrong – The Rising (Darkness Rising #3) – 5 stars
– Kelley Armstrong – Omens (Cainsville #1) – 5 stars
– Kelley Armstrong – Exit Strategy (Nadia Stafford #1) – 4 stars
– Kelley Armstrong – Made to be Broken (Nadia Stafford #2) – 4 stars
– Kelley Armstrong – Wild Justice (Nadia Stafford #3) – 5 stars
– Kelley Armstrong – Gifted (Otherworld #13.4 and Cainsville #?) – 5 stars

– Melissa Marr, Kelley Armstrong, Veronica Roth, Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl, Rachel Caine, Nancy Holder, Beth Revis and Carrie Ryan – Shards and Ashes – 4 stars

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12 responses to “Review: Odin’s Ravens by K.L. Armstrong and M.A. Marr

    • While I like MG now and then, I often find them aimed a little bit too young, I am glad the age thing wasn’t so obvious in this one. I just loved the adventure and focus on story these MG books often seem to have! Can’t wait for the last book in this series!

    • It was really refreshing to have a book about mythology, but not actual gods. I really like the characters, the 3 main characters are really well done and even the side characters have enough depth and flavour. Would certainly recommend this series!

  1. Yay! I’m so glad Odin’s Ravens delivered for you, Lola. It’s on my tbr but my son has read and really enjoyed it as well. πŸ™‚ I kinda figured Kelley Armstrong & Melissa Marr would write a good book but that you were so entertained and enjoyed learning Norse mythology makes me more anxious to read it. Lovely review!
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    • I hope you enjoy it when you pick this series up, the third book is almost released so then you can read them in a row. Glad to hear your son enjoyed them as well. I love Kelley Armstrong her writing style and have enjoyed quite some of Marr her books as well, so I was pretty sure this would be a great series.

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