Ragnarok Unwound by Kristin Jacques

Title: Ragnarok Unwound
Author: Kristin Jacques
Page Count: 254
Rating: C
Format Read: NetGalley e ARC
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Keywords: Norse, Apocalypse, Prophecy 
Kid Appropriate: Hard to tell
Expected Release: August 1, 2019

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Prophecies don't untangle themselves.

Just ask Ikepela Ives, whose estranged mother left her with the power to unravel the binding threads of fate. Stuck with immortal power in a mortal body, Ives has turned her back on the duty she never wanted.

But it turns out she can’t run from her fate forever, not now that Ragnarok has been set in motion and the god at the center of that tangled mess has gone missing. With a ragtag group of companions—including a brownie, a Valkyrie, and the goddess of death herself—Ives embarks on her first official mission as Fate Cipher—to save the world from doomsday.

Nothing she can't handle. Right?

My Review:

So I was provided this free galley for review from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I requested this one after reading the synopsis and thinking that it was definitely up my alley. Monsters, Norse mythology, and a prophesied power have all been great loves in my reading life.

First, the good. I like what I could tell about the characters. They seem like they could be a good cast that flows well together and make sense. Also, the overall concept has a lot of potential to be a fun ride of a read. There are segments that are reminiscent of Kim Harrison (The Hollows series), Janet Evanovich, and Jennifer L. Armentrout. All are authors that I enjoy for the fact that they are quite simply fun with paranormal twists.

Now I am going to split my review into two parts because there was a disconnect with the first part of the book and the second:

1st 33% of the ebook:

Unfortunately, I really did not like this part. As this is an ARC I expected it not to be perfect but the formatting on my Kindle was so bad that I could not follow who was speaking or when and I have numerous sections highlighted simply because there was an error in the grammar or the wrong punctuation was used. This just about broke my proofreading heart.

On top of this the execution of the story felt very much like a first draft and I repeatedly was reminded of Stephen King's On Writing where he lectures about avoiding an overuse of adjectives and to say things simply. The use of synonyms and flowery prose was distracting and made the story line difficult to follow.

Aside from this there is a complete lack of focus in the narrative. It is almost like you are trying to have a conversation with someone that is constantly distracted and goes off on an incoherent tangent. The placement of random details that could easily be edited out of the final cut make the story nearly incomprehensible. Along with this there were moments where I feel like there was information left out that would have been crucial in world building.

Do I believe this story has potential? Absolutely. Would I recommend it in its current state? No.

Remaining two thirds:

At this point the story really began to come back into a more coherent flow and the writing felt like it had been more thoroughly edited. There is a good amount of energy as the tale moves along and some humor.

My favorite character had to be Hel with her quirky personality and fashion sense including unicorns and My Little Pony. However, characters sometimes felt as if they were sharing a single personality whenever they had dialogue and did not give enough of a unique feeling that I always knew who was speaking.

Overall the book ended up being enjoyable enough and it took less than 24 hours to read. With some more editing for the minor mistakes that were driving me crazy while I was reading as well as the occasional jumping of the story line that left massive holes in understanding it could be a good book.

I would mostly recommend this for someone looking for a lighter read, fans of Loki, and mostly readers that already have a firm grasp of the basics of Norse mythology.