[Early copy from Netgalley. This doesn’t affect my opinions or review.]

I was so excited about this book when I found out about it, and even more excited to be approved for an ARC. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as good as I’d hoped it would be. While the characters and relationships—both platonic and romantic—were well-written and developed, I was able to predict many of the plot twists. That predictability took away the element of surprise in most situations, and in a fantasy story like this one, that was detrimental to my reading experience.

Despite that, I wouldn’t call The Helheim Princess bad or say I didn’t enjoy it. I did like the use of Norse mythology in the story and world-building, as it’s more common to see stories using Greek myths and this was a nice change of pace. It was fun to see the characters’ adventuring across multiple worlds and the different ways they were challenged on their journey.

I would still recommend this book; I think the reason I found it predictable was due more to the number of fantasies I’ve read than any real problem with the book itself. I also think that plenty of teen readers will enjoy it, as it has a good amount of action while still being fairly lighthearted and easy to understand.

Representation