By Verity Lennon
*Spoilers ahead
I have to say I really enjoyed this book. It is different and something unexpected. I liked it from beginning to end. It is well written and easy to read.
We meet Iliana, she is 27 years old, her parents have just died and she is all alone. Along with this she sleepwalks, usually waking up to a near death experience. So far, she has woken up in time to save herself. Needless to say, she doesn’t sleep well.
We then meet Thanatos, God of death within the Greek pantheon. Athena asks him to protect Iliana as she is cursed. Her whole family line has been cursed. He doesn’t understand why she wants the mortal protected but he does it, under threat from Athena. He goes to watch the Iliana and stops her from jumping off the roof of her apartment building. He decides to take her then to the Underworld and asks his twin brother, Hypnos (God of sleep) to help protect her. Hypnos uses his gift to keep her asleep because he doesn’t want to deal with her. But Hypnos has lived in his cave in the underworld for centuries avoiding contact with everyone.
The best line by Iliana, which pretty much describes this whole story is ‘Where in the f$&%ing Barbie hellscape am I?’ Hypnos is confused, Iliana is angry and can’t help the vernacular.
Then we have an interesting addition. Anubis, the Egyptian God of the afterlife. He and Thanatos are friends, and he asks for Anubis’ help to look after the mortal.
I have to say that the melding of the different pantheons is probably my favourite part of this book. I haven’t read a book that combines them all as this book does and I hope that we get other pantheons as the series progresses. Though we do hear about a goddess book club made up of goddesses from Greek, Celtic and Hindu pantheons which I would love to be a part of.
Because Iliana’s curse is related to sleep, Hypnos can help her during her sleep to push against the curse. Thanatos had hoped he could break it, but it isn’t that simple. The curse also continues to grow the longer she spends with the Gods.
We then add Hermes to the mix. He is sent by The Fates to send a message to Iliana that they want to see her. Hermes becomes interested in Iliana. He has heard whisperings of the mortal being protected by Gods.
Slowly Iliana becomes interested in the men. Thinking about them, then telling herself to stop. But Thanatos and Anubis both make advances. Iliana doesn’t feel right having both, though Thanatos explains that they have discussed it and are perfectly happy to share her. She is a little ruffled to know they discussed it but soon realise it was about her choosing them.
The book has multiple POVs and for now they don’t share her at the same time. They each get their own time with her, and each provide something different for her. I actually like this way of why choose. It is more of a polyamorous situation and feels more realistic.
The romance is nice and well written, and the slow burn is lovely. But the main focus of the book is the curse. We don’t find out who placed the curse, we also don’t know anything about her family as she is adopted. Each of the gods use their resources to find out about her family, what the curse might be and how to break it. But nothing, only that it gets worse.
A central theme for Iliana is control. She has a complete loss of control with the curse striking during her sleep. Her parents have just died. She has been taken from the home she knows and the human world to protected by strangers. She spends a lot of the book trying to find control again.
It is clear that there is more to her, especially when we hear her prophecy from The Fates and that they tell her she has to burn. With this in mind I predicted that she is a phoenix, she has to burn in order to release her mortality and gain her powers. I felt this even more when we learn about a sleeping God that is waking up. Is she the sleeping God? Or is the sleeping God connected to her? So many questions about this aspect. Then we discover they are being watched by Kabeiroi. They are usually present in poignant moments. So, she is important, will do something important. Again, more questions.
We then have to add in the Egyptians concern about the bennu and that no one has seen it in centuries. Is Iliana a part of that as well? Is she made up of different pantheons? I have a lot of questions. But the concern over the bennu feels important.
A lot happens in the last few chapters of the book. Hermes tells them someone is tracking them. They send Iliana to another safe house, but no one shows. Then both Thanatos and Anubis are called away on important business, keeping them from protecting Iliana. Hermes chooses to leave her as well to continue his research on her family. This leaves her alone with Hypnos and they bond.
Of course, they are attacked. Hermes gets back in time to get her out of the house, Hypnos is gravely injured, but Thanatos and Anubis arrive back in time to kill the attacker. Hermes takes Iliana back to Hypnos’s cave in the Underworld. But she doesn’t stay in the safety of the cave. She leaves to try and get back to Hypnos, only to be confronted by his ex-wife, the one who betrayed him and forced him into solitude.
It is a difficult fight, but Iliana comes out the victor, sort of. Hermes gets back in time but not before she something catastrophic happens. A huge, massive twist that is going to so interesting to see how it plays out in the next book.
I absolutely loved this book and I can’t wait for the next one in the series to come out.