Review: Runes by Ednah Walters

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

Seventeen-year-old Raine Cooper has enough on her plate dealing with her father’s disappearance, her mother’s erratic behavior and the possibility of her boyfriend relocating. The last thing she needs is Torin St. James—a mysterious new neighbor with a wicked smile and uncanny way of reading her.

Raine is drawn to Torin’s dark sexiness against her better judgment, until he saves her life with weird marks and she realizes he is different. But by healing her, Torin changes something inside Raine. Now she can’t stop thinking about him. Half the time, she’s not sure whether to fall into his arms or run.

Scared, she sets out to find out what Torin is. But the closer she gets to the truth the more she uncovers something sinister about Torin. What Torin is goes back to an ancient mythology and Raine is somehow part of it. Not only are she and her friends in danger, she must choose a side, but the wrong choice will cost Raine her life.

 

Runes is a book that takes elements of Norse mythology and places them in a modern day setting. I have always been intrigued by Norse mythology but I don’t know that much about it. I really liked this aspect of the story and it was great to learn a little more. It was a really intriguing storyline and I really enjoyed it.

I thought that the characters were well written. I found Raine was easy to connect to and she was a good main character. She was strong and she certainly wasn’t whiny. I thought that she acted realistically to all the crazy stuff that was going on in her life and I thought that she was a realistic character. I really liked Raine’s friendship with Cora and I loved Cora’s loyalty and also her humour. I am not really sure I like Eirik, he was fairly loyal but I felt that his character lacked a little depth. I loved how evil Maliina was and how twisted Andris was. I absolutely loved Torin St. James. He was badass, loyal and he was always there for Raine when she needed him.

As I said before, the storyline was intriguing. I found the plot to be convoluted and twisted with people who seemed to have their own agenda working for someone and people who seemed to be working for someone else having their own agenda. There were some great surprises in the plot, and it wasn’t predictable for me. It was complex and you could never really guess what was coming and what/who people were. The ending was really well done and a great way to set up for another book, even if it was a mean ending.

I really enjoyed the writing style. I found that the story was fast-paced and it was really well balanced between action scenes and scenes that built up the story. The story flowed really well and the writing style sucked you in. I also found the descriptions to be short, but detailed enough that you could picture everything vividly.

I only had one small problem with this book, and that was the love triangle. I did think that it was really well done, but I still didn’t like it. I really wanted her to end up with the guy she wasn’t with but I didn’t want that guy to get hurt. I felt that the love triangle was a little unnecessary, too. I think that the story would have worked well without it. In saying that, I think that it has been set up so that it can be resolved in a way where no one will get hurt.

Overall, this was an intriguing, quick read and I really enjoyed Runes. I rate 4.5/5 stars!

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair review.

Mel.

Up next - Review: Froi of the Exiles by Melina Marchetta