Sekhmet and the Curse (Reviewer Copy)
After the battle at Olympus, the gods have begun to pick up the pieces and move forward toward a brighter tomorrow. Everyone except for Sekhmet that is. Bearing the guilt of her sister's death, she has decided to travel into death's grip and save Bastet. With the help of some unlikely gods, Sekhmet will journey into Sheol, a land lorded over by the Beast. He has never let anyone who has received his marks return from death, but Sekhmet has never been the type to take no for an answer. The only question is: How far is she willing to go to redeem her sister?
Keep in mind that everyone has their own opinion. This review is only my opinion, and you may have your own, different one. I would take into consideration what I say, but do not make a decision about the book solely based off of this review. Additionally, the author sent me this book as a free review copy; however, this did not influence my review. This is 100% my honest opinion. Let's begin:
Sekhmet was such an interesting character to follow. She was intriguing in the first book, and I loved this opportunity to get to know her more and understand her better. I found that I was able to relate to her in a couple of ways, which I loved. She is definitely not a flat character and kept the story entertaining throughout. I adored Tyr and Ares and how they stuck with Sekhmet even when she was a tad difficult to handle. Sekhmet's and Ares's relationship is intriguing, and I am curious to see how it changes in future books, especially after how this one left off.
I liked the author's decision to bring back a couple of fan favorites from the first book; it made the two books connect very nicely. I think the new characters really added to the story and will make the series stronger. Ishtar is fascinating and I am very excited to learn more about her, her relationship with Sekhmet, her past, and her future plans. The characters were tied together very well, and all of their relationships were cool to see play out.
I found the plot of this one to be more interesting than the first. There was a good balance of action and plot. I think readers get to see a lot of really cool (though, in some cases, fairly sick and kind of gruesome) new places. This book is, in a way, much darker than the first. It gets dark quickly and, with a couple of exceptions, only gets darker. I, personally, really enjoyed this. I thought the author did a good job laying down these dark foundations.
I mentioned in my review for the first novel how I appreciated the guides in the back because they helped me understand things like the characters, objects, and locations better. The author included more of these guides again, and they were very helpful once more. Even if you don't need the help to understand anything, I still recommend giving them a read just to enhance the story.
One thing that I mentioned about the first book that I wished was a bit stronger was the world-building. This did slightly improve, but I still wish there was a bit more of it to help me visualize the scenes better. One other thing that could be improved, in my opinion, was the death scenes. In a series called Warfare of the Gods, there is, of course, going to be death. I felt like the deaths fell a bit flat. While I was saddened, especially by one that was one of my favorite characters, these scenes were not as impactful as I feel they should have been. Maybe it has something to do with the deaths being relatively fast most of the time (they'd be alive, they'd die, and the scene would move on very fast), but I'm not too sure. These two things are more of personal preferences. I like world-building and really upsetting character deaths, but not everyone does, so keep that in mind.
Overall, I did enjoy this read a lot- a bit more than the first book, actually. I do recommend giving it a try, especially if you already know that you like mythology. The characters are intriguing and there is a good balance of plot and action. I am very curious to see what happens in the third book!
Rating: 4/5 stars
Author: C.T. Ortega
# of Pages: 231
Genre: YA, Mythology, Fantasy
Series: Warfare of the Gods (Book 2)
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