Coming off my disappointment with the direction of the latest Lords of the Underworld book I thought that this brand new series would be just the thing to make up for that. I was wrong.
This books was not at all what I expected from a series entitled Gods of War especially when considering the participants don't seem to have any choice at all in their little showdown. The real gods seem to be the overlord who are running the All War. Showalter is still an auto-buy for me, but I wouldn't have bought this book if the limited information I had on the idea of the book hadn't captivated me. But what I expected was not at all what I received. Throughout the entire book in the back of my head I was thinking about the similarities between this and The Hunger Games. I know by now there aren't any new, really original ideas, but the similarities were too much. Forced to fight for something you don't believe in while loathing the ones that are in charge and doing despicable things to ensure your own survival...
I expect that some of my dissatisfaction in this first book was due in part to the fact that an entire world had to be built for the rest of the series. Despite that, there is a lot of things that are still unknown and yet to be resolved by the end.
My main problem with this book was Knox himself. I find myself for maybe the first time ever disliking the "hero" of a book. For me Knox was selfish, cold and his only redeeming quality was his attraction to Vale. In theory I should like him - Forced to be a slave with a tragic backstory and a wicked hot face and body - but it didn't work out like that. Every time this guy got in a fight I was rooting for the other opponent. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. I actually hoped he would die. No such luck. I can trace my dislike back to one event. Shiloh. After that there was no saving this book for me. Shiloh deserved better and the dumb excuse at the end of the book about how it had never been a true alliance doesn't cut it.
Vale is your typical Showalter heroine at this point. They are increasingly seeming to be manufactured in the same factory. She was harmless I suppose. I didn't mind her too much, but she couldn't in any way make up for Knox. I understood her motives and her attraction to Knox (he is super hot after all) but I felt that her transition from a typical mortal to blood thirsty and savage immortal warrior a bit too quick to be realistic.
What Showalter successfully did for me was build a more interesting cast of supporting characters. I want to find out what happens to Zion, Bane, Erik and Adonis. And while I don't care to ever see Knox or Vale again I am intrigued enough to want to see how things work our for my faves and see how the whole thing ends.
Ultimately, this book fell flat for me because there was little actual romance. When I buy Showalter I expect to get a paranormal romance with violence on the side. In trying to be like Hunger Games this was more violence with a side of spicy sex scenes. The love between Knox and Vale wasn't credible. Don't get me wrong, the lust I totally bought, but that transformation into love... I'm not a believer.
I am going to wait for the next book to make a decision on the series as a whole and I actually expect the next book to be much better than this. Here's hoping.
In an aside, my kindle preorder price that I paid was $6.01 but as I write this review not even 24 hours later I am seeing the price is $4.73. What's up with that?
- Amazon Business : For business-only pricing, quantity discounts and FREE Shipping. Register a free business account
