Thank you to Karina Halle and Social Butterfly P.R. for the ARC of this book. All opinions in this review are my own.
How Karina manages to write two absolutely stunning dark fantasy books in less than 6 months is beyond me. This sequel to River of Shadows was a super anticipated read for me and it did not disappoint ! This book was so hard to put down, and it is not a small book, filled with the same Finnish mythology that book one had. It starts right where the cliffhanger of book one ended, and, of course, this one has another cliffhanger, and so now I am dying for the next one (and the novella about Death). Also, can we talk about the spice in this book, because my GOODNESS, Karina did not come to play. Do not read this in public if you are unable to control your face when you read spice! My goodness. I love reading new mythology based books, and this is one of my new favorite series. Time to wait patiently for the announcement of book three. 5/5 Hands down.
See below for the blurb about the book, information about Karina, and links to the books!
Crown of Crimson, an all-new dark fantasy romance with high heat in the Underworld Gods Series from New York Times Bestselling author Karina Halle, is out now!
All Hanna Heikkinen wants is to be reunited with her father again. After all, that’s why she ventured into the dark and dangerous fantasy world of Tuonela, the Land of the Dead, in order to save his life. But this time her devotion to her father comes at a cost—her growing relationship with Tuoni, the God of Death himself, who held Hanna captive in exchange for her father’s life. The last thing she expects is to feel remorse at leaving Death at his castle of Shadow’s End without even saying goodbye, and yet he’s all she can think about.
Death has always prided himself on never trusting the living, but Hanna’s apparent betrayal has left a scar fathom’s deep. Vowing revenge on his future bride, and making sure she upholds her end of the bargain, Death sets out across his realm to steal Hanna back, which only fans the flames between them. But Death and Hanna aren’t just fighting each other—malevolent Old Gods are rising to power within the realm, magic is being poisoned, and buried secrets are brought to light, secrets that may cause Hanna to lose everyone she loves dear once again.
Read now!
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3xJqugE
Amazon Worldwide: https://mybook.to/Underworlds2
Check out an excerpt below!
He shakes his head ever so subtly, his fingers bruising my skin. “After all you’ve seen, all you’ve done, all you’ve felt, and you’re still blind to the world around you. This is your world, Hanna. You know it is. You know you belong here more than you’ve ever belonged in your other life, and more than that, you belong here with me.”
My jaw tightens as I try to ignore the way my heart is skipping in my chest. “You’re sounding sentimental.”
“You’re mistaking sentiment with facts,” he says, lowering his masked face toward mine. “A mistake I’m sure you won’t make again. You belong with me, because that is the bargain we made. There is no escape for you. Not now, not ever. You made a promise to me, and your promise will be held to the very end.”
There’s a finality in his words that makes my blood run cold. For a moment he loosens his grip and sighs deeply. “I know you don’t like being told what to do, but you could have had it all,” he says, almost wistfully. “You could have had my trust. Now you will become my wife and there won’t be an ounce of trust or love between us.”
My heart skips again. “Who said anything about love?”
“Hmmph.” He tilts his head, examining me. “I could have loved you, you know.”
Oh. That I didn’t know. And for reasons I can’t explain, it feels like he’s pulled a pin out from my heart and I’m slowly deflating.
Add to Goodreads: https://bit.ly/3NN08A1
Start the series with River of Shadows today!
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3874MbT
Amazon Worldwide: https://mybook.to/underworld1
Add to Goodreads: https://bit.ly/3rCxHvg
Meet Karina
Karina Halle is a former travel writer and music journalist and The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestselling author of The Pact, Love, in English, The Artists Trilogy, Dirty Angels and over 20 other wild and romantic reads. She lives on an island off the coast of British Columbia with her husband and her rescue pup, where she drinks a lot of wine, hikes a lot of trails and devours a lot of books.
Halle is represented by the Root Literary and is both self-published and published by Simon & Schuster and Hachette in North America and in the UK.
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