Book Review: Hela Takes a Holiday
Hela Takes a Holiday by Rebekah Lewis
4 stars
Category: Adult
Note: Novella-length. I read this as included in the A Roguish Christmas.
Summary: Hela, the Norse goddess entrusted with running the Underworld, wants a vacation. She yearns to experience the things that a human does: she wants to eat human food, she wants to see some place other than Nifleheim, she wants to fall in love, she wants to grow old with someone, and she wants them to genuinely love her for her and not because she’s a goddess, and she wants to do it all without her father, Loki’s, interference. When she arrives in the human world, the leader of the village pushes his son, Bjorn into marrying her.
Comments: Being a Wintertime romance, there isn’t much in the way of surprise here. They’re pushed together because of convenience, and they fall in love (thankfully it’s not instantaneous and does actually take a couple of days for the two to realize their love). The only surprising parts were really Loki playing tricks on everyone and the fact that the Underworld needs a ruler who isn’t Loki to maintain it so that all hell doesn’t break loose (for Loki fans, I did love the appearance of the Norse god in this and his wonderful trickster nature messing with Bjorn and the villagers. He’s not straight out of the Marvel movies, nor is he straight out of the mythology books). There wasn’t much in this that was actually “Christmas” (for being in a Christmas Anthology, I was expecting a bit more to the Christmas theme than just being set in the deep of winter and a Yule log burning.) I was really hoping for more personality from Hela. She’s a rather listless character in this. She’s a damsel-in-distress who just goes along with things, and that’s why Bjorn goes for her. Because he’s tired of all of the shield maidens vying for his hand. While I’m tired of all the tough chicks, too, Hela felt very one-dimensional. There wasn’t anything to her outside of her being the Goddess of the Underworld and her being a woman in love. Did she have any likes and dislikes? None that I saw. Bjorn, too was rather one-dimensional. He was the typical muscle and trying to deny himself like all of the other indie male romance interests. I did love that this was set in ancient times and took the story seriously. After reading the Monsters in the Dark series and the sample of Gods & Monsters, I was worried this would be a humorous cozy, which I’m honestly very tired of since those never feel remotely real. Right now with the Marvel movies, the Norse gods are in fashion and this isn’t the first romance starring Hela that I’ve run across. Though while reading this, I kept wondering what happened to Baldr, Hela’s companion in the underworld.
4 stars
Category: Adult
Note: Novella-length. I read this as included in the A Roguish Christmas.
Summary: Hela, the Norse goddess entrusted with running the Underworld, wants a vacation. She yearns to experience the things that a human does: she wants to eat human food, she wants to see some place other than Nifleheim, she wants to fall in love, she wants to grow old with someone, and she wants them to genuinely love her for her and not because she’s a goddess, and she wants to do it all without her father, Loki’s, interference. When she arrives in the human world, the leader of the village pushes his son, Bjorn into marrying her.
Comments: Being a Wintertime romance, there isn’t much in the way of surprise here. They’re pushed together because of convenience, and they fall in love (thankfully it’s not instantaneous and does actually take a couple of days for the two to realize their love). The only surprising parts were really Loki playing tricks on everyone and the fact that the Underworld needs a ruler who isn’t Loki to maintain it so that all hell doesn’t break loose (for Loki fans, I did love the appearance of the Norse god in this and his wonderful trickster nature messing with Bjorn and the villagers. He’s not straight out of the Marvel movies, nor is he straight out of the mythology books). There wasn’t much in this that was actually “Christmas” (for being in a Christmas Anthology, I was expecting a bit more to the Christmas theme than just being set in the deep of winter and a Yule log burning.) I was really hoping for more personality from Hela. She’s a rather listless character in this. She’s a damsel-in-distress who just goes along with things, and that’s why Bjorn goes for her. Because he’s tired of all of the shield maidens vying for his hand. While I’m tired of all the tough chicks, too, Hela felt very one-dimensional. There wasn’t anything to her outside of her being the Goddess of the Underworld and her being a woman in love. Did she have any likes and dislikes? None that I saw. Bjorn, too was rather one-dimensional. He was the typical muscle and trying to deny himself like all of the other indie male romance interests. I did love that this was set in ancient times and took the story seriously. After reading the Monsters in the Dark series and the sample of Gods & Monsters, I was worried this would be a humorous cozy, which I’m honestly very tired of since those never feel remotely real. Right now with the Marvel movies, the Norse gods are in fashion and this isn’t the first romance starring Hela that I’ve run across. Though while reading this, I kept wondering what happened to Baldr, Hela’s companion in the underworld.