River of Shadows: An Enemies-to-lovers Romantasy (Underworld Gods Book 1)

Rating: ★★★★★/5Spice: 🌶🌶🌶.5/5Themes: Dark fantasy, enemies-to-lovers, captive situations, violence, dub con, light BDSM, and ends in a cliffhangerThank you to Valentine PR for the ARC provided for my honest review.“The fairy girl, the little bird, the mortal daughter of Shaman Torben. Hanna Heikkinen”A dark fantasy set in the fantastical and intricate world of Finnish mythology, River of Shadows is a combination of Beauty and the Beast and Hades and Persephone.Following the unexpected death of her father, Hanna arrives in Finland but soon begins to realize that the world around is not as it appears. The casket that should hold her father’s body is empty, a mysterious man is saying her father is still alive, and the woman who claimed to be a friend might not be human at all.Driven by the need to find her father and save him from the God of Death who holds him captive, Hanna offers her life in exchange for her father’s and is thrown into a magical world she doesn’t understand, and the stakes are higher than she can imagine. From her encounter with the Daughter of Death, to mermaids and tattletale swans, to the God of Death himself, Hanna must draw on all of her strength and bravery to survive.River of Shadows drew me in from the first page and kept me on my seat throughout. I absolutely loved Hanna; her bravery, strength, and ability to verbally spar with Death himself was perfection.“You want to be consumed, little bird. You want your feathers plucked, your wings clipped.”Death is dark, intimidating, dominating, and intrigued by Hanna. The contrast between his actions and the love his people have for him make for a complex and morally-grey character. I’m madly in love.The creatures of Tuonela were some of my favorite points as well. The undead unicorn whose dry sarcasm brings me life, the mermaids, the Deadmaiden with a mysterious past (seriously, can we have her backstory? I’m dying for more details) all bring life to the Realm of the Dead.“Fly away with me, little bird.”This book is an enemies-to-lovers dark fantasy that combines heart wrenching grief, literal laugh-out-loud quips (Yeet me into the sea fairy girl!), and steamy scenes that make Death one of my new favorite book boyfriends. Halle has written what fast became one of my favorite reads ever and I seriously cannot wait for the next book.

River of Shadows landed on my Want to Read list as soon as I learned it would be a dark fantasy version of the Finnish God of Death. While I enjoyed the story, I didn't get the level of dark fantasy that'd I'd been expecting. Hannah's first interactions with shamans and the City of Death were my favorite parts of the story. I loved how dark and gritty the story seemed at that point. From there, the book very much took on a tone of the classic Beauty & the Beast story, complete with an amazing library, and lost that dark edge. There was a lot of humor, which I was surprised by, but enjoyed. What didn't work for me in this story were the modern pop culture references and language. It pulled me out of the fantasy time and time again, which was disappointing. Ultimately, I am fascinated by the God of Death and his family. While this book wasn't everything I was hoping for, I am hooked enough to want to know more about the threats facing their rule, and what will become of the City of Death.

RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5STEAM: 🔥🔥🔥In this modern take of the Finnish Hades and Persephone, Hanna is lured to her father's home with news of his death. But things aren't what they seem. She eventually discovers that there is more to her dad and the people around him and that he is stuck in the Underworld as Death's prisoner.”You will call me Death, and I will call you mine.”She ends up traveling with her father's apprentice to rescue him and ends up in Death's grasp. She bargains with Death, trading herself for her father's freedom, and Death agrees to the bargain to keep her in the Land of the Dead.This book was riveting. There were so many twists and turns as we navigate the Samp and the Underworld with Hanna. I love meeting the different Gods and creatures of the Finnish Underworld, and I most definitely love how Karina Halle has created these ethereal creatures to be more relatable and -- dare I say -- more human.Hanna and Tuoni have chemistry for days, even from the get-go. This is a slow burn, but when we reach that point, it was almost like WE were set on fire.This is part of a series, so this book ends on a banger of a cliffhanger. One that has us itching for Book Two to come right now.

***5 Stars***This was everything and nothing like I expected it to be, but I’m here for it and really, REALLY, want the next book, Crimson Crown, on the Kindle, like, yesterday. But I know that’s not gonna happen, so I will be practicing patience until it does…As this is the first book in a trilogy, the review will be a bit more on the vague, short and sweet side.But, yup. I ADORED this baby. The world building, the characters, the relationships between the characters and while that ending definitely has me going hmmmmm…but, it definitely makes me want more. Daddy Death is kind of everything. Hanna is an interesting one, I really like her and cannot wait to see just who she becomes in the end. Their “relationship”, thus far, has been fun to watch. Lot’s of push and pull, and the sm#$% is HAWT, but there is a spark there and I can see there being so much more, if only they’ll allow it.As for the supporting cast, there are quite a few characters I like and want more of, but also a few that I’m not so solid about where their intentions truly lie, so judgment is being held at bay until the end ~ no matter what that end may be.And if you are questioning the “dark” aspect of things, in all honesty the dark in this is pretty mild, at least IMHO, but I do tend to dive into the deep end willingly when it comes to dark.~ Copy provided by Valentine PR & voluntarily reviewed ~

OK little disclaimer: I love KH and she's an auto-buy for me. Although I don't necessarily LOVE all her books the same or give them all 5 stars blindly. This is to say that you can trust this 5 stars ;)It's no secret that the author has had a very hard 2021 because she's really open about the death of her brother and dad and her grief. Sometimes I just want to send her a big hug - because losing a loved one is freaking hard! If you are blessed to not know this pain, really let your loved ones know how much you love them and give copious amounts of hugs too! But this is also not the reason why this book gets 5 stars. I want the best for her, and I'm beyond happy that she managed to use her pain, her grief, her crazy desire to see her dead again and put it all into the book in such a beautiful, passionate, raw, vulnerable, dreamlike way. I bet it was cathartic for her! And god, so so so brave! The strength that took for this deep dive. Brava! *lots of well deserved clapping* Not everyone can use their pain to create art. And I'm both happy as a reader and sad for her that she did it so well. I'm sure she would have chosen to not have this pain to put in her book in the first place. But life... We can't control it, we can only live it for as long as we have it and try to do the best with it...So back to the book:I could totally see that writing an epic high fantasy was on her bucket list even before getting to the acknowledgement at the end! I did always wonder if she ever would because whenever you see an author toying with urban fantasy you kinda know they are building their strength for the next (very hard and steep) step. I'm so freaking glad she took it and that she did it so freaking well! Ahhh bliss!I had never heard of Finnish Mythology and now I'm so freaking curious! It's dark, cruel, beautiful and fair? (this question mark is because I was not expecting this at all and I'm still wondering if I got that right). The world building is great, truly! And something I had not read before - ever! Sometimes you get a lot of the same with only a few changes here and there when if comes to High Fantasy. But here, everything is brand new. I mean, scary, mean unicorns with bat wings? Need I say more? Even Death's use of masks and iron accessories... And the mermaids? Ahhh I want more! I want more!The secondary characters are good even if not complete. As it's a series, I know we'll revisit all of it and get to know them a lot better. But surprisingly it works because Hanna, like us readers, doesn't know this world, this mythology and she's learning as she goes. So when she questions the past and trustworthiness of her Death maiden, it makes complete sense!The Goddesses weren't scary at all, even Deaths daughter. Actually none of the God's we met in the first book were truly scary. Some had an innocence to them that I'm not 100% sure if I believe/trust. But we shall see... Actually I want to see more of the Gods and Goddesses throughout the series - obviously once we got a resolution to Hannas pickle ;)Anyway, as we've been warned, there's a cliffhanger with a nice little surprise/twist at the end. I hate cliffhangers with passion and it made me take a minute to think about waiting for the next book to read them together. But I love romances and fantasy and I thought "but its KHs new book...". Although I still hate cliffhangers, this wasn't a terrible one (like when you are kept wondering if one of the characters is dead or alive). I also feel that the prologue of book #2 in the series helps a tiny bit. Now we just need to wait until May and then I'm sure she'll leave us on a cliffhanger again (since she said this would be a trilogy on SM). But oh well, we'll deal with it when we come to it!The smut is good and reading Deaths dirty talk is something! Haha But thankfully it's not all about the smut.Yeah! I'm a fan! Hope you'll be too?

River of Shadows is fantastically dark and atmospheric fantasy romance from Karina Halle set against a background of Finnish mythology in the Realm of the Dead featuring the ultimate anti-hero in the God of Death himself.I admit I thought I was going to struggle with this book in the opening chapters but the minute the heroine, Hanna, went through the waterfall into the land of the Dead it was like someone flipped a switch in me. Karina Halle’s words described Tuonela so vividly and evocatively that they drew me into the story and I had a picture in my mind of some post apocalyptic, almost gothic world as I read. Throw in Death himself and I was hooked. Who would’ve thought he’d be so hot and a dirty talker as well!!! I also loved his droll sense of humour that lightened some of the darkness. Hanna despite being quite young was more than a match for him and the chemistry between them burned hotter than the fires of hell. This book does end on a cliffhanger and I will be desperately waiting on the next book in the Underworld Gods series especially since I’ve got my suspicions about who Eero and Noora really are.

FULLY RECOMMEND.AMAZING. I LOVE THE PLAYLIST TOO. I CANT WAIT FOR THE NEXT IN THE SERIES.

I saw this book recommended on TikTok from someone I follow so I gave it a chance. I was not disappointed. Hades/Persephone, beauty and the beast vibes. Death, the male mc, is #bookbf material. He wants everyone to think he's evil but he's soft for the female mc. That's my favorite trope... The brooding, damaged, villain, male mc willing to burn down the world for her... this book was so worth the time. It was a relatively quick read. It ends on a cliffhanger. Book two doesn't come out until spring this year.

Karina Halle promised us an epic adult dark fantasy romance based on Finnish mythology and boy did she deliver! River of Shadows is dark but not too disturbing, it's mysterious and magical, also a bit scary but definitely very sexy and passionate. This unique and captivating story is set in the Realm of the Dead in the underworld of Tuonela. I loved how much detail Karina put into creating this world full of creepy and sometimes nightmarish creatures and the breath-taking scenery surrounding it all. It gave me strong Hades and Persephone vibes with some Beauty and the Beast thrown into the mix. I was literally glued to my kindle the whole time while reading it. I was utterly immersed in this story. Karina is a great and very talented author who knows how to capture a reader's interest and seduce their mind.Hanna Heikkinen makes the long trip from Los Angeles to Northern Finnland for her enstranged father's funeral only to find out that he's a powerful shaman who went into Tuonela, the Realm of the Dead, in order to barter for more life and is now beeing held captive by the God of Death. Desperate to save him she ventures into the underworld where Hanna makes a bargain with Tuoni aka Death himself. If she marries him and spends an eternity in the Realm of the Dead as his wife, he'll set her father free. What she didn't expect was that her noble sacrifice comes with a cost - her heart.Hanna is such a strong, determined and couragous woman. She is also loyal and selfless and has a heart of gold. I'm not surprised that Tuoni was intrigued by her beauty and fierceness. She went toe to toe with him showing some backbone of steel. She knew that in order to seduce the God of Death she will need to use her wits and her body. I truly enjoyed the great dynamic between these two characters. There was animosity and a lot of sexual tension - a potent mix for an off the charts chemistry inside the bedroom. Tuoni was often very intimidating and sometimes even a little cruel because he needed to uphold a role. But with Hanna he came totally undone.Now after reading the huge, jaw-dropping cliffhanger I can’t freaking wait to find out how this thrilling story continues in Crown of Crimson. There's also a prequel planned called "God of Death" which I look forward to as well. Karina Halle has truly knocked my socks off with River of Shadows, and that's why I'm shelving it among my top favorite reads of 2022 and giving it 5 well-deserved stars!