Unleashing – Shelly Laurenston – 3.5*

Unleashing – Shelly Laurenston – 3.5*

Unleashing is the first in a new series by Shelly Laurenston.  It was not what I was expecting.  In fact I didn’t write a review of it until now because I didn’t think I was being fair about it.  The other books under her Laurenston name are much lighter books.  These books are more like her G.A. Aiken dragon books.  All of Laurenston/Aiken books are funny and have interesting characters but her Laurenston books I think of as lighter and less blood and guts though I know her shifters has fights and battles they just didn’t seem as series as this one.  Done with my justification here are my thoughts on Unleashing.

Kera Watson recently left the marines.  While she was taking out the trash she is stabbed in the chest and killed HOWEVER, Ludvig “Vig” Rundstrom has been in love with her for a while and begs Skuld to save her which Skuld does and makes Kera a crow.  Norse gods are each represented by humans and those who have died and come back for their second life.  Kera becomes a crow while Vig is a raven.  All of the groups are supposed to stop the end of the world from coming about.  There is so much that goes on in this book it is hard to write a succinct summary.  Basically Kera is thrust into this new world, she butte heads with her fellow crows, she falls in love with Vig, and is tasked with preventing a Goddess from entering our world and starting the end of times.

I liked the book.  It had the humor that all of her other books have.  One of the detractors is that there are a ton of characters to keep track of.  The reader is given a dump of characters and at times it is hard to keep track of who is who.  Saying that her other series are like that in the later books but I think those books also slowly introduce the additional characters.