[ 514 ]

[katara]

Crown of Crimson by Karina Halle

Series:
Underworld Gods #2

Genre:
Mythology, Hades and Persephone, Paranormal, Fantasy, Romance, Retellings, Adult, New Adult, Dark, Urban Fantasy, Enemies to Lovers, Book Series, Spicy Romance, High Fantasy, Supernatural, Finnish Mythology, Cliffhanger, Mermaids, Steamy Romance, Beauty and the Beast, Dual Points of View

Publication Date:
May 23, 2022

Pages Numbers:
460

Read Date:
July 15th, 2023

Date Finished:
July 16th, 2023

Rating:
3/5

Blurb:

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 how she left things with Death, yet the dark and sexy God is 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.

Review:

Where to start with this one. I am honestly not sure how I plan to rate this book. On one side, I really enjoyed the story but at the same time, Hanna borderline the Mary Sue with the whole Chosen One trope. As it was, her character had already annoyed me from the first book and she continued to do so with this book.

I want to say her character grew but not entirely. There was a small bit of character development but it was not much to redeem her at all and the trope of the Chosen One just seemed to make her character even more annoying because she continuously repeated it like some sort of mantra instead of trying to become the one who could change the Prophecy of Three.

I loved Death in the first book but he flipped-flopped on his feelings for Hanna. When he retrieved her, he promised that he would never love her and in the next moment, it changes with a whole different scene in the library (one I was not prepared for lol). Still, his character was much better than Hanna's.

Final Thought:

I had expectations for this book and it really let me down. I do want to see how this book ends so I am going to read the third book when it comes out (the Hardback is out since January of this year and the Kindle/Ebook is due to be released in September).

Similar Books:

What Lies Beyond the Veil by Harper L. Woods
The North Wind by Alexandria Warwick
The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent