Review: The Awakening, D.J. Torres
I received and read this novel via NetGalley for review a few weeks ago, but seeing as the release date was yesterday (4th April 2017) I thought I would write the review today.

The Awakening is the first released novel in the 'Gods of Nature' series by D.J. Torres. The synopsis reads as 'When gods and goddesses abruptly overthrow Earth, humans are given two choices – worship or die. Desperate to survive, Olivia and her family devote their days to fulfilling the will of the gods. But the wrath of the gods is insatiable and unpredictable. But does she have enough courage or skill to battle brutal gods eager to rule the world and dole out punishment to anyone who defies them? Nature and the world depend on it' The premise of the novel is interesting as I haven't read a book with the same concepts as 'The Awakening'.

The opening of the novel, one phrase that stuck with me was 'five pounds of makeup meticulously'. I didn't like the fact that makeup was used for the 'popular girls' in the novel as a negative connotation, what has makeup got to do with whether or not these girls treated Olivia terribly? That was just something that baffled me, it might not teach younger readers valuable life lessons. However, on page 37 "Ah, well...tomorrow can only get better, right?" with the finishing of chapter one, I did enjoy chapter one as the opening of the story was interesting and did make you want to read on, it did leave me thinking why were the earthquake's happening? etc, thus leading me to read on.

Another thing I did really enjoy was the descriptive nature of D.J. Torres' writing style. There were some stunning passages within the novel. Such as 'tetherball with fiercely yellow eyes and rectangular barcode pupils' I found these imaginative and so descriptive. I did enjoy the novel for numerous things such as the writing style, the whole idea and concept, which was enjoyable as well as the idea that Nature and Olivia worked together, which created great dynamic.

One thing that I didn't enjoy was the love interest. I found Jace very patronising and shallow as he quickly fell in love with Olivia, I didn't like him one bit and found him very cheesy. I don't mind cheesy and I love a beautiful romance such as Pride and Prejudice as much as the next person, I just preferred Liv in this novel. I don't like the trope of falling in love so quickly.

Just another little thing that I picked up on which niggled me, the fact that Olivia in the beginning of the novel wears fake glasses to 'hide behind'. As a glasses/contact lenses wearer myself, I do personally find the concept of fake glasses slightly offensive, in the fact that I have to wear them, so I don't see why people feel the need to wear fake ones. As someone who can't see without mine, people that have perfect vision need to check themselves agains this and consider how it feels to not have a choice in the matter - just a slight thing, this didn't alter my opinion on the novel or the author or the main character Olivia.

Overall, I think had it been younger me reading this, I would have thought the concept was very interesting. I would say read it for the concept and the writing, as oppose reading it to fall in love with the characters. This novel was in by no means bad and I would recommend it for the good reasons I mentioned. I think possibly a much younger reader would have enjoyed it a lot more than I did, not to say it was bad at all and credit where credit is due it was wonderfully written and the pacing was steady which I enjoyed. Perhaps it is more junior level for someone around 14/15 y/0 rather than my being 18 y/o.

The Nature of Gods by DJ Torres is a story about a girl named Olivia, who is kind of the outcaste. The story starts off with the gods of Greek, Roman and several other mythologies setting up statues and forcing the citizens of Earth to worship them. The gods are trying to take over the planet and run it the way it was before. Olivia and her family do what they are supposed to for a time and then try and leave. She ends up losing her family and runs into Nature, who as you may guess is actually Mother Nature. The story unfolds are Olivia and Nature work on getting rid of the gods are restoring Earth to its former glory.
I have to say, I thought that this book, for the most part was very original. I have read a lot of Rick Riordan and I was pleased the DJ Torres didn't follow in his footsteps. She created her own story and made me want to keep reading. I liked that Olivia was an outcaste and Nature saw her potential from the second they ran into each other.
There was a scene about half way through the story where they were playing a game that very much reminded me of Quiddich. I am not sure if that was intentional, but it was very entertaining. I loved all of the characters, even the antagonists and I can't wait for the second installment of this series.
I gave this book a four out of five stars. I thought it was a great read and I would recommend it to anyone. I am excited to share this with some of my younger cousins. This is to me a middle grade read, but with that said, I think that everyone should check this story out when it is released on April 4, 2017.

The Nature of Gods: Awakening seemed to be an interesting read after reading the blurb.
After I started reading, I was sucked into this world pretty quickly. Olivia, Nature and other characters are very emotional and I got to know them very fast. The writing was very imaginative and there was a great balance between dialoge and descriptions.

I can't tell you more positive things, because that was about it. I honestly loved the writing style but it just couldn't make up for a cliche plot. The bullied girl gets super powers, finds Mr. Right while fighting the evil guys and becomes popular. That was the whole book in one sentence. I wish there had been some plot twists that were actual twists(!). I though the love interest was kind of lame and a little unreasonable.
Olivia and her neighbour barely ever talked with each other and all of the sudden he makes her compliments and touches her in the face all the time. She doesn't get his advances for a long time, either. That was pretty unrealistic in my opinion.

It might seem a bit harsh but it was hard to enjoy the book with such obviously not thought-through actions, characters and dialoges. Sometimes I felt that the dialoges were kind of just there to fill the page. I don't know. Maybe I am just a little too old (20) but maybe younger readers can excuse such things. I had higher expactations that unfortunately, were not met, even though the premise captured me instantly.

I only give 1 star to the books I hated but I didn't hate this one. It was just annoying to finish.

When the gods appear, everyone must worship even they wanted to stay alive. Olivia and her family are forced to bend to the gods wills to survive. But when everything is taken from her, Olivia find herself helping a girl named Nature to save the world.

The reason I disliked this book is because it has every cliche possible. Let's see:
The chosen one trope? Check
The girl is unpopular and bullied by the mean girl popular girl in school? double check
insta-love? Oh God, it was too much
She gains super powers? Yep
Villains are villains because.. just because (other than greed of course)? Yeah..

While I don't hate the chosen one thing, it was poorly done in this book. It was just a combination of things I read about in other books and enjoyed it much more. I didn't see anything new here. Someone way younger than me would've enjoyed it more.

D.J. Torres writing style was lovely but would have preferred less as in Whaaat and less argh in the dialogues. Speaking of which, the dialogues were useless. Everyone talks a lot about useless things. I found myself skipping lines and paragraphs. It's because you already know the ending. You even know how. Not for the lack of twists but because you've been there before. The girls admired each other too much "oh you're so beautiful and strong" "no you're the most beautiful creature I\ve seen, you have so much potential". I had to roll my eyes more than a few times. Thus, <b>the book was boring</b>.


The love interest was probably one of the worst I came across. He never showed any interest in her, yet, he suddenly caresses her cheek and removes her glasses. If someone did that to me, I'd probably slap him or kick him or so. They were just like kids, him saying silly jokes, she laughing, he was so kind and loving (even though he barely spoke to her before the apocalypse and she saw him from time to time), it was all ridiculous.

It's the first time I take many notes while reading a book. I won't go over them and just say, this book is not recommended. It was kinda tiresome to finish it. I didn't enjoy it at all.

Oh, I've been going through my notes. She wears fake glasses to hide behind or something. As someone who is almost blind without her glasses, I so offended!!!! She doesn't know what's so good about seeing without glasses. This really irritated me.

Gave up 63% of the way through the book. I did try to finish it but I was getting neck ache from the whiplash-esque changes in direction.

It started so prominsongly. I gobbled up the first 20% delighted at the idea of the old gods reappearing, malevolently, in modern society. Also, I liked Liv, the protagonist, and her quirky mannerisms.

Once she and her family tried to escape, however, it all went downhill very quickly. Eradicating her family and new love, Jace, didn't feel like a huge emotional blow but rather like the reader had been robbed. Nature was interesting but once she, Liv - and, latterly, Paul - began their quest, everything became both shallow and confusing.

Mother Nature + humanity vs. old gods = a premise I could get behind but the writer kept moving onto new ideas so fast each was handled so shallowly that I had no time to compute. And so much of it was narratively convenient. Bam: Liv could fly. Bam: Liv could understand all language. Bam: Liv has a necklace that can show her a god. Bam: Liv has a butterfly-mentor to guide her. Bam: touching Nature means they share thoughts. Bam: Liv is Nature's right hand woman / sister / protégé / friend and has all her powers.

I don't like giving up on books but I also don't like feeling like I'm being robbed.

Great premise. Terrible handling.

This book was nothing like I went in expecting. And that is a good thing. The storyline and character development are well thought out and it takes you on a journey from page 1. Know that this will cause heartbreak, laughs, and a few moments of what am I reading.

A bit confusing but overall a good read.. The beginning definitely could play out smoother to help us prepare for what's to come instead of just being thrown into the ring of fire.

D. J. Torres has this creative way of using words as if she’s putting paint on a canvas which works very well when her main character, Olivia is an artist. Her flamboyant imagery in how she describes the way Olivia sees the world made me think I was touring an art gallery with her settings hanging on the walls.

Her dialogue is perfect, even the way she seamlessly weaves what Olivia is thinking with the conversations around her. She has developed her main characters so well, particularly Olivia, you feel like you’re right there walking alongside them on their adventures.

I have to admit I got a bit thrown because the story went from 0 to 100 practically right away with the whole Greek Gods suddenly appearing and demanding constant worship or death and all the characters felt as confused about it as I did. Olivia went from being the girl that gets bullied just because she exists to suddenly being pushed into a romance with the high school version of McDreamy which seemed incredibly unrealistic; even Olivia seemed to feel that but if Keanu Reeves taught us anything in Speed, love can blossom under traumatic experience. Still her whole head over heels thing that kept getting brought up seemed hard to believe but that’s me the adult speaking, I’m sure if I had to be honest with myself at her age I probably fell completely in love too in a way that made adults shake their heads. Once the character of Nature entered the story the trippy, LSD like, confused feeling continued. I couldn’t stop reading though because the imagery was so attention grabbing and beautiful I wanted to wallow in this new world order.

I loved that we had 2 female characters heading up this story and thankfully Nature is a bad ass since Olivia even with her cool artsy ways is still a love sick teenager.

Honestly I think Rick Riordan made it hard for me to enjoy this more. His whole series on Greek Gods seems to have caused permanent and widespread influences on my view of Greek Gods in children’s fantasy literature.

I think the age bracket it’s designed for will like it but Riordan’s influence is strong and that may affect how this is accepted which is a shame because the writing really is very beautiful.

I couldn't really get into this, I'm not sure why maybe it was the concept.