I'd hate to describe a book as 'dull' but, that's the only word that pops to my head when I think of it. Pacing was off, the characters (specifically the main character) wasn't my favorite and the book didn't keep my interest.

I was absolutely thrilled when I was accepted and received an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. With most ARC's, there were quite a few spots in the book where it needed some smoothing out and depth added to make the final copy a great story. Vikings are simply fascinating with their various gods and mischievous Loki.
Lena is a young girl of 17 years and is the heir to her village. Her destiny is to marry and become the leading family after her father, the Chief, dies. Her sister is madly in love with a young man named Amal and wishes to one day make their relationship permanent. Unfortunately, the gods have taken notice of Fressa and she is the unwilling victim of their games. It is now up to Lena to do what must be done in order to bring her sister back from an ending that was not supposed to be. Horrible things are happening since Fressa's death and it looks like the tales of the end of the world may not be a scary story to tell little children anymore. Suddenly, life is spiraling out of control for Lena and her village. She will be forced to do things that a healer and a good soul should never have to do in order to find the right path that will lead her to stopping these horrible events from playing out. People are not who they seem to be. The village is suddenly part of a much bigger plan in the gods' games and struggle for power and the fate of the world rests on Lena's young shoulders.

Full review will be posted on CelticsLibrary.com by end of May 2020

Coming off the back of Outrun The Wind, i had high expectations for this one. Being based around two sisters and their relationship prior to one of them being found dead, this had a lot of promise. Unfortunately it fell a little flat for me.

So for starters, the cover of this one is amazing. Every time I look at it my eye catches some other small detail that i had previously missed.

For the first 15%(ish) I found myself easily distracted as the initial introductions to the characters and story dragged a little. Once the deal with Hela is made, the pace definitely picked up.

Im not sure exactly what it was about Lena that put me off but i felt her to be very unlikable. This actually baffled me a little because im usually one to love unlikeable characters.

I did however quite enjoy the references to Norse mythology. Being a history buff from a young age, i found it refreshing to read about a Norse god other than the usual cast of Thor, Loki, Odin and Freya.

Overall it was neither a bad nor fantastic novel. It was one which while not the fastest paced or enthralling, I'm still glad i read it

The first thing that drew me to THE WEIGHT OF A SOUL is the fierce bond between two sisters. This was a bit darker than I normally prefer but the story was so well written and you couldn’t help but be pulled into it. It was also fun to see a story involving mythology that wasn’t one that had been told and retold a million times.

3.5 Stars

'The Weight of a Soul' is an intriguing young adult novel that is centered around Viking culture and Norse mythology. I'm always excited to read any books that have mythology in them and I don't really know much about Norse myths, so this sounded perfect. The author did a wonderful job of bringing Lena's Viking village to life. It was like going back in time and watching their daily lives and routines play out right in front of me. I enjoyed learning more about the culture, history, and people from that time. The other major part of the book - the mythology - was incredibly fascinating for me. I absolutely devoured all of the stories of the gods and goddesses, the different worlds, and various myths that are talked about. I feel like I learned a lot about it from a sociological angle as well as a much more first-hand belief system. Since the story is told from Lena's point of view, we learn everything right along with her as the story goes on. It made the gods and goddesses and these places seem so realistic and easy to believe in. I really love that we get an up close look at Norse mythology from a couple different angles throughout the whole book.

That was probably the aspect of the book that I enjoyed most. The plot had great potential and the author wove a good narrative that kept me intrigued and engaged for the most part. The one big thing that bugged me was Lena's basic obsession with her sister Fressa. Fressa's only in the story for like 2 chapters, but it felt like the whole book was actually centered around Lena's obsession with her and bringing her back from the dead. And I completely understand that they're sisters, best friends, and all of that - but it felt like the story took it a couple steps up from there. I feel like 90% of Lena's thoughts, emotions, memories, and actions all had to do with Fressa. I was okay with it at first when she decides to make a deal with Hela to get her back, but then it just started to annoy me. Honestly, it bugged me so much that I almost had to stop reading. The only thing that made me keep going was the mythological aspect of the book.

Lena was a great main character and I grew to really love her during the story. She's realistic and filled with tons of varying emotions all the time - love, hate, rage, sadness - and she has both good and bad traits just like all the rest of us. Another big thing for me is always the writing style - mainly the point of view the story is written from. I basically always prefer the first person POV. I think it lets the reader get a deeper and more personal connection with the narrator and it pulls you into the story itself. Sadly, this book was written in the third person from Lena's perspective. That was kind of strike two for me. Without having that connection with Lena and getting lost in her world, I couldn't connect on a level that I prefer. It just makes me feel like I'm reading a story - not actually losing myself inside of one and feeling like I'm experiencing everything right alongside the narrator. The other characters were pretty flat and stereotypical, which was a bummer. Again - these are my own personal thoughts and opinions and obviously not everyone is going to feel the same way. I do recommend it for fans of historical fiction, historical fantasy, Viking culture, Norse mythology, and stories about quests and journeys.

This was a quick and okay read. I enjoyed the setting, characters, and plot line. There were several surprises that I did not see coming. Overall this one gets 3.5 stars from me.

I really liked the setting of this story and the story world in general. So many fantasy stories that I read use a British/Celtic model for their magic, so having this set in the Norse pantheon was a nice change for me. I confess that I don’t know as much about those deities as I do others, which made reading about them even more enjoyable.

Lena is a good character and an easy one to relate to. She feels oppressed by the society she lives in and the fact that her sister has died and she is forced to marry the man her sister loved makes everything even more complicated. Yeah, that happens. Which is really messed up and awkward to say the least. Lena is utterly devoted to her sister Fressa and determined to find a way to save her, even from death. Their relationship is a beautiful thing to read.

There is a twist at the end involving Lena’s family, including Fressa, that I didn’t see coming at all. Obviously I’m not going to spoil it here, but it does involve a certain popular trickster god who I’m sure you all can guess. I won’t say what he’s up to, but you know whenever he’s involved, things are likely to get complicated.

This was a very refreshing read with good pacing, good character development, and a fun take on Norse mythology. I do have to wonder if there are any plans for a sequel, since I could easily see there being more to this story. GoodReads doesn’t mention anything and the author’s website doesn’t either. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Wonderful book!
Really liked reading this fresh and outstanding book. It was a real pleasure to read it.
Thanks for the publisher for the opportunity to read this in advance

Thank you to the publisher for an ARC copy! I was very interested in the nordic mythology in story, but that’s pretty much all that interested me. I had a hard time connecting to the characters and there wasn’t much holding me there to continue reading. Unfortunately it was a 2 star book for me. Not saying it was a bad story, just was not a good fit for my reading tastes.

While I loved the Norse mythology and Scandinavian inspired setting, this story about sisterly love and what they'd do for each other did not pull me in. There was a distant quality to the writing that didn't allow me to be fully immersed in the story. I wish that I had enjoyed this more because it had all the elements that should have pulled me in.

This book was such an amazing story! I loved the journey we went on with the characters and nothing felt like it was left unanswered. I can't wait to see what Elizabeth writes next she is definitely going to be on my radar

I wanted to love this book. I liked it, but didn’t connect the way I wanted to. I’m all for the dark and murdery, this ironically lacked the emotional weight to make it work. think The Weight of a Soul would have benefited from another edit to help smooth out the pacing. The first half of the book didn’t match the second.

I’m a big fan of concepts that went into creating this book: the worth of one’s soul; the things one’s willing to do for the sake of their loved ones; fulfilling one’s duty even when it’s the last thing one wants to do. All of that makes for a very much morally grey story, to say the least.

It’s also mixed up with Norse mythology for a bit of that fantasy feeling and honestly, Tammi does a great job of implementing the myths and gods into the novel. It doesn’t feel like a mythology textbook, but like a proper story, as it should.

I’m not the biggest fan of the pacing, though. A lot is happening at the beginning of the novel, only for things to suddenly cool down later on. There’s no real progression and anticipation. And (but that’s just a personal preference) the writing style left something to be desired…

All in all, I liked the idea for The Weight of a Soul more than I liked the execution, but I’m sure not everyone will have the same reaction as me.

Interesting premise, but it didn't live up to its potential. The plot is very slow, predictable, and has a lot of holes. While Lena cares for her sister and wants to bring her back, she never once really grapples with the moral dilemma of killing others to do it, despite the fact that she's a healer. She even tries to kill one of her friends, who strangely never reports the act and we never hear from her again.

This book is about the daughter of the leader of a Viking clan. I loved her character, she was young but growing into a strong female lead!. I found the soul magic in the book to be interesting but a bit confusing. Overall, it was beautifully written and an interesting piece if you do not know much about Vikings!

I found The Weight of a Soul pretty tricky to get a handle on in terms of writing up a coherent review, so bear with me...

I read Elizabeth Tammi's last book (her debut) Outrun the Wind in 2018 and I really enjoyed it. My review is here. When I saw she had a second book -- tackling a different mythology (Norse instead of Greek), with an intriguing summary and stunning cover -- I jumped at the chance to review it. Life got in the way and I'm a little behind schedule, but I still had very high hopes.

And, in a lot of ways, The Weight of a Soul is a very good story that does a lot of things well but, clearly, there were also things that just didn't work for me.

The Weight of a Soul is a very fast paced and readable story. I was actually shocked when I checked the page count, because I fairly flew threw it and assumed it was shorter.

I loved the idea of the story and of the main character, Lena. I'm a sucker for morally grey, complicated, potentially unlikeable characters and, as driven and ruthless as Lena is, she certainly fit the bill. However, I think Lena may actually be the story's downfall. As the summary says, Lena must kill to find a soul to take her sisters place. My issue was, from the Lena we first see, even driven by grief, she seem to accept this idea far, far too quickly.

She has one quick meeting with Hela, and then she's just ,"Okay dokey, off to Dexter a village".  There's never any moral quandary, any real debate or any complexity to her character. Even as things spiral out of control and she goes to great extremes she never seem to agonize over her choice. Even that I could forgive but, at the same time, Lena also never feels truly invested in her goals. She willing to kill to save her sister, but it almost feels like she's working through a shopping list of things to do for the day: clean house, walk dog, murder neighbour.

I needed either more debate and inner conflict, or more zeal and conviction.

Overall, I feel that The Weight of a Soul had a great premise -- and I wanted to love it -- but something in the execution lacked spark.

Whenever anything even briefly mentions mythology of any kind it immediately piques my interest. For this reason I was very intrigued by this novel, however, I found that the Viking culture and Norse mythology elements were one of the only strong parts to the story. The overall atmosphere and concept were things I should have liked, but I found the pacing to be inconsistent mixed with unlikeable characters.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book. A full review will be posted on Amazon and Goodreads

Unfortunately this book was not for me. I am very picky about YA fantasy and this one did not make the cut. I like the overall atmosphere of this story but i did not enjoy the execution. Thank you for giving me the chance to read this novel.

I would give this book a solid three stars. I liked the Norse mythology flavor it had, and I really love the concept for the storyline. However, I think the synopsis gives far too much information as well as inaccurate information. This book just didn't do it for me. I will continue to seek out other books based in Norse mythology but am a little hesitant to pick up other things by this author.