Undead Gods and Undead Oaths Review

Undead Gods (Undead Gods, #1) by Caitlyn Battelle
on September 18, 2024
Genres: Fantasy, Fantasy & Magic
Format: eARC
Source: Netgalley, Provided by author for honest review
Goodreads

WELCOME TO KAVA, WHERE THE UNDEAD GODS NEITHER HEAR NOR CARE…
Elysia Parker lives each day in fear it will be her last.
The magic the gods carelessly gifted mortals disappeared years ago, and Elysia Parker is all too familiar with what happens when someone is found to be harboring magic in her land. Death.
Cursed but hiding in plain sight within Kava’s royal court, Elysia has her eyes on the crown and its prince. But an unexpected change in her magic throws her carefully laid plans into chaos. In love with the man who could order her death, she searches for an answer to her curse before it’s too late.
From underground tunnels to pleasure houses and rebels who demand payment of the highest kind, Elysia will journey to the death realm and back to find her answers.
But is she willing to face the harsh demands of the truth?
Inspired by Hades and Persephone, Undead Gods is a dark, moody fantasy filled with magic, danger, and a love that may be the heroine's downfall. Follow Elysia Parker into the soot drenched world of Kava as she navigates secrets, betrayal, and ultimately, finding herself amidst a world of lies.

 

 Julie’s Review:

Undead Gods is a gritty fantasy set in a kingdom that is deteriorating and magic has been lost. In fact, any magic use is forbidden and anyone found to be “cursed” by the undead gods with magic is executed.

The characters are complicated and driven to their own goals. Enter our FMC, badass Elysia, who happens to be cursed and is being exploited by her family to point out the cursed or else be turned in herself. She has to bury her guilt because she’s doing this to survive. She’s also in love with/expected to marry the prince. If she can hide behind the Crown, maybe she will be safe.
But princey boy has so many secrets, and trust once lost, is difficult to build back.

Elysia’s character growth from save herself at all costs to the drive to save everyone is where the plot gets intense. Elysia fights behind the scenes to figure out what her curse is trying to tell her, and how to return magic to the realm and save the kingdom, while publicly having to play the role she is given. The prince was just insufferable with his demanding she trust him while not giving her the truth. But he is also cute with his need to rescue animals (like this one particular racoon).

So I’m conflicted on this love story. I wouldn’t call it a romance, since it existed at the start of the book, and only got more complicated. It’s bittersweet to experience her losing trust in her childhood sweetheart. Can this relationship be redeemed?

The side characters are great as well. These friendships are earned through mutual goals and suffering. I also really enjoyed the scenes with the Shadow teaching her to fight and being like a big brother to her. But everyone had different expectations of her, and she finally had to break through and decide for herself which path she will take.

There’s kingdom court politics, lots of murder, yearning and heartbreak, some spicy times, elegant gowns and muddy battles, and illegal underground magic. And then we meet the god of death, and wonder what’s to come.

That ending though! WOW. The set up for the second book made me so thankful I already had it on my kindle. I literally closed this book and navigated to the next.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing the first book so I can catch up before reading book 2.

 

Undead Oaths (Undead Gods, #2) by Caitlyn Battelle
Genres: Fantasy, Fantasy & Magic
Format: eARC
Source: Netgalley
Goodreads

When a mortal woman makes a deal with a god and the fates come out to play... Can she change what has been woven, or will the mistake of a god be the ruin of them all?
Elysia Parker is furious. After making a deal with the god of the dead to find his talisman, she's horrified to learn her mortality is on the line. Still reeling over being doomed to share his throne, Elysia is devastated when she finds out the soot destroying her kingdom is slowly killing her sister.
Working with the god who set her kingdom's destruction into motion, Elysia struggles to trust him or her changing feelings. But with the fates blocking her from finding the talisman, Elysia fears both her kingdom and sister will fall.
With the spread of soot threatening the entire mortal realm, can Elysia defy the fates and find the talisman in time?

 Julie’s Review:

Undead Oaths kicks off immediately after the conclusion of Undead Gods, no recap or anything so it’s a good thing I just read the first book! The deal made with the god of death is the plot and I am here for it!

This book’s trope is now a new obsession: Hades and Persephone reimagined. The god of death yearning for a mortal fated to be his. Say less. And give me more!

“Welcome home, love, I’ve been waiting for you.”

Umm. Excuse me sir. Why am I feral for “where is my wife?” energy? The god of death with shadowy soot magic is a nerdy accountant type always writing in his ledgers is just too adorable. And his eyes burning with blue fire? Ok someone do some character art.

With the deal to find death’s talisman and save the magic I expected epic trials and while Elysia went through some things, it wasn’t exactly how I expected it to go. In fact, there were twists and betrayals at every turn. The fates sending cryptic assignments and those going dangerously awry and yet working out in exciting ways.

Elysia continues to have to prove herself worthy of this “death voyage” and at every turn has to decide whether to save herself or choose others, constantly landing at death’s door, literally and figuratively.

But trust is something she still struggles with and is a big part of her character arc and voyage in this book. Rightfully so, since Aidan is responsible for everything wrong in Elysia’s world. Plus he does the annoying thing of keeping secrets from her. So many problems can be resolved if people would just talk to each other. But then we wouldn’t have the slow burn and death’s yearning.

For the pacing, I will say the first half of the book kind of took some time to get somewhere, with a few high stakes situations but mostly waiting for clues to appear for this death voyage. Then the final maybe third of the book was absolute chaos with the aforementioned betrayals, double and triple crossings, and more surprises. I feel like Princey boy redeemed himself a little with his own journey, though that is still to be continued. I was a bit let down with one of the reveals only in that I felt like this person should have been recognized as who they were in life. The ending though was exiting and emotional and there’s no telling when the next book will be out!

Thanks to Netgalley for providing this book for review.

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