HOLIDAY HAPPINESS: Book Review: The Lost Sun by Tessa Gratton

Title: The Lost Sun (The United States of Asgard #1)

Author: Tessa Gratton

Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers

Release Date: June 25, 2013

Format Read: Hardback

Description from Goodreads: Fans of Neil Gaiman's AMERICAN GODS and Holly Black's THE CURSE WORKERS will embrace this richly drawn, Norse-mythology-infused alternate world: The United States of Asgard. Seventeen-year-old Soren Bearskin is trying to escape the past. His father, a famed warrior, lost himself in the battle-frenzy and killed thirteen innocent people. Soren cannot deny that berserking is in his blood-- the fevers, insomnia, and occasional feelings of uncontrollable rage haunt him. So he tries to remain calm and detached from everyone and Sanctus Sigurd's Academy. But that's hard to do when a popular, beautiful girl like Astrid Glyn tells Soren she dreams of him. That's not all Astrid dreams of-- the daughter of a renowned prophetess, Astrid is coming into her own inherited abilities.

When Baldur, son of Odin and one of the most popular gods in the country, goes missing, Astrid sees where he is and convinces Soren to join her on a roadtrip that will take them to find not only a lost god, but also who they are beyond the legacy of their parents and everything they've been told they have to be.

The reason I picked up THE LOST SUN is that 1.) She wrote a book with Maggie Stiefvater, and 2.) She was going to be at a book fest I was attending. After having read it, I can safely say that this is one of those books that I will go back and forth with.

There were things in this book that I loved (Baldur's character, the idea of tying Norse into an alternate United States, Soren and his constant attempts at suppressing his berserker blood) and things that I didn't (The love story between Astrid and Soren, the way everything just kind of happened without much explanation about the world, the ending of the book). I see the good, and I see the bad. Even now, writing this, I can't decide whether I liked it or I didn't.

Taking that into consideration, I do intend on reading book two. I'm hoping that will help solidify my feelings, one way or another. Until then, I give THE LOST SUN a two-three star review, because I can't decide but I think it was one of the two.

Happily,

Stephanie