Cover Image: This Eternity of Masks and Shadows

This Eternity of Masks and Shadows

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Member Reviews

This is essentially a dectective-noir/who-dun-it mashup with a very large cast of characters. It’s a lot like watching an action-packed Netflix show or movie, with twists and turns and a lot of mystery surrounding the death of Cairn’s mother, Sedna, which is originally believed to be a suicide.

WHAT I LIKED
🐬 Nanook. This detective MADE the story for me. I can’t even tell you exactly why I loved him so much, but he was just so dang snarky. His interactions with Cairn were just… *chef’s kiss*.

🐬 Squall and Emile. I loved them as background characters. For one, who wouldn’t love a pet Lynx with major sass? And Emile as Cairn’s dad was just so heartbroken and adorable and I loved him. I wished I had seen more of the two characters.

🐬 The pantheons represented. There were sooo many pantheons and Gods. I was really pleased to see some of my more obscure favorites come to life on the page.

🐬 The diversity. The main character is sapphic and Inuit. Lesbian and gay romances are becoming more common in mainstream stories, which is great, but you still don’t see a lot of Native or Inuit MCs! I was very pleased that both Cairn and Nanook represented the Inuit people.

WHAT I DISLIKED
🐬 The overly-large cast. Not only do you have to contend with Cairn’s posse and all the characters she interacts with, but you also have to deal with all the many characters her mother interacts with in flashbacks set 16 years previously. It’s like two different books woven into one and the cast is massive. It made it hard for me to keep track of everyone.

🐬 The excessive action and lack of character development. I like character driven stories as opposed to action-driven stories, so this wasn’t my favorite aspect of the book. However, if you are the opposite and favor action over much anything else, this would probably be a bonus for you!

🐬 The island mystery was difficult to understand. The big mystery of the book was that the voyage members keep dying, but that isn’t clearly explained in the beginning. People just… start dying. And for some reason that bothered me? I don’t always like things spelled out for me but in this case since there were so many characters to deal with, my brain was in overload.

OVERALL
I quite enjoyed this book overall, which I’m pleased about! It seems like I haven’t really been enjoying new books lately so I was happy to finally enjoy one again. I’d love to get my hands on a physical copy of this one day! I would also classify this more as a New Adult story than a Young Adult one based on how it read.

I recommend this book to anyone who likes action-packed detective noirs with strong female leads and large supporting casts.

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Oh what an incredibly fun jaunt of a book!

This is the tale of world in which the gods of old -- of all pantheons and traditions -- walk among mortals with their full array of divine powers. Some lead normal lives, some fight hidden fights, and some seek to use these strengths for personal gain.

Cairn Delacroix is a relatively normal teenager whose mother happens to be Sedna: the Inuit goddess of the sea and marine animals. Sedna's sudden death by apparent suicide leads Cairn and a growing cadre of friends and foes through a tumultuous spiral of power, half-truths, self-discovery, and intrigue.

I'm a total sucker for mythology and extraordinary powers stories, and this one hit all the right buttons. Karsten Knight masterfully weaves together the right dashes of grief, <i>noir</i>, the fallibility of the human (and superhuman) condition, and the struggles of modern life in this tale of justice and redemption. While there were a few storylines that I would have liked to have seen drawn out and expounded upon, I was, nonetheless, very pleased by the rollercoaster the story presented.

I would very much like to see more written in this world. The possibilities seem almost endless.

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I requested an ARC of this book, and all opinions are my own.

The premise of this book was what caught my attention, and it had such potential but I don't think it lived up to expectations. The story was a bit all over the place until towards the end, and even that was hard to follow at times.

The basic story is based on the idea that Gods - from all cultures - live among us. Some choose to remain in the shadows, while others have embraced their identities out in the open, often taking mortal partners and having children. The caveat to this is that when the God or Goddess dies, they are reincarnated with no memory of their past incarnation.

In this story, Cairn Delacroix - daughter of the Inuit Sea Goddess Sedna - finds out her mother was leading a bit of a double (or triple) life after she dies mysteriously. Cairn is thrown into a world of vigilantes with secrets that could destroy life as we know it - unless she can bring an immortal killer to justice.

My biggest problem with the book is Cairn herself. She is supposed to be the spunky 18 year old protagonist who picks up her mother's mantle, but she mostly comes off as snarky and insincere. Plus, we really don't get enough character development to make you care about her one way or the other. The other characters get the same non-treatment - they are one-dimensional, and just not that interesting.

The other problem I had was the plot - the story kept jumping back and forth in time, which is not a bad thing when done well. I just don't think it was in this case.

Overall, this book was disappointing, and I would not recommend.

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Apologies book wouldn’t download regardless what I tried but won’t leave a bad review because of this.

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This Eternity of Masks and Shadows was a pleasant surprise of a book. I was not sure what to expect. It blends a few different genres and does it well. I really loved the Gods angle, it was so different from anything else I have read. The characters are well written, I especially loved Nook and Vulcan. The plot is unique and really interesting. I was genuinely surprised at a few reveals. It is a great story, with interesting characters, and an exciting plot, not much more you could ask for.

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The adventure of trying to discover who done it, and why, was fun. This secret agent aspect of the gods and how that team fell apart brought a fun twist to things. While the world building was not as thorough as some, the fast pace of this book felt like it excused that. The entire time, I was on the edge of my seat needing to know- what happens next?

Admittedly, things became predictable as the story moved along. Without spoiling anything, about 50% into the book, I had figured out who had done what. That didn’t take away from my enjoyment, it just made me want to see how the author fleshed this out. I would like more from this as a series, perhaps with more world building and various other myths brought into the storylines.

I found all the characters interesting to read about, although, Sedna was much more interesting to read on than her very mortal daughter Cairn. Perhaps a prequel would make this entire thing just fantastic.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and can’t wait to read more from Karsten.

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3.5 stars. A good read, quick, but overall a bit boring. I love the concept but the execution left me wanting a little more. Overall though, a nice read.

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I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This Eternity of Masks and Shadows is about a girl named Cairn's journey to discover the truth about her mother's death. In a world in which the gods from every Pantheon are being reincarnated when they die and walk the earth, she must discovery the truth before it is too late.

What I liked about this book
it's a murder mystery - at some points I felt like I was watching an episode of CSI.
it's full of twists and turns - there are plot twists throughout the book that are completely unexpected!
it's fast paced - in every chapter something happens that moves the story along and keeps you interested.
my favourite character is Ahna - she is extremely funny! I actually laughed out loud at some of her lines.
This book kind of reminded me of the Percy Jackson book series but for older readers. I would highly recommend it if you like books about gods and magic.

5 stars

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It's been a while since I've had a book hangover. Is the next book out? This is Percy Jackson for adults and is wickedly clever. Gods and goddesses galore! It's pretty fast paced and hooks you quickly. Romance is a subplot, so dont expect much from that.

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ARC from NetGalley

This book suffers from trying to cram too many things into one. The amount of disbelief you need to suspend in order to enjoy it is, well, a lot.

You have gods who are reincarnated over and over. Why? We never know. Why do they take mortal bodies but still retain their powers? We never find out.

I'm going to get spoilery now, fair warning.





How is it that this has been happening for millennia, and they are reincarnated over and over and over, yet what happened at the end of the book never happened prior. In all these years, you're telling me that none of the gods decided to take advantage of their powers to be worshiped again? You're telling me only one of them decided that this was important, and only in this iteration of her immortal life? Humans would have absolutely been subjugated loooong ago, because Karsten Knight decided that they would be fallibly human, driven by human motivations, desires, and emotions. I mean honestly I can think of nothing more frightening than a human with superhuman abilities. Humans are selfish assholes.

You're telling me that a god decided with a snap of the fingers to train an 18-year-old girl to go and hunt down murderers and various other criminals? She has no skills. No talent. She's not particularly strong. She's not special. She brings nothing to the table aside from the knowledge that gods and goddesses exist in human form? It's ridiculous.

She trains to fight, but she admits that all of this takes place over the course of 3 fucking months. The superhero schtick is shoe-horned in. Karsten Knight wants Cairn to be Batman. The costume she dons at the end is just cringe-worthy. So much is cringe-worthy, and that is a significant shame because it is otherwise relatively well-written and engaging.

There were parts where I genuinely enjoyed myself, but those parts were unfortunately overshadowed by the faults in this book. Karsten Knight is a decent writer. He writes an engaging mystery, but he tried to kitchen sink this book, and it didn't work. It COULD have worked if there was a bit more effort put into the history and a bit more assistance in helping the reader suspend disbelief. I hope that the next book is better, because there's certainly the potential for it.

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Actual rating: 4.5🌟

This is a well blended story with mixtures of fantasy, romance, mystery, crime and suspense.

Our main heroine Cairn is the daughter of a goddess who was murdered. This is her story as she tries to find the murderer and give justice to her mother.

It was very easy for me to dive into the story. The writing flows naturally and I enjoy how vivid I see/imagine the things that I'm reading.

At first I was confused on all the info dump on different mythological gods/goddesses. I love how there's a mystery and I really had no clue at all on who the murderer is.

As clues started appearing, I joined Cairn and her allies as they decipher the truth. This was a book with lots of plot twists and I was always shocked on every turn. 😅

I don't usually read books with mystery/crime/investigation on it. I'm more of a romance girl. But I did enjoy this.👍 Also, there's a bit of romance here though not the center of the story. It's a f/f romance.

I'm not a super fan of Cairn but I do admire her tenacity even though at times she's impulsive. My favorite characters in the book are Nook and Vulcan. They are both reliable and sensible characters. Love them.❤

I like the story and it was an exciting read.👍

**Thanks for netgalley, the publisher and author for making this available for review.**

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This book surprised me a lot. I was expecting it to enjoy it but not as much as I did.
Definitely recommend if you like a book with an explosive ending, goog characters, great worldbuilding, nice writing and overall a book that will leave you at the egde of your seat.

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I received this ARC in exchange for my honest review

I loved this book. If you like fantasy, then give this one a try

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Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this book!

I so loved the blend of mythical and modern day in this novel! The story line was well written and kept me drawn in the whole time. My only fault was there were moments where I felt more detail could have been added- the main character, Cairn, some times annoyed me- but otherwise it was a well thought out story line. Would definitely recommend!!

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This was an interesting read.

Gods and goddesses walk the Earth, reincarnated every few hundred years. This book follows Cairn, the daughter of Sedna, Inuit goddess of the Sea.

The story follows her as she is trying to discover what, or who killed her mother. She discovers that her mother went on a voyage that ended in unspeakable tragedy and that every member that went on that voyage, one by one, is dying. Cairn with the help of Detective Nanook, Inuit Master of Polar Bears, they try to find who, or what is killing off Gods and Goddesses.

When I first started this, I was worried that it would not keep my attention, but boy was I wrong. This book is a wonderful blend of myth, superhero tale, and urban fantasy. The world here is so similar to our own but the world-building here was amazing.

The characters were all varied and complex and the villain didn't seem like a caricature either. I would highly recommend this!

Also, there is LGBT rep, and I loved the main couple. :)

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ARC received in exchange for an honest review - Thank you

The second that I read the synopsis for this book, I knew it was right up my reading alley. Gods who can all walk amongst mortals - yes please!

This was an urban fantasy with a twist of a murder-mystery set in Boston.

We follow Cairn Delacroix who is 18 years old and after the death of her mum, Ahna who is the reincarnation of Sedra. I suspected that it would be cheesy especially when we met the Polar Bear God who was the detective but he turned out to be one of the best characters in this book in my opinion - well, let's be honest - the arctic tiger was my favourite but there was absolutely not enough reading time there.

Overall, I feel like this book could have been better. I have so many questions that are still unanswered. The Gods are walking amongst mortals but they seem so watered down that at times, they seemed more mortal than some of the genuine mortals. I felt like this book needed to be fleshed out so much more and with a few more twists, could have become a favourite but it missed the mark for me personally.
The ending was just so predictable for me very quickly on.

I'd absolutely read another book by Karsten Knight though as there is some definite talent there.

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I received this novel as an ARC from NetGalley.

I felt that the worldbuilding was very well done. The concept, that gods live among us and are reincarnated with new personalities but the same powers was a fun new take on the concepts of mythology. The author blended this concept with modern science-fiction ideas to create a unique and interesting plot.

The main character, an 18-year-old demi-god in search of the truth didn't feel fully realized to me. Her motivation for the story, while compelling, felt a little bit forced. This might have been because I knew from the book-description that true motivations behind her mother's death. That I feel was a mistake on the part of the publisher, which made me feel less connected to the main character and her motivations. The rest of the main cast of protagonists were more nuanced and believable. I feel that the antagonists were also a bit one-sided, but not all antagonists can be multi-layered.

The plot was well-paced and kept me hooked as I read. I didn't feel that the story stopped moving or had any obvious issues. I would like to keep reading this series and when the next book comes out I will be waiting to pick up and learn more about this interesting world and some of the characters who were introduced but didn't take the spotlight in this novel.

For fans of urban fantasy with a dash of X-men like concepts, this is a great YA fantasy novel.

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Americans Gods meets a Marvel movie.

In a world where gods of the past have been reincarnated for centuries and living among us, teenager Cairn is mourning the suicide of her mother/water goddess Sedna. As Cairn investigates the strange circumstances surrounding her mother's death, she finds a whole other side to her mother and secrets from the past that may be the cause for the recent mysterious deaths of other gods and goddesses.

This was a fast-paced, fun read and I very much enjoyed it. I liked the flash backs from Sedna’s diary which always left me hanging in the best way and I did not predict the twists. What started out as a murder mystery turned into and superhero story and I was not mad about it. My only gripe was that I liked Cairn’s character until the end in which she turned into a Mary Sue type character out of nowhere which made for too clean of an ending. There isn’t much cultural background into the gods or goddesses so it’s not a book to be taken too seriously. If there was a sequel I would read it (even though I’m totally over the superhero/Marvel thing).

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I cannot recommend this book enough. I was excited to read something different and this book did not disappoint me.

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I just couldn't finish this book because it just didn't keep my attention. I am sure some will love this but it just wasn't for me.

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