I am an author and a picky reader. This novel was my first selection to review on NetGalley.

During the first few pages, I was worried that this book would not hold my attention . . . boy was I wrong!

There was a line delivered by Cairn’s dad, Emile, explaining the dynamics of his relationship to a woman (Cairn’s mother) who has been coming back to earth like a boomerang since the dawn of humanity. This was such a fun and intriguing concept . . . I had to know more about Ahna Delacroix (AKA-Sedna-goddess of sea life).

I really enjoyed the characters, the mythology, and the modern X-men feel to the storyline.

The relationships featured, and the connection to relatable human emotions throughout, make this book an enjoyable pick even if Fantasy is not your favorite genre.

I highly recommend "This Eternity of Masks and Shadows" and look forward to exploring more titles by Karsten Knight.

This was definitely an interesting ride of a story. A mix of mythologies, vengeful gods, a murder mystery, and one heck of a quest. The story itself was a thrilling ride and I found myself eager to see how the murder mystery was solved. I loved the addition of various mythologies and gods into the story as well as the modern adaptation of them. It was an interesting spin and I found myself really liking the main protagonist Cairn. Cairn is a girl who is just trying to solve the mystery of how her mother died whilst also uncovering that she did not know her mother as well as she thought. Thoroughly interesting story and I highly recommend it for anyone who likes stories that mix mystery and fantasy together. It was a good read and I quite enjoyed it!

***Thank you NetGalley for sending me a early arc ****

4/5

This book is just a lot of fun! Between the fast paced plot and urban fantasy mystery, I burned through this read in record time. When all is said and done, it has its flaws but the entertainment factor is high enough that they’re easy to overlook.

This Eternity of Masks and Shadows drops right into a world where the reincarnations of ancient gods walk the earth. Some go public for fame and power, while others remain incognito. The main character, Cairn, is the daughter of the Inuit god of the afterlife, Sedna. When Cairn’s mother dies mother commits suicide under strange circumstances, she’s left devastated and seeking answers. As other gods begin to die under similar mysterious circumstances, Cairn teams up with detective Nook, a bear god, to get answers about the deaths and the secret’s of her mother’s past.

And what you see is what you get. This book is pure entertainment and it does it well. This isn’t a book for prose, big ideas or complex characters and frankly it doesn’t need to be because that’s not what it’s going for. It’s a young adult buddy cop story with a heaping side of supernatural. You’ll get oodles of action, mysterious deaths, a miracle working tech side kick, pulpy action dialogue, the whole shebang. And if the characters fall a bit flat, and Cairn is a bit too capable to be believable? Well, it’s not dragging down the story too much.

One thing I really enjoyed is that the gods featured in this book are pretty different than your normal crowd. Karsten Knight dips pretty deep into the mythology for these gods, and it’s refreshing to see some new faces from common and uncommon pantheons alike. Be warned though, some of the deaths in this book are downright brutal. The book doesn’t linger on the details so it won’t turn stomachs too badly but it’s something to be aware of.

My biggest and most petty complaint is that the name doesn’t feel like it fits the book! I get that ‘Something of This and That’ is a huge young adult book naming trend but the name sounds like historic Venetian political intrigue, not really urban fantasy.

My second and much more substantial largest complaint is that the villain’s ultimate motivations were pretty uninspired. I also would have liked to see more friendship/partnership development moments between Cairn and Nook. They go from sassy dialogue to legitimate concern for each other pretty quickly, and it wasn’t as believable as it could have been.

Overall, it’s good fun!

Recommended if you like:
Fast paced, action heavy plots
Urban fantasy
Mythological fantasy (especially with rarer gods)
Buddy cop duos
Female/female romance
Revenge stories

This book is so amazing ! There are so many thrills while I was reading,and don't know even from where to start ! Each chapter kept me wanting more. I love the book,the characters,the plot ...and I can't stop imagine how would be live in a city full of troubled gods!

Karsten Knight creates an engaging world and a well-written narrative in this book. I would gladly add This Eternity of Masks and Shadows to my personal or classroom shelf, and I can think of students I've had over the years who would immediately gravitate to this otherworldly book. Well done!

This Eternity of Masks and Shadows was such an enjoyable read. I honestly have no words on how to describe my love for this book because it was such a thrill. It had a mix of genres I liked: mystery, fantasy, action, and romance. The book was written so well that each chapter kept me wanting more. The plot was just amazing. I love how it started off as a young girl trying to cope with the loss of her mother and then you suddenly fall into something greater and more complex as you join the protagonist in solving the mystery about her mother's death.

As somebody who grew up reading myths, I loved how the author incorporated all these different mythologies from different cultures. It introduces readers to knew mythologies and delves them deeper into such a vast topic. I also liked how smaller myths and gods had great roles and I really appreciate the author's attention to detail as he built this world.

Also I highly appreciate how Cairn is a member of the LGBT community and how it just feels so natural. I really liked Cairn's character. I admire her strength, courage, intelligence and most of all, her love for her friends and family. Her relationship with her mother makes this book feel relatable and even with all the gods and how grand the world is, the mother-daughter dynamic is never overpowered by something else. I feel like a lot of people can look up to Cairn and relate to her.

Overall, I just loved this book, the characters, all the gods, and the plot twists. The only problem I had was that the book's ending made me want for more, especially with all the possibilities created by the inclusion of all these myths.

I was given the ARC of this book from Netgalley. I tried, but I just couldn’t do it. DNF at 15%. By that point, I feel like you should know the plot of the book. I had absolutely no idea. I knew who the main character was—mainly from reading the book description—but her character is barely introduced before it switches to another character who I don’t know. It was also hard to follow the magic involved. Every god seemed to have a different power which is obviously fine, but very little was explained, so I ended up with more questions than answers.

I want to thank NetGalley and author Karsten Knight for providing me with an ARC of this novel.

Three of my favorite things were in this book: mythology, murder, and mystery (major emphasis on mythology for me). I loved how many elements of Gods and Goddesses were included within this novel, and I loved how the powers of the G&G’s were melded into their real world lives. This was fast paced, inclusive (shout out to LGBTQIA+ characters), and I would like more, please. What a fun world to exist in; I would definitely like to travel there again.

Thank you again to those named above for the opportunity to read and review this ARC!

Imagine a world where all the myths of Gods and Goddesses are real and they walk among us? Each one has the ability to be reincarnated with their powers but they have no memories of their past lives or relations.

After 18 year old Cairn Delacroix, is dealt a devastating blow from the death of her mum/ reincarnated Goddess Sedna, she questions everything she has ever known. As the truth unravels, she realizes her mother was a member of a secret league dedicated towards protecting humanity from tyrannous Gods. As each member of the league is murdered in cold blood, she digs deeper into her past and realizes it all started on the island of Sable Noir where the league has their first and only mission.

Cairn soon realizes that the only thing more dangerous than the ghosts of Sable Noir are the secrets that are threatening to explode. As she spirals into the web of lies and deceit, she slowly realizes how much of a stranger her mother was, and how an unexpected blast from the past can destroy everything in her life and the only relationship she has left worth anything- her best friend/crush Delphine.

This Eternity of Masks and Shadows has a world where gods walk the earth, but as usual, where there is power, there is greed and destruction. Not all the gods play by the rules and can go rogue, as can be expected if you have masses of power on your side. Our protagonist is Cairn Delacroix, who is bent on avenging her mother’s death at the hands of one of these gods.

The protagonist is a lesbian and I believe this book has a good representation of it. Usually, and I’m not sure if this is because I’ve been reading the wrong books, but LGBT relationships in the books I have read mostly sound a little odd, like a piece that doesn’t quite fit. Either that, or it is brought out like something used to market the book. That is to say it feels like those books are screaming “Hey, look they’re gay!” and that doesn’t feel good at all. However, This Eternity of Masks and Shadows is wonderful at making the lesbian relationship a part of the story that flows and is treated very normally, like a “yes, lesbians exist and they’re wonderful and shouldn’t be treated like some oddity from a circus” way.

The same goes for the female characters in the book. In an age of growing female empowerment, feminist themes are often highlighted in books. That is nice and all, but this book does this marvellously by treating it as a normal thing, which it should be. The female characters are treated like every other male character, and each character gets their own fair share of development. I also loved how this book showed that it is possible for a strong female character – in this case, Delphine – to exist without having her fight and be a “badass” (which, understandably, is often misunderstood). Even if there are female characters who know how to fight, their personalities aren’t made up solely of that. What I like about all the characters in this book is that all of them feel impossibly real. It is easy to immerse yourself in their stories, to understand their motivations and their goals.

The plot is full of twists and turns though it has its fair share of predictable moments and moments where you think “I should have seen that coming”. It is fast paced throughout, has mysteries that kept me wondering and reading, only reluctantly putting down the book when I had to. At times the plot did not hold very well together like the beginning where the point of views and the timelines switched, but I was constantly going through that process of slight disappointment and pleasant surprise, so I thought it was worthy of its five stars. The grief and the way the characters dealt with their grief made sense and was not overladen with drama just for the sake of it, which made for a nice touch.

This Eternity of Masks and Shadows is an exciting book to read through, and it is one that is true to itself and is unafraid to be wild or even slightly far-fetched when it needs to, which by what I mean, is that the book would have had a stronger ending if the epilogue was excluded. On another note, it was great to read about lesser-known gods than the ones we usually read about.

This book was an absolute delight to read. It follows the story of a young woman named Cairn who is the daughter of the Inuit goddess of the sea and sea creatures. She is living in a world where gods and goddesses from every pantheon live among us and are reincarnated every hundred years or so. After disaster strikes and Cairn's mother is killed, she is left to pick up the pieces and figure out who has been going after gods and goddesses, all while dealing with her intense grief.

As an avid lover of myth, I instantly gravitate toward any book featuring mythology, so I've read many, many retellings over the years. This Eternity of Masks and Shadows approaches it in an entirely new way, though, and it fascinated me throughout the entire book. I loved the intersection of all of the different faiths and belief systems, and the idea of the gods walking among us in our modern society is such an interesting take that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Something else that really stuck out to me was the casual queer relationship featured in this novel. Cairn, the protagonist, is in a relationship with a singer named Delphine, and while she is very clear and unashamed of her identity, it is not the focal point of the story, and I love that. While, as a queer reader, I always appreciate any well-written representation, to have it be treated as any other relationship, as it was in this book, normalizes LGBTQ+ relationships in the real world as well as in fiction. Having gay characters does not always need to be a major statement- they can be treated as regular people without having to focus on making them "different" from anyone else. Cairn is a fully fleshed-out protagonist who's relationship and queerness is not her only personality trait, and I find that makes her so much more realistic and relatable not only to a queer audience but to any reader.

All in all, I found this to be such an enjoyable read. The plot was fast-paced and full of tension, leaving me constantly guessing what was coming next. The characters were well-developed and very loveable, and I found myself rooting for them throughout the entire book. I would definitely recommend this to any mythology lovers, or anyone looking for a murder-mystery style novel with a fun and exciting twist.

I give this book 4/5 stars.

This book ticked off almost all of my expectations from it. I ended up breezing through the book in a few hours! It was a well blended mixture of different genres. The plot lines, although predictable at times, were carried out in a sufficiently well manner.

There were certain things in the story that I had predicted and was pleasantly surprised to find them true:-
Mami Wata wasn't really dead. I mean, how can a water spirit be killed by drowning? Sounds unreasonable, right? ✔️
Delphine has some connection with either Aether/Columbia or Mami Wata. Just a hunch. ✔️
Mami Wata is Columbia? Cairn is Mami Wata? ❌

There were some characters who I wish were more developed- Nook and Columbia. Nook's portrayal left me utterly confused. As for Columbia/Aether, her reason for her activities came out as dull; here, I was expecting some heart-wrenching tale of revenge or something like that but when her purpose was revealed, it left me underwhelmed.

As for the lead character, she was quite captivating; not perfect or likable all the times. At times, I felt that she was unrealistically good at certain things like fights, analyzing, etc. But then I reasoned- Well, she's a demigod. Maybe the author wanted to show how her abilities were elevated above other normal humans. Her lack of substantial character development is a secondary issue and doesn't really hamper the story, in my opinion.

I loved this concept of Gods taking a rebirth every hundred years or so and that they forget everything from their previous life. It highlighted a fact that aside from having some cool superpowers, they weren't really different from normal humans. I liked the attention paid to the portrayal of the incarnations and the sprinkling of myths throughout the story-span. I got to know about many other Gods and myth that hadn't been explored in the books I have read so far. The entire idea along with its execution made my reading journey an enjoyable one.

The relationship between the various characters was portrayed very well. We got to see different facets of the characters as they interacted with each other and with their surroundings. Our protagonist's queer relationships was represented in a believable manner. Out of all the relationships, Cairn and Vulcan's kinship as well as Cairn and Emille's father-daughter relationship are probably my favourites.

A nitpicking from my side is that I didn't get the explosive finale that I was promised. The climax was good but it ended up dampening my reading mood a bit. The epilogue, on the other hand, left me wanting for more.

The Eternity Of Masks And Shadows - A Mythology Murder Mystery with a punch.

I think the idea of the plot was fantastic, it was great to read a book where the gods/goddesses lived amongst mortals and everyone was aware of them and their powers but saw this as a positive.
I also thought the Mythology knowledge was impressive and linked well throughout the novel.

However, I really struggled with the lead character.
I do think it was right to have a female lead for the novel but I found her quite balshy, over powering and not quite believable. I understand her anger and grief was pushing her to avenge her mother's death but I found her to be aggressive and struggled with how she thought she knew more than everyone.

The novel was initially slow to start but once it got going it was fast paced and action packed.

Thrilling. Diverse. Intricate.

This was such a fun read. I had no idea what to expect with this story, and for that I'm so glad because every twist, every turn- all of it was a complete surprise. And that really enhanced my reading experience.

I adored the fact that the main character was lesbian, and the way her sexuality was handled was so normal and real and was some great queer inclusion for the story. I also loved how strong the female characters in general were in this story without having to literally spell out the fact that they could kick butt. Although there were some overly convenient plot points and the main character was unrealistically good at everything (including fatal combat) right away, it was clear from the very first page that she--as well as many of the other women characters--were more than their skills and their bodies. And for that I was incredibly appreciative.

The world took a few chapters to get myself familiarized with, but by the end of the book I understood most of it and found it utterly enthralling. Also, the whole concept is just insanely cool and unique and it was super admirable how much this novel transcended typical genre boundaries.

The attention to mythology was fascinating, and I loved how mundane certain aspects of these gods were. The fact that you could just as well be a therapist as a vigilante when you have these godly powers is so awesome.

In the beginning, the names of everyone were hard to keep up with but I found familiarity in the main cast soon enough. I would have appreciated a larger focus on character development as our main character herself stayed relatively stagnant throughout the entire book. A character arc for Cairn and literally anyone else would have been appreciated.

The banter between the characters was very fun to read and read realistically enough, and the relationships between characters--although not incredibly complex or something we haven't seen before--were sweet and genuine.

I strongly believe that the strongest part of this novel was the adventure elements. When our main characters started to fight all of these gods and monsters, it was incredibly action packed and both thrilling and terrifying at the same time. I would have to stop reading at parts because the monstrous descriptions were truly violent and horrific and spectacular.

The plot was excellent, and the setting was unique and the world building was well done, but all that was lacking for me was in the characters. My favorite would have to be Vulcan, as he was very endearing. Besides him, I just needed more from this cast. The villain lacked nuance and a truly real objective, and the book definitely suffered because of that.

All in all, a super solid read that was not without its flaws, but was still something I would recommend for fans of superheroes, thrillers, and urban fantasy. Thank you NetGalley for approving me this advanced reader's copy, an I look forward to this novel's release!

This Eternity of Masks and Shadows is definitely a jam-packed story with so many different genres all working together wonderfully. If I would sum it up, its a superhero murder mystery where the heroes based on all the different gods and goddess from mythologies around the world. It really is original and spectacularly unique. I loved how these gods and goddesses used their "powers" and what their jobs were in our modern world. For example, Cairn's mother, Sedna, is the Innuit Goddess of the Sea and marine animals... and worked as a Marine Biologist.

The main character, Cairn, is a teen who is in love with her best friend and the beginning really opens up beautifully with so more hope... and then immediately crushes your heart. I loved the scenes with Cairn and Delphine and they might have been my favorite part of the story.

This was a great story... and the ending and epilogue left me wanting to find out more in this world...

This book truly surprised me. I did not want it to end and even days later I find myself thinking about the characters and what happens next. I recomend this book and I'm excited to see what else this author has for us readers.

Interesting blend of multiple mythologies. Nice to see underrepresented mythology in contemporary YA.. The story components were sufficiently well developed if predictable.

This Eternity of Mask and Shadows was brilliant. This was my first ARC read through NetGalley and it is going to be hard to beat. Mystery, mythology and murder - what more could you ask for in a book?

I stormed my way through this, finishing it in just one day. As soon as I put it down I itched to pick it back up again, I was reluctant to do anything else; my mind constantly returning to the story of Cairn, daughter of the Inuit goddess Sedna, and her quest for justice. Eternity does a brilliant job of taking popular genres (mystery and crime) and then flipping it on its head, delivering something truly original fantastical and absorbing.

In this world the god and goddesses of every conceivable religion; Egyptian, Norse, Greek, Roman and Māori amongst others. Karsten Knight creates a rich and vibrant world, one in which I desperately wanted to spend more time. (If Karsten reads this, consider this a plea for this to spark a series of Cairn and co's adventures).

A strong, hilarious, gay protagonist, surrounded by strong women, flawed characters, morally challenging decisions and diverse and equally hilarious characters - I don't think I'm going to stop gushing about this book for a while. I was well and truly enchanted by the characters in the book, the entire idea is genius but the execution is *chef's kiss*.

This Eternity of Mask and Shadows will be released Jun 2nd 2020, or if you're desperate to get your hands on it (and you should be) keep an eye on GoodReads for upcoming giveaways of advanced copies. Get yourself a copy of this book - I know I'll be getting myself a physical copy, this book needs to be on any self respecting book lovers shelves.

Great book, fast paced enjoyable read on this bank holiday.

Pros:
Well blended mix of genres - Fantasy, Superhero, whodunnit & LGBTQ romance.
Great pacing throughout, it was hard to put down.
Main characters were interesting - wish there was more about all of them.
Fantasy elements blended well into the modern world

Cons:
Secondary characters lacked character development
Ending/Epilogue left me wanting far more from these characters and this universe.