Book Review: Freed

Freed

By:  Amanda Carlson

Publish Date:  June 28, 2017

Format:  eARC

Genre:  Urban Fantasy

Series:  2nd in Phoebe Meadows series; Book 1 ~ Struck

Impression:  Pheobe's learning to be a Valkyrie but still has human ways.

Synopsis:
Phoebe Meadows has one thing on her mind: Free her mother.

For the last month, Phoebe has been training in the Valkyrie stronghold readying for battle. But when she stumbles into a secluded valley after a day of grueling practice, she’s given a dire prediction. Phoebe must leave the stronghold immediately with the aid of the giant, Junnal, to rescue her mother from the dark elves. If Phoebe fails, Leela will be transported to a place that can no longer be reached.

Leaving Fen behind threatens to undo her, but Phoebe stays true to the mission. Along the way, she allies with the god Baldur and an old white elf mage. Together, they storm the realm, and with the help of an angry wolf and her Valkyrie sisters, they just might stand a chance to free the valiant shieldmaiden.

But Phoebe soon learns that in order to save her mother, she might lose something too precious to sacrifice…

First Sentence:
"Don't worry about it, Phoebe.It'll come." Ingrid's voice was confident as she handed me a new weapon.

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My Thoughts and Summary:
Phoebe has to work to catch up at being a Valkyrie, so she can go find her mother. When she's ready, she stumbles across the portal to take her to where her mother's a prisoner. Junnal is all who can travel with her. But while in the realm of the dark elves, Phoebe meets new allies that can help her accomplish her goal - bring her mother home safe.

Phoebe is a strong woman. She is learning about being a Valkyrie but she also retains much of her human feelings. She's spent her life as a human and not as the hard nosed Valkyrie so she has feelings that's different than the way things are in the world of her mother's.

We spend a good bit of time with Junnal in this book. Oh, we start with Fen, Tyr, Sam, and the others but the action in the book is with Junnal. Junnal is awesome! He has benefits as to why he goes with her and not the others, and he totally is strong in a fight too. We do get to see the others once again. And meet Phoebe's birth mom.

Phoebe has to learn many things, and she does this with those she meets along with experiencing it all first hand. She meets a demi god and a white elf/mage mix in this realm. Even a dark elf/human mix. All are excellent characters to bring into the world with Phoebe. I'm thinking they all are going to have their way of helping her in the books to come as well.

One thing I noticed with Phoebe in this book, she makes lots of promises. Phoebe wants to help everyone, especially if they help her. These are a lot of promises to keep. Most of them are to help get out of this dreadful realm, but a few might be for later too. I'm wondering how much the Valkyries will take of Phoebe bringing stray people into their stronghold.

This book is hard for me to rate. It's well written and a lot happens. But Phoebe feels much like Jessica from Amanda's Jessica McClain series, just with different powers. She bravely, yet blindly, goes on her adventure coming across new friends and allies as she finds trouble. Phoebe learns about herself and becomes stronger as she faces many fights, mental and physical. These are all good things. We also know we are going to get great action and exciting secondary characters (and hot men) as the book goes along.

It's always a blast to read Amanda's writing as it's well done with the magic and world along with the action and character combinations I enjoy.