In the legendary land of the gods, Preeti and Vineet were the twin children of a minor god. And every so often certain people of the land are summoned to sacrifice themselves to the gods to choose a new god. The vengeful Goddess of Law Litha summoned both Preeti and Vineet knowing that it would make her former lover, their father, suffer to lose either of them, or most likely both of them. But the other gods, saw fit to save both children, ensuring that they will be the future Goddess of War and God of Peace and will reign supreme over all of the major gods when they come into their enlightenment. Litha refuses to accept the idea that mere children will rule over her, and imprisons them both, allowing the guards to torture them. But one day, Preeti and Vineet make their escape, and fly to Earth to hide for the three years till their enlightenment when they will come into their full power, return to their rightful home, and take their place as the rulers of the gods. They disguise themselves as Seers, priests of the gods, and go to the capitol to teach the ruling family about the gods. Preeti, now known as Raina, finds herself falling for the human prince Aric, who does have a bit of god power in him. It will be a long three years till enlightenment, and Litha will kill them if she finds them.
All the big scenes are in the beginning and the end. The long stretch in between just dragged on, dawdling over from the twins’ time at the monastery to fitting in at the capitol, the friendships they make, the loves they find, etc. Considering the book was called Goddess of War, I was really expecting more fighting and battles to be going on in this story. I liked that Preeti loved sparring and learning to fight, though she really didn’t use it outside of one scene toward the end, and mainly spent the book just mooning over the prince. Speaking of the prince, the blurb says she is there to train the prince, but that’s wrong. She’s actually there to train his younger sister and only has a couple of scenes with him. I loved the beginning with the cliff scene. Such an epic beginning on a story, and definitely convinced me to keep reading. This does have a big scene at the end, so it does feel like this part of the story comes to a close, but it does leave off on enough of a cliffhanger to tease for the next book as in the main baddie hasn’t been completely disposed of yet, with plenty of still open threads, including her romance with the prince and I was really looking forward to them talking about the arena scene. For future editing, Preeti and Vineet were called by their assumed names before they chose their assumed names. Sadly Vineet was practically a cameo in this (really sad because they are supposed to be twins, so I was expecting that to be capitalized on, but he was practically never seen), as was Arela and Eryon and really needed to be fleshed out more. And there were mentions of abuse by the king, but it was rather hidden and glossed over, and I was questioning why it was even in there. Both of the worlds created here are fascinating ones. I loved their world of the gods with its red sun and I loved the palace built in a city on the coast, with its taverns and market and fighting arena. And I loved the exotic Indian flavor of the names of Preeti and Vineet. In all, this does have me hooked enough to want to continue further into the series, though I do worry the next book will have a long stretch in the middle with not much happening like this book. Still, I am looking forward to seeing the twins fully come into their power.