An amazing bundle! I love this series, and the first three are especially great stories that are sure to pull you in. Ednah Walters does an amazing job at keeping her characters unique, interesting and complex, while providing new, exciting, surprising and amazingly imaginative plots throughout the series. Okay, my thoughts from each book.....
Runes: This is the first in one of my favourite YA paranormal series. Raine is a typical girl-next-door; pretty, good athlete, cute boyfriend Eirik, spunky best friend Cora, but her life starts to spiral when her father's airplane mysteriously disappears, her mother is hiding something and the new hotty mchotness next door doesn't seem to be quite normal. In fact, the more Raine learns about Torin St James and his friends, the more she finds that Norse mythology may not be so mythological. I very much enjoy Ednah Walters' take on ancient viking characters and of course who doesn't love the dangerous, mysterious, but oh-so-sweet bad boy sweeping in and twisting a girl's reality around in the most confusingly delicious way possible? The beginning is a little slow, but the action picks up rapidly and it's a quick read til the cliffhanger that will have you grabbing for the next part of Raine's story!
Immortals: Even evil norns couldn't keep me away from quickly grabbing the second book in this unique and well-written series after finishing Runes, and I was not disappointed. Ednah Walters has snagged me with another spell-binding tale of magic, mythology-come-to-life action, self-discovery, and of course romance. Although I nearly threw my kindle across the room at the unexpected twist between Hot Stuff Torin and the spunky Raine, I kept reading because you can't not fall in love with these characters and hope for the best for them. With so much going on in the plot--the Raine and Torin drama, Raine's own development, and the evil coming for her friend Eirik--combined with the new discoveries presented about their world, and Raine's kick-ass, go-get-'em attitude, you won't be able to stop turning pages and ignoring your actual life. (Or rather, wishing that Raine's life was your actual life, if nothing else but to actually meet Torin St. James)! I love Ednah's imagination; I'm an avid paranormal/sci-fi/YA reader and quite easily jaded at the continuous re-telling of plots, but this series' Scandinavian mythological/fantastical world is fresh, very well thought-out, and beautifully presented! Having now read the whole series, I think this book is still my favorite, because there's so much anticipation and surprises about the Valkyrie world. If you haven't read Runes, quickly go read it now, but have this one ready to go, because once you're a wanna-be-Valkyrie (and that will happen within a few chapters), Hel won't be able to stop you from inhaling all that Ednah gifts us with!
Grimnirs: As if Ednah Walters' Norse mythology-meets-high-school world wasn't exciting enough with the love-and-trials of Raine and Torin, we now get to pine over the different, but also super hot Echo. In this tale, the POV is no longer Raine, but her best friend with attitude and spunk, Cora. We start to learn a little more about the hardships she's experienced being inadvertently involved with Raine's world. There is a lot of baggage in this one, so be prepared for all the feels. Cora's story is a hard one with struggle to overcome depression, mental health (self-questioning, in a much deeper sense than most YA books normally handle), confidence, and self-worth. That said, grimnir Echo is an over-confident bad boy full of humorous one-liners and sexy comments, and of course even with the inner termoil, Cora is always snort-out-loud sassy and stands up for herself and those she loves. I enjoyed seeing her get thrown off a bit by a boy for once and the plot, as with the other Runes novels, is full of intrigue, evil, romance, and surprises. The complexity to Ednah's characters are the perfect complement to her never-ending supply of imaginative plot-lines. "Grimnirs" is great, fresh offshoot to Runes and Immortals, but similarly leaves you wanting more!