From Goodreads: Seventeen-year-old Raine Cooper has enough on her plate dealing with her father’s disappearance, her mother’s erratic behavior and the possibility of her boyfriend relocating. The last thing she needs is Torin St. James—a mysterious new neighbor with a wicked smile and uncanny way of reading her.

Raine is drawn to Torin’s dark sexiness against her better judgment, until he saves her life with weird marks and she realizes he is different. But by healing her, Torin changes something inside Raine. Now she can’t stop thinking about him. Half the time, she’s not sure whether to fall into his arms or run.

Scared, she sets out to find out what Torin is. But the closer she gets to the truth the more she uncovers something sinister about Torin. What Torin is goes back to an ancient mythology and Raine is somehow part of it. Not only are she and her friends in danger, she must choose a side, but the wrong choice will cost Raine her life.

______________________________________________________________

I really enjoyed this new twist on mythology, especially as it’s Norse mythology, something I haven’t come across in a YA novel before.  As an avid reader, I am always looking for something brand new and original, and this novel definitely has elements of that.  I won’t say it’s completely original, though, because the idea of a mysterious boy and a sweet innocent girl falling for each other instantly has been done many a time, but even so, not like this. 

Torin is definitely a swoon worthy character, and I highly enjoyed him.  He’s got the whole dark and brooding thing down pat, and it really works well for him.  He’s shrouded in mystery, and I was dying to learn the truth about his origins right alongside Raine, though I don’t harbor as many fuzzy feelings for her. 

Raine is… aggravating.  She and her best friend in the whole world have finally started dating, something she’s been waiting for her whole life, but her inability to stop checking out Torin, even before they “bond,” made me think much less of her.  She also decides to hide everything instead of trusting the people around her, which is very much a YA aspect that I don’t care for in my novels.  I’d like my heroes and heroines to trust someone, and it’d be nice if, on occasion, that person could be an adult, say, a family member.  I do get that teens hide a lot from their parents and family, but something huge and scary should break that ice, in my opinion, and I’d have liked for Raine to step up and ask for help, or, you know, at least tell her boyfriend something weird is going on and she can’t figure out why she’s drawn to Torin.  Bucking up and facing the music is so much better than running around and trying to see two boys at once.  Well, I think so, at least. 

The Norse mythology was very interesting, but I don’t feel like I know enough as of yet.  We’ve just hit the tip of the iceberg, and I expect, and hope, to learn much more about Torin and his posses’ origins and powers in the next novel, because, truth be told, I am hooked, even if I didn’t like the main character.  Three stars.