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The Undoing
by
Shelly Laurenston
paranormal romance in a Kindle edition that was published by Kensington Books on March 29, 2016 and has 400 pages.
Explore it on Goodreads or Amazon
Other books by this author which I have reviewed include The Mane Event, The Mane Event, The Mane Squeeze, The Mane Attraction, Beast Behaving Badly, Big Bad Beast, Here Kitty, Kitty!, Hunting Season, Pack Challenge, Go Fetch!, When He Was Bad, Everlasting Bad BoysS, Bear Meets Girl, Howl for It, Wolf with Benefits, The Unleashing, The Undoing, The Unyielding, Hot and Badgered, In a Badger Way, Badger to the Bone, Breaking Badger, Bite Me, Born to Be Badger
Second in the Call of Crows paranormal romance series and revolving around the Viking Clans. The focus is on Jace Berisha and Ski Eriksen.
My Take
A different take on life after death, all from a global subjective point-of-view with perspectives from so many characters. It starts with Jace’s death, the horror of being buried.
Most of the gods are NOT respected, with good reason, lol. Although, the gods do love Led Zeppelin.
Kera’s clipboard and her need to organize the Crows continues to terrify her sister-Crows, lol. Kera is making progress with her Second life career of working with rescue dogs for suffering vets. I hope Laurenston will continue on and keep us up-to-date on this.
There’s a good bit of back history on the Clans and the issues they’ve had with each other — and the Catholics. It’s quite the adversarial relationship with the Vatican.
There are a variety of levels of conflict in The Undoing, ranging from the antipathy of every clan for the others, the vicious teasing amongst the Crows and Ravens, the disgust the Protectors have for the Crows and the Ravens — wait’ll you see how that turns out *more laughter*, the in-fighting amongst the Crows, Rachel’s attempts to “fix” Jace, day-to-day life, the partying, and so much more.
”Sex should always be fun.”
While the quest to retrieve Freyja’s necklace is important, it definitely takes a backseat to everything else.
Ya gotta give the Crows credit for honesty, and ya gotta love Brodie Hawaii. She’s really gotten the hang of the Crow life. She even has her own wings and a steel muzzle. Yet she’s very protective of Lev and seems to understand the Crows when they speak to her. They all love her and constantly take her for walks.
Jace prefers to be alone, hates small talk, and adores depressing books. With Ski’s insightful help, we learn the truth about her antisocial behavior. It’s too, too cute how the Protectors take to Jace from their initial adversarial stance. Make her welcome.
On the real-life side, they all actually have “normal” jobs; it’s a fun list! Oh, lordy, turns out Ski is an important part of his brother Protectors’ lives ensuring their bills get paid, lol.
I do love that the Protectors are all about justice; it’s too sad that our system isn’t about justice, as you’ll discover. All too much like our real life. Poor Jennings means well, but really, when the system can’t keep a man in jail who was caught burying his wife??
Then there’s Braddock. He just can’t let Jace go.
As violence-ridden as The Undoing is, it’s full of laughter and craziness. Be warned there’s plenty of swearing in here, but there’s also a supportive protectiveness from everyone. I want this life *grin*.
If you need a feel-good story that’ll make you laugh, this is the one.
The Story
Those books rescued from the Russians are in Russian and the Protectors are desperate to find someone to translate them. Someone they can trust.
It’ll be that threat from Chloe (and Rachel) that forces Jace to take the job.
In the meantime, Erin is planning a mediocre party to welcome Kera to the Crows . . . at least, that’s what she’s telling Kera.
It’s a continuation of heating up that Cold War, at least between Crows and Ravens. It’s also a continuation of preventing Ragnarok, to keep Gullveig from starting the End of the World.
The Characters
There are nine Clans, the human representatives of the Viking gods on this plane of existence, who, when they die a Second time, go to Valhalla to await Ragnarok.
The “Bird House” disguises . . .
. . . itself as Giant Strides, a rehab facility for addictions of all kinds to explain all the girls living at the house in Los Angeles. The Crows, created by Skuld, a.k.a. Fate, are all about mayhem and death.
Jacinda “Jace” Berisha became a berserker after her death. Before her death she was forced into being the Great Prophet’s wife, learning multiple languages. There’s an interesting story here. Lev is her own puppy acquired in The Unleashing, 1. Nëna is Jace’s estranged Albanian-Romanian grandmother with some scary powers and an extensive criminal record.
Jace is on a strike team with Kera Watson, a former Marine who’s incredibly strong and her pitbull, Brodie Hawaii; the sociable “Fire Hands” Erin Amsel, who’s a famous tattoo artist and loves to mess with people; Annalisa Dinapoli is the sociopathic schizophrenic who is a forensic psychologist in this life, who also loves to mess with people’s heads; Alessandra is a former rich girl; Leigh, a former bank robber and massage therapist, knows Japanese,; and the hypochondriacal Maeve, from India, who speaks Mandarin.
About Annalisa:
”’Don’t answer her!’ another Protector ordered. ‘At least six of my patients are in prison because of her.’”
Chloe Wong is the leader and an historical romance writer in her “normal” life. Who battles with her ex, Josef, at the drop of a hat. Tessa is Chloe’s second-in-command. Rachel, a former body builder who overindulged in steroids, isn’t too bright. Yardley King is a movie star and paparazzi favorite. Skylar Nosek is an excellent lawyer. The vicious Betty Lieberman, a semi-retired Crow who’s a Seer, is the most feared Hollywood agent and is currently in a coma. Her terrified assistant, Brianna, has “turned over a new leaf” and taken over Betty’s company. Jenna is “Brianna”’s assistant.
Serena is with the Alabama Crows; Neecy with the Tri-State Crows; and, Sadie is from the Maine branch.
The Protectors are . . .
. . . HUGE and highly intellectual, who actually do protect humans from their LA headquarters in Pacific Palisades. Created by Tyr, the cheap god of justice, war, and battles, who gave them owl-like attributes, including the gag-inducing ability to turn their heads 270°. Teen Protectors come here for their final battle training.
Danski “Ski” Eriksen is Ormi’s second-in-command and the Keeper of the Word — Stieg calls him “Poindexter”. Salka is his very protective cat. Ormi Bentsen is the leader of the Southern California Protectors; his wife, Inka, is a Holde’s Maid. The more visible Protectors include Bear, a.k.a. Marbjörn Ingolfsson, who is VERY protective of the books in the library and does NOT want Lev anywhere near the precious books; Gundo; Borgsten; Kilmar, who thinks he knows Latin, lol; and, Haldor, who is a single parent doing his best to bring up his daughter — he is such a sweetie! I envy him his eidetic memory! Nedolf, Sevald, and Fredgeir are only some of the Protectors wanting help from Jace. Karl is one of the students.
The Ravens are . . .
. . . considered stupid and violent by most of the Clans. Ludvig “Vig” Rundström, a.k.a. the “Pit Bull” and an amazing craftsman, is Kera’s man of the thousand-yard stare (The Unleashing), who comes from a very long line of Viking Rundstrjöms. Josef is their leader and Chloe’s ex. Stieg Engstrom and Siggy Kasperson, who can really dance, are Vig’s best friends.
The Valkyrie . . .
. . . choose the souls of the dead who will go to Valhalla. Katja is one of them and Vig’s sister.
Holde’s Maids are . . .
. . . the healers, but don’t take that to mean that they’re kind. Inka is their leader.
The Claws of Ran are . . .
. . . of the sea and created by Ran, a Nordic goddess. Rada is the Clan leader for the West Coast. Norris Bystrom, a lifelong member, is also with ATF who was on-scene when Jace was emerging from her grave. Dave Jennings, a human, is the man who prosecuted Jace’s now-ex-husband.
The Giant Killers are . . .
. . . truly stupid and were created by the stupidest god, Thor. Frieda is their leader, who is at least not painfully dumb. The Protectors think Urkel has permanent brain damage. Geirr Eklund is at the party.
”Whoever invited the Giant Killers should have told the men that deodorant is not optional . . .”
The Isa are . . .
. . . located in the mountains and were created by Skadi.
The Silent are . . .
. . . primarily hated by the other Clans. They’re meant to protect humans but look down on everyone. Everyone hates their leader, Brandt Lindgren.
The Aesir gods rule the world and include Freyja. The golden, impossible-to-kill Gullveig, one of the Vanir gods who don’t rule the world, is Freyja’s sister and has stolen Brísingamen. The Mardröm, a.k.a. the Mara, are female demons who force nightmares onto people. Ratatosk is the messenger of the gods, a squirrel who loves to stir things up. He lives in the World Tree, Yggdrasil, where he runs up and down to keep the rage going. Nidhogg is the dragon who lives at the base of the tree. Brokkr is the dwarf who helped make Thor’s hammer and more. Hel, a.k.a. Hell, one of Loki’s Aesir daughters, reigns over Helheim, as queen of the underworld. The Carrion are impossible-to-kill warriors of Helheim. Fenrir, the wolf who bit off Tyr’s hand, and Jörmungandr, a serpent, are Loki’s sons with Angrboða, a giantess. Baldur is the god killed through Loki’s machinations.
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse have tea with Nëma as do Michael, Raphael, and Khamael, archangels. Sister Theresa Marie Rutkowski is the Mother Superior’s second-in-command with the Chosen Warriors of God. The nuns who helped Kera survive her mother include Sister Mary Angelic, Sister Mary Typewriter, and Mother Mary Francis.
Martin Braddock started the Patient Dove Congregation in the Valley that was referred to by the Feds as “another Waco about to happen”. His son, Davis Henry Braddock, took over when his “immortal” dad died. Bobby is one of the congregants.
Pastor Bruce Maynard is another of the scamming religious types. The Crows’ll help him get over that, lol. The Spahn Ranch is where the Manson family lived. Polly works at the overpriced jeweler’s owned by Efram. And does Betty have an offer for him, ROFL. Wendy, an African wild dog shifter and neuroscience major studying for her master’s, was part of the catering team. Vadim Ekimov runs the docks in San Pedro, and he has some books. Old, old books.
The Cover and Title
I’m disappointed in the gray-toned cover — I’m assuming that the dark-haired Viking in the open, weathered leather jacket and the amazing six-pack on the cover is meant to be Ski, you know, the one who wears the white sleeveless hoodie?? He appears to be leaning against a dark building on the left while there’s a field of green grass with a foggy background and a tree in silhouette on the right. Most of the text is in white from the info blurb at the top to the author’s name immediately below it, another tiny info blurg at Ski’s left (our right) bicep, and the title starting just below his belly button. The series info is to the right and below the author’s name in yellow.
The title is the aim of the Clans, The Undoing of Gullveig.
