Review - The Nature of Gods by D.J. Torres

The Nature of Gods: The Awakening by D.J. Torres

Published 4th April 2017 by Creative Locks Publishing

Star Rating - **

Goodreads Challenge - 82/50

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

When gods and goddesses abruptly overthrow Earth, humans are given two choices – worship or die. Desperate to survive, Olivia and her family devote their days to fulfilling the will of the gods. But the wrath of the gods is insatiable and unpredictable. With her hope crushed, Olivia is resigned to her bleak fate . . . until she meets Nature.
 
Immediately, Olivia knows this charismatic girl with color-changing eyes isn’t normal. Nature looks like a teenager yet she has the power to control the weather and converse with animals. Nature opens Olivia’s eyes to a hidden world that had always existed in harmony with her own. However, know-it-all butterflies and mystical creatures aren’t the only secrets revealed as Olivia discovers the dark plan of the gods.
 
When Nature decides to confront the gods, Olivia is catapulted to the forefront of humanity’s battle for survival. Olivia must rely on her courage, strength, and newfound gifts as she faces monster-infested pathways and ever-looming traps. But does she have enough courage or skill to battle brutal gods eager to rule the world and dole out punishment to anyone who defies them? Nature and the world depend on it.

The Nature of Gods is a fantasy adventure appropriate for tweens and middle grade readers.

My Thoughts

I was contacted by the author and asked if I wanted to read and review this one. I read the premise and thought it sounded really interesting. I love books about mythology and gods and I was really looking forward to getting to this one. Unfortunately I was a little bit disappointed with the execution. Initially I thought the book started off strong, there was some good world building and things seemed to be moving at a good pace. The description was good and it gave you a good sense of what was happening. This description however, became a little bit too much. There was a lot of focus on where the characters were and what the people looked like rather then what they were doing. I felt like some of the action scenes were brushed over and lacked depth and some aspects jumped around too much and I lost focus on what was happening. There was also a big time jump at the beginning of several months and I felt we lost a lot of the explanation about what happened to the characters over that time. This time jump also meant I felt uninvested in the love interest. One minute they'd just met and the next they were together, it felt very instalovey to me.

The characters also seemed very promising at first but again I found I couldn't invest in them. Initially I thought Olivia seemed like a good character, she didn't give in to bullies, stayed strong and true to herself but I gradually grew to dislike her. I couldn't connect to her as a character, I began to find her annoying and negative at times. I also didn't really like Olivia's internal monologues. I found them a bit disjointed and they broke my flow of reading. 

The story as a whole followed lots of common fantasy tropes such as the chosen one, instalove and the hero developing powers which, generally speaking I don't mind in my stories if they're done well, but unfortunately this one fell a bit flat for me.

Overall Rating