__ The Witch’s Heart Genevieve Gornichec
#arcreview Pub date February 9, 2021__

Angrboda is a powerful witch and after being murdered 3 times by fire by the Gods, goes into hiding living in a cave. Escaping Odin and his need to see into the future using her powers since she is the strongest and can go farther than the other witches.

The last time she put herself back together she was missing her heart and Loki found it and returned it to her. He was enamored with her and after an interesting shape shifting debacle together one winter they were closer than ever and decided to marry. Ok if Loki really was Tom Hiddleston than maybe I would forgive him leaving for months and “having” to get married to some other woman in Asgaard. Lol maybe he did but I am sure he didn’t put up a fight. Putting up a fight would have revealed that he was hiding another wife and a witch that his blood brother was searching for and presumed dead.

These two could not seem to stop having children and all had different gestation periods since they all seemed to be different species. This may be because Loki is a shapeshifter and they were more comfortable in those forms. Seriously google Angrboda and her and her children come up, it’s fascinating and terrifying.I love all kinds of mythology and am not as familiar with the Norse mythology so these familial, domestic sides of these enigmatic dynamic terrifying characters made them more human even though they essentially were not.

Angrboda started having visions of her 3 children as well as Loki’s other children with his other wife and she did not want that prophecy to happen but despite her best intentions the more she tried to stop them the more fate pushed them along. But in the end there was a sweet romance that she didn’t even see coming inside the prophecy but made her able to make the decision she had to. Actually now that I re read this there were two that she didn’t see coming 😉I always wonder where these stories originate- did some woman in the woods have a very large serpent, wolf as a pet and a daughter with leprosy and everyone just went wild with a story or was this all true? I like to think they were true but why don’t these kinds of things happen anymore? 

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫

Thank you @berkelypublishing and @netgalley for the electronic copy for my honest and voluntary review.

Synopsis:

When a banished witch falls in love with the legendary trickster Loki, she risks the wrath of the gods in this moving, subversive debut novel that reimagines Norse mythology.

Angrboda’s story begins where most witches’ tales end: with a burning. A punishment from Odin for refusing to provide him with knowledge of the future, the fire leaves Angrboda injured and powerless, and she flees into the farthest reaches of a remote forest. There she is found by a man who reveals himself to be Loki, and her initial distrust of him transforms into a deep and abiding love.

Their union produces three unusual children, each with a secret destiny, who Angrboda is keen to raise at the edge of the world, safely hidden from Odin’s all-seeing eye. But as Angrboda slowly recovers her prophetic powers, she learns that her blissful life—and possibly all of existence—is in danger.

With help from the fierce huntress Skadi, with whom she shares a growing bond, Angrboda must choose whether she’ll accept the fate that she’s foreseen for her beloved family…or rise to remake their future. From the most ancient of tales this novel forges a story of love, loss, and hope for the modern age.