The Butterfly Crest

Title: The Butterfly Crest

Author: Eva Vanrell

Series:  The Protogenoi Series

Number of Pages: 469

Date Read: 8/18/14

Genre:Mythology, Fantasy

Synopsis (Found on Goodreads.com)

Between the shadows of the human world, a war as old as time is being fought. Ageless pantheons scheme to obtain or keep control, provoked by the weight of human belief which has altered the realm of the divine. 

An ancient prophecy speaks of a human woman who will alter the course of this divine war, a descendant of a Great House mired in misfortune and blood, whose history was shaped by the cruelty of the gods. 

On a day as unremarkable as any other, Elena Vicens, a young woman living a seemingly ordinary life, receives a letter about a deposit box belonging to her mother, nineteen years after her mother’s death. When this letter sends her on a journey halfway across the world from New Orleans to Japan, Elena unknowingly comes into possession of a cursed inheritance. She is suddenly thrust into a world of myths and legends, where the intangible and the strange are the fabric of everyday life, and deathless gods vie for victory at any cost. 

As allies converge to help Elena fulfill the prophecy, one of whom is struggling with his own inheritance, Elena must choose for herself the measure of her own destiny.

My Review:

I was given this book by the author in exchange for a honest review

I totally LOVED this book. I love books about mythology and ones that include god and goddess in them. This book isn't in my usual YA genre but it was awesome nonetheless. 

The book is about Elena who gets caught in a war between the gods of every major pantheon that has ever existed. The gods have separated themselves into two groups based on their origins and what they represent. Elena goes from being a semi-happy lawyer in a firm to the last Heir of the House of Thebes, who is destined to tip the war in the favor of one of the groups of gods. One group wants to kill her while the other group is desperate to save and protect her. 

I liked Elena a lot. She was very sweet but feisty when she had to be. She is a very genuine and down to earth person. She cares about other's feelings before hers and puts herself in danger to save others. She is very concerned with doing the right thing and paying the consequences herself for her own actions. Everything gets thrown at her at once and she takes everything as well as can be expected. I like how she enjoys the little things in life and how she loves art. 

The one thing I really loved about this book was the fact that the gods who were focused on in the book and who where important characters were NOT the popular gods like Zeus, Aphrodite, Apollo, Hera and so on (at least for the gods who were greek). Some of the greek gods were ones I heard of but never read many myths on them or ones that I haven't heard of at all. I like this because the author can basically make their characteristics however she deems fit in accordance with what they are the god of. I also liked how there were different mythological gods in one book. The ones featured in this book were the greek gods, the Japanese Shinto gods and the gods/fae of Ireland. I'm not familiar with the gods of Ireland or Japan so I loved reading about all of those gods and I loved how they were described. Many of the Japanese gods introduced were "demons" and they had different colored skin (purples, blues, etc), eyes, hair and some had animal characteristics. I also like how the way the godhood of the greek gods was different from how they normally looked. Normally the greek gods looked like beautiful, gorgeous but regular people. When they get angry or stressed or are ready to fight their appearance changes and that is their godhood coming through. For all the gods their hair grows and changes color along with their eyes. Some become brighters some paler than they usually are. Some can grow talons instead of fingers to fight with. And the gods can manifest weapons when fighting and its usually the weapon associated with them. 

I loved Eiry who is the greek god who protects Elena. His MO is his stoicism. He doesn't let any emotion show on his face or in his body. He is even like this with Elena sometimes. He takes his protection of Elena very seriously and only entrusts a certain few to help him protect her. He is almost always at her side. He had allowed one two beings other than himself to protect Elena on their own. He can be playful at times but those are few and far between. When he gets angry everyone better watch out especially since hes the god of.... (can't tell you sorry). He also acts like a guy sometimes, cursing and fighting with his siblings. Also he's a looker; although I wasn't really feeling the description of how his skin is normally. Something about it being so white and pale that you can see tints of blue under his skin. I dunno, it makes me think of someone being frostbitten or something.

I also really liked the Kirin, who is a japanese mythical being who cannot stand violence. What I got from the book is that they are rare and not everyone, even the gods has seen one (Eiry had never seen one in all his life until the Kirin came to Elena). They are said to be neutral in the war and they are uncomfortable with violence. The Kirin is very sweet and he does everything he can to help Elena. He even becomes fierce when protecting Elena, which he says his species can do if they feel compelled to do so. The Kirin genuinely cares for Elena and does all he can to protect her. He is also very wise and help calm Elena when she feels stressed and panicky. He's good people. 

The romance was great. There was no insta love or love triangles. Of course since I mentioned the characters already, the romance is between Elena and Eiry. You could tell throughout the whole book that they had feelings for each other but they tried to hide it from each other all the time. That was killing me! I was like "come on already, Kiss!" But the waiting made it that much more satisfying when they did get together. 

The book mostly takes place in Japan and the underworld with some parts in New Orleans and the fae kingdom. I do have to say the descriptions of everything was very detailed and it made you really feel like you were there in these places. I was able to clearly picture the places in my mind while I read. I do have to admit that some of the descriptions were hard to get through because there was so many of them. This in no way deters from the book but personally I would of liked more action in the ongoing descriptions. The descriptions of things in Japan was phenomenal and it really felt like I was there seeing Japan with Elena. I loved the descriptions of the famous sites and the descriptions of the culture were awesome. I learned a lot about Japanese culture and customs from this book. Its clear the author did her research or that she is Japanese herself. Wonderful job. 

The world building was amazing and I like I said I loved how the gods from the different pantheons worked together to protect Elena. 

I can't wait for the second book and for more Eiry and Elena! I also hope that other religions will come into play too because I loved reading and learning about all the gods from the other pantheons. 

All in all a wonderful book and I would recommend this book for anyone to read. 

Rating:

A+