Thunderstruck by Brenda Drake

Thunderstruck by Brenda Drake
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Blake Foster is not your ordinary transfer student, he’s actually the son of Thor and has been sent to recover the Norse god Heimdall’s sacred and powerful horn before someone uses it to signal the end of the universe but first Blake needs to navigate high school and our world. Since arriving Blake hasn’t had much luck finding the horn but another student has captured his attention, Stevie Moon.

Stevie is one of those girls that tries her best to blend in at school and not bring attention to herself even if she is internet famous. No one knows thought that Stevie is the one that runs her comic review vlog since she always wears a costume and hides her identity. But now Stevie has noticed Blake watching her and can’t figure him out, does he know her secret?

Thunderstruck by Brenda Drake is a fast paced young adult read that sort of mixes a contemporary story with fantasy by bringing in the use of Norse mythology within the story. I’m not quite as familiar with the Norse mythology but it was my favorite part of the book as I did recognize some things and enjoy when this type of book uses things I’ve heard about all my life such as Thor.

However, the contemporary side of this story was one that quite honestly was pushing my patience and normally the YA tropes don’t bother me a much as they do some readers. This book was one that forget the love triangle, at one point we were pushing a love square on to readers with Blake liking Stevie and Stevie liking Blake but another girl entering the picture and laying claim on Blake in which Stevie is the nice girl and pushes him to her but finds herself going out with Blakes brother instead… confused? Annoyed? Yeah, me too. Not sure why all of that had to be in there as the story probably would have been a ton of fun without all of the teenage angst.

In the end after trudging through the teen relationship waters I still thought the mythology side of the story was interesting enough to think the book was an OK read but I’d warn others of the teen drama before they pick it up.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.