Sera is the teenaged avatar of an immortal Indian goddess, and that's just one of the secrets her parents--and friends--have been keeping from her. Now, as the goddess and as herself, Sera has to find the balance that will save the mortal world.

I found the religious and cultural aspects this book touches upon to be treated carefully and respectfully. It's a bit cliche and heavy-handed when it comes to the obligatory love-triangle--who will she choose? how will that change the balance?--but I honestly think the wealth of Hindu mythology balanced that out.

(Provided by publisher) ( )

Loved the premise, but the book was hard to read. I skipped a few chapters in the middle, and forced myself to finish.

I didn't like the characters. Mom was very un-mom-like, Sara was pretty self-involved and whiny, and the love triangle got old. I was excited about the hindu mythology bit, but during the reading it was difficult to keep track on what's what and who's who. ( )

Loved the premise, but the book was hard to read. I skipped a few chapters in the middle, and forced myself to finish.

I didn't like the characters. Mom was very un-mom-like, Sara was pretty self-involved and whiny, and the love triangle got old. I was excited about the hindu mythology bit, but during the reading it was difficult to keep track on what's what and who's who. ( )

Loved the premise, but the book was hard to read. I skipped a few chapters in the middle, and forced myself to finish.

I didn't like the characters. Mom was very un-mom-like, Sara was pretty self-involved and whiny, and the love triangle got old. I was excited about the hindu mythology bit, but during the reading it was difficult to keep track on what's what and who's who. ( )

Sera is the Goddess of the book and it does not take a genius to work this out and yet she is the last one to discover what or who she is. Because she has been hidden (or cloaked) by her mother. The author uses cliché upon cliché with her! Putting her in a love triangle (why do modern young adult authors feel the need to add this element to their books – this really is not necessary, or is it a sign of the times?). I didn’t think it would have affected me that much but the triangle was not dealt with very satisfactorily.

The story was told through Sera’s and her best friend (and part of the love triangle’s) point of view. The best friend (Kyle) had a secret agenda himself, wanting to be more than just a best friend but afraid of affect his current relationship with Sera. However, instead of a cohesive story, it seemed as though this reader was reading two separate novels.

The triangle was essentially a choice of good versus evil. We got loads of detail of the ‘evil’ part but the ‘good’ part simply turned up one day and professed his undying, centuries old, love. So who was one supposed to root for?

Unfortunately the main characters were just not compelling enough. They deserved so much more time spent on them to develop their story, back story and their relationships. Unfortunately, the author did none of this. Not to mention the over use of the love triangle through the book as a valid narrative device!

We were introduced a vast array of minor characters yet none of them were given any depth nor were any of them developed to any degree. It simply got just too confusing as to who is who; and who was the most important in relation to the development of this very confusing plot line.

What should have been a very epic end battle was just less. The main character was constantly stopping to converse with demons, when she should have been using her given powers to overwhelm them. Yet another example of how this book was such a let-down.

I mentioned earlier come discrepancies such as the changes in appearance of Sera and her mother. Arguing for the author, these could be explained away by the ‘cloaking’ spell. However, nothing explains the changes in appearance of Kyle or how his appearance does not gel with his behaviour.

I received an advanced readers copy for review and there were a great many typos and repeated text. Another aspect of the jarring effect was the strange phrases that the author used making the language seem forced and unnatural.

This reader also feels that the author was trying to get all her ideas into one book. Yet given more time, though and better planning this could easily have been two more in-depth novels. The concept was interesting but the execution was rather lacking, unfortunately.

Full Disclosure: ARC received from Netgalley for an honest review. ( )