I received this book for free through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Noll is already sixteen, and no man has found the goddess in her yet. Her village was cursed a thousand years ago so that all men would find the goddess in one woman, and that woman had the choice to love him back, or send him away into misery and herself into solitude. When Noll's last friend, Jurji, finds the goddess in her own sister, Noll is devastated. She loves Jurji, and she can't lose him - so she heads to the castle, where women are forbidden to go, in order to try to lift the curse. There she finds the lord... and the lord finds the goddess in Noll. But the lord is used to immortality and independence, and he refuses to bend to Noll's wishes and follow her commands as the men in the village do with their goddesses. And so begins the battle between the choice of the woman and the love of the man, neither giving nor able to take. Will the lord ever be able to give into his cursed love? And even if he is able, will Noll ever be able to love the lord back?
I wasn't sure what to expect from this book. The summary certainly sounded unique, but after reading the first chapter or so I didn't know how I would like it. The fantasy stories that I usually enjoy take place in modern time, or thereabouts, with modern characters. This was certainly different from that. Noll's village was completely different from any modern villages, not even taking into account the magical consequences due to the curse. However, once I became used to this different world and understood the curse's effects on the men, I was able to appreciate the rest of the story much more. It did take me a few more chapters to truly begin to enjoy it, but I was invested in finishing the book from quite close to the beginning, which is more than I can say for some other books.
I was expecting there to be something of a romance in this novel, even if it took a while to begin to blossom. However, this really wasn't a romance book at all. The love was truly just the trigger for the rest of the plot to unfold. I found this refreshing, if unexpected. The only semblance of a relationship was hinted at towards the very end of the book, which made me want to read the sequel. I don't expect the next two books to be romances necessarily, either, since that's not the point of the books, but I am hoping that some sort of relationship between Noll and the lord will be developed. The other relationships in the story, between the village men and their goddesses, were also quite interesting. The forced love of the men really causes the reader to think about what love truly is, and how it can (or perhaps never can) develop.
Even though this isn't the type of book I would normally read, I found that I tore through it. I've seen several other reviews of this book ripping at Noll's character, but I disagree. They all seem to forget that she isn't an adult, but a teenager. She isn't perfect, but she is a strong character. Even if she makes mistakes, I still prefer her to all the other weak characters from other stories who get themselves into messes by not doing something, and could easily get themselves out by doing something else but being too scared to. Noll might have been scared at times, but she never let that stop her from trying to get out of bad situations. Another thing that I really enjoyed was the fact that I was constantly surprised by the next turn of events. This doesn't happen often for me, but this novel achieved it.
I ended up enjoying this story much more than I'd originally expected to. I hadn't initially thought that I would read more in the series, but the further into the book I read, the more I wanted to read. I would give this story a rating of four stars. It was very original and surprising, which I found incredibly satisfying after my recent string of not-as-great novels. I would recommend this story to readers who enjoy unconventional love stories, time travel, and gender wars.
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