Starling by Lesley Livingston

Title: Starling

Author: Lesley Livingston

Series: Starling #1

Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Mythology, Magic, Fantasy

Source: Kindle

Pages: 341

Rating: 3 stars

Available at:

Goodreads • Amazon(.com)

Blurb: (via Goodreads)

Mason Starling is a champion fencer on the Gosforth Academy team, but she's never had to fight for her life. Not until the night a ferocious, otherworldly storm rips through Manhattan, trapping Mason and her teammates inside the school. Mason is besieged by nightmarish creatures more terrifying than the thunder and lightning as the raging tempest also brings a dangerous stranger into her life: a young man who remembers nothing but his name—the Fennrys Wolf. His arrival tears Mason's world apart, even as she feels an undeniable connection to him. Together, they seek to unravel the secrets of Fenn's identity as strange and supernatural forces gather around them. When they discover Mason's family—with its dark allegiance to ancient Norse gods—is at the heart of the mystery, Fennrys and Mason are suddenly faced with a terrifying future.

Set against the gritty, shadowed back-drop of New York City, this first novel in award-winning author Lesley Livingston's epic Starling Saga is an intoxicating blend of sweeping romance and pulse-pounding action. 

My Review:
So, as the first real book I have read in a while, I was extremely excited to read Starling by Lesley Livingston. Not only was it a real book for once (as in realistic), but it was largely centred around Mythology, albeit it was Norse mythology and its not my most knowledgable subject. Still, it was a great experience.

So lets start off with the loves about this novel. I loved the whole mythology side of the story. As you guys know by now, I am a HUGE mythology fan so when I found out that this book had everything to do with it, I was pumped. At first I though it was just Norse Mythology but aspects of Egyptian and Greek mythology were in there as well. Greek is by far my favourite and my most knowledgable subject and I wish I got to see a bit more of it, but Livingston did an AMAZING job at incorporating Norse mythology in the story, so I can't complain.

I also loved how the main character had a great story to her. She had flaws, and downfalls and was over all well rounded. Fenn was also pretty well rounded, well, as well rounded as a guy with amnesia can have. The major flaw character developmentally wise was that most of the other characters weren't very well rounded. I found that Rory (the main characters brother) was faulty at best in the story. It seemed like the author tried to make him as well rounded as possible, mostly by putting things in his point of view and having other characters give insight about him, but there were a lot of holes. We never actually find out a clear reason why he hates his sister, its mostly just speculation. I normally wouldn't mind this so much, but since Livingston actually put the story in his point of view several times, I don't really think she has an excuse. Other characters were just largely underplayed. Heather had so much more potential in the story. As did Cal, but I am going to assume they will play a larger part in book 2 of the series.

Where character development lacked, plot came in to save the day. It was a great plot. My biggest wish was that the book was longer so that you got to see more of it. As with most first books in a series, most of the book was establishing characters, book 2 usually takes care of most of the plot explanation. However, saying that, I think that Livingston did a pretty good job of explaining things given how long the book was and everything else she had to establish in the story.

The only thing I really didn't like was the switching of POVs. One point of view is preferable, 2 is tolerable, 3 is getting annoying and anymore than that is just frustrating. Livingston changed POVs a lot and not in a comfortable way. I found that it greatly took away from the story.

Thats mostly all I have to say on the subject. Overall, I found this book very average. There were a lot of downfalls but a lot of things that also made the book really interesting. So, I would give the book 3 stars. Saying that, I think that the second book will be way better.