Review: Helm Abomination by Gryffyn Phoenix

Helm Abomination (Haven Awakening #2)

by Gryffyn Phoenix

Publication Date: June 15^th 2016

Publisher: Avalerion Books, Inc.
Source: Author

Find This Book: Helm Abomination

Rating: 4/5

I was provided a copy of this book by the author in exchange for an honest review.

As you may know, I was given a copy of Haven Awakening a week or so ago. You can read the review if you’re interested HERE.  This was so I could read and review an ARC of book two which just came out! I was super pumped after Haven Awakening and jumped right into Helm Abomination, and while this book left me with many questions I’m hoping they’ll all be resolved in future books!

I really loved the chill, stylized writing of the author. Verity felt like a girlie girl naïve, totally sheltered 16-year-old girl. I thought some of the gay remarks were weird and off-putting, but she’s an ignorant teen who hasn’t interacted with anyone but her 2 siblings so I guess it’s understandable, but this knocked the book down a star for me. I respected how sweet Verity is with all of the ‘monsters’ they come across throughout the novel. Cass and trained Haven to kill everything and Helm adapted to do the same. Verity on the other hand recognizes that killing doesn’t need to be the answer. These creatures are hurting and are quite amiable when cared for. Helm becoming a sanctuary for these misunderstood animals was like a page out of Hagrid’s book and I adored how great it turned out. Mythological creatures as pets? YES PLEASE.

Reading about Helm after spending all of book one in Haven was awesome. I’d so rather live in Helm and I felt like I got to learn about and understand more of the guys living at Helm than I did of the people back in Haven. My favorite character in Helm is probably Book, their researcher, because he’s a shy introvert in the dramatized extreme. Watching him come out of his shell for Verity was so cute because they are both sweetie pies. While Verity does get a bit clichéd when she goes into the “I’m so average” spiel, I appreciate how non-typical she is in other regards. She actually talks to her parents, she actually cracks open some books and does school work. When she gets thrust into this world she doesn’t suddenly become super badass and awesome. She learns and trains really hard to create and improve upon her skills. She doesn’t need a makeover to get the cute guy. Cute guy already likes her and she wears the makeup to bring confidence to herself. No eyebrows were knit in the making of this book. The most important part- she eats like a normal human with the healthy food and junk food mixed in giving her a normal human figure. Who knew I would crave all of this normalcy out of a fantasy book? It was so revitalizing to not be constantly thinking “ok… that will never happen in real life”. Everything sort of fit in with the fantasy and created universe of the book.

This book was just as easy to pick up and enjoy as book 1, though it left me aware of just how much Verity and I didn’t know/understand. I feel like the origin story of Helm and Haven has so many conflicting variations that I’m still not really sure why they were formed or why they suddenly became enemies aside from just the appearance of Cass, but that really doesn’t tell me much. This vagueness by the end of book 2 is also a reason I can't give the book all 5 stars. How does a newbie like Cass suddenly turn up and create upheaval within Haven all that time ago? Why would the citizens of Haven allow her to turn them into this? Heck I still don't know what Cass is or what her powers consist of. I need details in the next book. Also, where does Cass gets all of this anger and hatred from? The girl needs to take a chill pill, I’m still not sure where this conflict came from/what it’s based on. This clearly all started before Verity got the magical eyes. Additionally, we have some sort of prophecy that implies Verity kills Haydn, her boy toy, but it’s not really clear where this prophecy came from, what it’s exact words are, or how Haydn, Kaydn, and Cass are connected. They have a huge reveal that Verity can’t kill Cass without Cass bringing Kaydn with her and that if Kaydn dies so will Haydn. I get that there was totally no time in the moment to explain this all to Verity… but I still at some point need an explanation to this. Lastly, what the heck is up with Verity’s family? What are her parents? Are they even related? What happened to her siblings? Where the heck did Grandma just poof off to? What is their ancestry? How does Verity’s body changes affect her life/the future of the plot??? You better be writing Gryffyn, because I NEED ANOTHER BOOK. I NEED ANSWERS.

PS please put in more domovi scenes because the lil purple creatures are so cute and their relationship with Verity really evolved this book and I’m hoping for hugs and maybe a conversation one day. Verity will certainly need her domovi now more than ever after that killer ending. *wink wink* Haha. Puns.

Review: Haven Awakening by Gryffyn Phoenix

Haven Awakening

by Gryffyn Phoenix

Publication Date: July 11^th 2014

Publisher: Avalerion Books, Inc.
Source: Author

Find This Book: Haven Awakening

Rating: 5/5

I was provided a copy of this book by the author in exchange for an honest review.

This novel was set at the perfect pace with a character I could understand and relate to, on top of being told in a great writing style. The plot is about Verity/Very/Lucky Flower who was blinded in an accident at the age of 12. At the age of 16 her parents sign her up for an eye transplant where she doesn’t get normal eyes. Verity acquires magical eyes that see through all of the different dimensions. She can see the paranormal oogey bogeys and the creatures that go bump in the night. Naturally this freaks her out and a girl named Cass (who I thought was really cool at her first impression but slowly devolved into a terrible person) takes Verity to Haven to train her in how to use her eyes. The teens at Haven are all magical/paranormal in some way and use their abilities to fight evil creatures and maintain balance in the world. The only problem is that they need Verity’s eyes to see the monsters. So not only does Verity need to learn how to use her eyes, she needs to learn the lore to identify these creatures, and she needs to survive the fight in order to keep seeing for Haven. However, in these fights Haven’s enemy, a group named Shade, was doing the majority of the Verity-saving. Pretty unsettling if you ask me that this supposedly evil group is doing more of the honorable protecting than her ‘friends’. This kindles a romance between Verity and Haydn, a member of the Shade who wants her to change sides and live at Helm instead of Haven.

I was glued to the pages of this book while reading it. I was so involved that I almost forgot to give my dog is lunch! I can’t remember the last time I’ve read a book in less than 12 hours. Normally I take at least two days because I have to put the book down and do other things. This was not the case with Haven Awakening. Over the course of several months, Verity befriends some of the citizens of Haven which was really cool to read about. So many mythological creatures appeared throughout the book and had such great interactions with Very, it was such an enjoyable read. I was reading about elementals, wraiths, afrits, unicorns, dwarves, nephilim, elves, spiritual energy in trees and rocks, wiccans, the whole shebang and it was awesome. It sort of felt like a mix between Percy Jackson, and The Companions Quartet by Julia Golding (though I never finished the quartet). Both are also great on the mythical creatures’ front and these are my favorite kind of stories. I even learned about some new creatures such as Zoroastrians which seems to be a sort of rock entity, and a Tsiatko which is a sick Native American spirit. Drawing from different cultures only improved the book in my eyes. Diversity and the American melting pot is something too many people are trying to erase and forget about these days.

On top of the magical creatures there’s lessons about friendship, family, trust and betrayal sprinkled in for good measure. Good stuff, good stuff. While the book started off a bit clichéd, right on page one was cringe-worthy, just past that was were the good stuff starts and it never stopped. While debating between staying in Haven or switching to Helm’s side, Verity’s friends in Haven were with her the whole way. Even when faced with leaving them, her friends supported her. I was SOOO happy I didn’t have to read a scene about Verity leaving and all of her friends now becoming her enemies just because they were on different ‘sides’. It was also nice to read about our hero returning to their family and trying to make both lives work instead of disappearing and never contacting their family again. That was refreshing. Haven Awakening was perfectly blended and balanced between all of the different themes, romance and action, and the author’s writing style was unique and gratifying. I’ve got Book 2, Helm’s Abomination lined up to read next!