The Lost Sun by Tessa Gratton (review)

In an alternate world, where Norse gods run the United States as a new Asgard, seventeen-year-old Soren Bearskin battles to control his Berserker impulses while carrying the burden of his father's violent reputation. When Balder the Beautiful does not rise on the first day of spring, though, the country panics, sure that Ragnarok is coming, and even the gods seem at a loss. Soren, hoping to win Odin's promised boon for recovering Balder, sets out on a quest that crisscrosses the American West in pursuit of the god. Joining him is the lovely and beguiling Astrid Glyn, whose powers of prophecy and tragic past have made her famous and who has her own reasons for seeking Odin's boon. When they find Balder, they discover that he's changed: now mortal, he has no memory of his godhood. Can the teens restore Balder, his memory, and his immortality before the end of the world? Strong writing and an inventive recasting of mythological characters combine to create an evocative, romantic adventure. The novel wisely allows its characters to revel in their mythological underpinnings rather than trying to make them seem like authentic contemporary teens, yet Soren and Astrid's struggle to understand their place in the larger world will still resonate with readers, while their intense, moving romance will elicit plenty of sighs. Reading like a slightly older sibling to Armstrong and Marr's Loki's Wolves, reviewed above, this rousing narrative offers all the best elements of a mythological quest while giving unfamiliar readers a thorough but not heavy-handed introduction to the traditional tales.