I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Generations of twin goddesses have long ruled Aeon—until one sister’s betrayal split their world in two. A Great Abyss now divides two realms: one cloaked in eternal night, the other scorched beneath an ever-burning sun.

While one sister rules the frozen fortress of Aranth, her twin rules the sand-locked Golden City—each with a daughter by their side. Now those young goddesses must set out on separate, equally dangerous journeys in hopes of healing their broken world. No matter the sacrifice it demands.

Short and Sweet

For generations twin goddesses have ruled Aeon but seventeen years ago when one sister betrayed a prophecy, the world split in two leaving one half covered in darkness and the other half covered by the heat of the brutal sun. Now one sister rules Aranth the frozen city and the other rules the Golden City, each goddess has raised a daughter. When shadowy figures start appearing the two daughters know that they have to go to the site of the breaking and try to fix their world.

Characters

Haidee: Haidee is a goddess and she lives in the Golden City with her mother. Haidee would much rather do things that involve mechanics than looking for a potential suitor. I liked Haidee a lot she was my favorite character. Haidee is compassionate and she’s never been outside of the City so she is naive and makes choices that she doesn’t fully think through.

Odessa: Odessa is also a goddess and is Haidee’s twin but she lives in Aranth with her mother. Odessa is ill there’s something in her that even the healers can’t get rid of. I found Odessa to be child like and then when she got outside of the city on the expedition she got even more annoying to me mainly because she didn’t want people to treat her like a child because she’s a goddess but she took it to far and even went on a power trip.

Lan: Lan is a catseye and she was hired by Odessa’s mother to try and heal her and keep watch over her. Lan also has a past because the last time she went on an expedition towards the breaking her whole team ended up dead and she was the only one to make it out alive and she carries a lot of guilt around with her. I liked Lan she was more realistic and tried to get people to see when they were wrong and she tried to keep others safe.

Arjun: Arjun is a desert scavenger and meets Haidee when she’s trying to save a whale. Arjun was going to kill Haidee but doesn’t and then they both see a shadowy figure. After getting some advice from his mother Arjun decides to set out to find the figure and in the end him and Haidee journey together towards the breaking.

Romance

Haidee and Arjun: Well when they first meet Arjun finds Haidee to be annoying and on more than one occasion he tries to keep her from doing anything stupid. Over the course of their journey there’s a lot of bickering but they do like each other and don’t want to lose each other and that feeling of losing each other is when they really start to notice their feelings for each other. I really liked how their relationship evolved and how they did look out for each other.

Odessa and Lan: Odessa and Lan have met before and it was because Odessa would sneak out and pretend to be a merchants daughter. Odessa and Lan like each other but Lan’s main goal is to keep Odessa safe and as I mentioned before Odessa is very child like and is stubborn and when she doesn’t get her way or Lan doesn’t agree she throws a tantrum. I’m not really sure if I liked their relationship Lan tried to keep Odessa safe and Odessa was always testing her limits.

My Thoughts

~ We get four POVs in this book and I honestly only preferred to read two of them. I enjoyed reading from Haidee and Arjun’s POV more than Odessa and Lan’s.

~ Haidee and Arjun are traveling by dune buggy and theres a lot of things in the sand that the two have to watch out for. Odessa and Lan are on a ship and there’s a lot of problems on the ship with the crew and the secrets they keep.

~ Odessa has been visited by gallas and theres seven in all and each of these gallas give Odessa a gift but they also take something from her in return. I felt bad for Odessa because it felt like whenever she was accepting what the gallas were giving her they started to possess her little by little.

~ Haidee and Odessa also believe that they’re the only goddesses still left they don’t know about each other and think each other are dead. I felt bad that they didn’t know about each other and spent most of their lives on different sides of the world.

~ There’s a lot going on in this book and at some points I did get confused. I think the world building could be better.

~Each character has a gift and the goddesses can wield all of them. Arjun can wield fire and Lan has the ability to heal.

Overall

This was a long book and I had to push through at times just to finish it, I don’t think it helped that I mainly liked 2 out of the 4 characters. I do think that the last 20% was good and that would be the reason I would continue on and read the sequel. The book ended with a cliffhanger and I do want to see what happens to the characters and what they’ll do with the information they learned while on their journey because there was a lot of secrets and betrayals uncovered. I think that the premise was interesting and some of the characters are hit or miss but I would read the sequel.