WELCOME
Dear Readers, Aliens and Creatures, what a delicious tropical rainforest fantasy – The Beholden – is. I have never read anything quite like it! A tale of mortals, gods, demi-gods and unholy creatures. 😍
BASICS
Official title: The Beholden
My title: Spoiled Gods
Author: Cassandra Rose Clarke
Publisher: Erewhon
Fav characters: Omaira, Taja snd Decay
Type: Book
4.9/5
INTRO
There is an overall eeriness to this story that follows four people, one being and three gods on a journey to solve a problem which started 500 years ago. Spoiled Gods! Luds! 👼🏾
REVIEW
Izara and Celestia are titled ladies, with no skills of land management, whose estate is about to crumble. They have little left besides Celestia’s intriguing looks and Izara’s magic… so, NATURALLY, Celestia must find a husband capable of tending to the land… 🤦 and it all goes to hell. Over a man. 💁🤦🥲
The girls summon the Lady of the Seraphine, a goddess amused enough by them to grant them the husband they seek, but they AND the poor random ex-pirate trying to go straight Ico, are Beholden. Whenever the goddess comes calling, they must answer.
Five years later, with no sense of timing, or understanding that a husband really doesn’t seem to be worth all the stress 🙈, Taja summons them. Izara is at the Academy, a school of magic that if she leaves she can never return to; Celestia is happy and FINALLY pregnant for the husband she was given; Ico has shacked up with the Lady of the Snow, goddess, and is living his best life… but Taja doesn’t care… she has a simple task for them:
Find and bring a dangerous god who everyone fears and who wishes to stay hidden, to her…
Since the world is dying and a god has gone missing, it is up to them to find and bring back this god to the world… you know, the god that is one of the creators… the god that everyone fears… the god the other gods cannot find.
Easy Peasy… 😬
Their journey will take them from the places they have called home over the past five years into lands they have never seen. They will confront creatures who are only supposed to exist in myth, drink many sus teas, face the horrors of this changing world, meet gods few have interacted with and learn that there is far more to magic, gods and the word than they could have ever known.
WATCH: The Beholden Review
OBSERVATIONS + RANTS
▪️DISCLAIMER: I was provided a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review).
▪️ Celestia sucks at negotiations, she really needs classes on how to broker deals with gods… 😬
▪️This level of tropical living, almost made me feel like I was back home in Guyana.
▪️ Ico has a fabulous sense of when to get out of dodge.
▪️ The author ensured she peppered both Celestia and Izara with enough weaknesses that they complement each other perfectly. In many ways both sisters are equally strong AND equally weak… although, with Izara, the weakness seemed forced at times.
▪️ I became somewhat irritated at the inconsistency of the characters. Ico and Omaira were by far the most consistent, hence Omaira being my fav.
▪️Unfortunately, the descriptions of skin colour was limited to ‘brown’ and ‘golden brown’, which I have said numerous times really depresses me… especially since the ‘blue/white’ deity’s skin color is minutely described… while other ‘brown’ ones get absolutely no nuance to their skin tones. 🙁
(I have a simple resource to help authors with this).
SAD TRUTHS 🥲
▪️ True noblewomen are weak and frail – made to depend on men for everything; thought and deed?
▪️Clearly Celestia DOES NOT know her husband! I would know if my husband is likely to believe me!
▪️”He is my housssbannnn, I knowww I can make him understand…” Yeah, just like you ‘knew’ he would help you. 🙄
▪️PSA Husbands, expect to find your wife unexpected places, it’s just the nature of wives.
CONCLUSION
The Beholden is a well-written book which sinks you into a South American-esque Amazon river and forest fantasy that I was LIVING for! There is a great dynamic between the characters and the story keeps a steady pace of reveals, realisations and challenges, that come across as natural.
I loved this book. I recommend it to those who love eerie stories, long adventures, who have sisters and who believe pregnant women can’t get things done! 🤣
Pages: 544
Publisher: Erewhon
Year: 2022
