Review: Perfekt Control by S.T. Bende

Title: Perfekt Control
Series: The Ære Saga, # 2
(should be read in order)
Author: S.T. Bende
Date Published: February 9, 2016

Brynn Aksel is a valkyrie—a battle goddess tasked with protecting both the God of War and the future of Asgard. She fends off giants and dark elves with an iron fist, a glossy smile, and no less than perfekt control. She’s focused one-hundred-percent on rising through the valkyrie ranks, and not at all on her lifelong crush on Henrik Andersson—the one guy in all the realms who could be her undoing.

Henrik serves as War’s other bodyguard, and he’s too focused on protecting their shared charge to realize that Brynn’s a girl. When an unprecedented surge of darkness abducts the Goddess of Love, Brynn’s already-steely focus is singularly directed on her new assignment—accompany Henrik to recover the realms’ source of light before the cosmos descends into chaos.

While battling demons, dragons, and the not-quite-dead, it becomes clear that immortality does not equal invincibility. And when Hel herself puts a hit on Brynn, the valkyrie has to decide if staying in control is worth losing everything . . . or if it’s time to rule the realms.

My Thoughts:

I think this is one of my favorite books by S.T. Bende! After reading the previous book, Perfekt Order,  I could not wait to get Brynn's story.  I had taken an immediate liking to her and  could really relate to her in a lot of ways. She was so fun and upbeat, yet she hid and stored away the things that could possibly hurt her. 

I did not think any of Bende's male characters could possibly top Gunnar (for me), but holy cow, did I really like his brother Henrik! He is Tyr's bodyguard, yet he is so kind, affectionate, SMART, and he bakes. That's a win win in my book.

The banter and the conversations between Brynn and Henrik were very endearing. They made the perfect (er, perfekt) team. They could predict what the other would do in battle, and they had each others backs at all times, and made sure each other was prepared for whatever came their way. I really liked hearing about all of their inventions. 

In Perfekt Control, we got to see a little bit of Brynn's background and how she came to work for Tyr. I felt so bad because of some of the things that she had to endure in her life. I am so glad that she had a friend like Elsa, who was such a good listener and knew how much to push Brynn, without going overboard. I am really looking forward to getting Elsa's story in the next book!