Between The Blade and The Heart by Amanda Hocking is a great book for young adults. The book shows Marlow, a Valkyrie who fails to do her duty (to return an immortal to Kurnugia), how that affects Malin, her daughter, and how this could be the reason for the end of the world.
The book introduces Malin as someone who is yet an inexperienced Valkyrie and who is trying to undo a mistake that her mother made. Malin wants to put an end to the immortal who escaped death. But now it is almost impossible to kill and find the immortal who Marlow failed to kill. The immortal also killed a Valkyrie whose son wants to seek revenge for his mother's death.
The book also shows Malin's confused feelings towards her ex-girlfriend, made more complicated by the fact that Valkyries can’t fall in love.
Motivated by Sloane Kothari (a classmate), Samael (executive of Riksdag, the Valkyrie head office) and Oona (her best friend and sorceress-in-training), Malin embarks on a journey to Kurnugia with her friends who are against the immortal to make things right by trying to return the immortal her mother failed to kill and cover-up for her mother's mistake.
Reviewer: Gauri Bhandari (11-years-old)
Macmillan, RRP $19.99