Fallen Gods by Rachel Van Dyken (Review)

Title: Fallen Gods
Author: Rachel Van Dyken
Type: Fiction
Genre: Adult, Romance
Publisher: Entangled: Red Tower Books
Date published: December 2, 2025

A complimentary physical copy was kindly provided by Raincoast Books in exchange for an honest review.

The Gods aren’t dead—they’re only sleeping, locked in mortal bodies, scattered across the world, waiting for the right spark to wake them. And my father is the most ruthless of them all.

He raised me to obey. To bleed. To be his blade when the time came. Now he’s sending me to Endir University, a place filled with ancient bloodlines and deadly secrets, to steal back Mjolnir, the hammer of legend. If I fail, everyone I love dies.

But Aric Erikson wasn’t part of the plan. He’s the enemy’s heir. Distant. Dangerous. And…the one person I can’t afford to fall for. He’s closed himself off completely behind a wall of ice, but the more I’m ordered to unravel him, the harder it becomes to remember where the lies end and I begin.

There’s only a mission I never chose—and a man I was never meant to love—standing between me and a war that will decide the fate of the world.

⤖ My Review ⬻

This review might be a little different because I find myself in a fairly unusual situation with Fallen Gods! If you want to skip storytime and go straight to the review, please skip to paragraph 3. I’d initially requested this book in 2024 when the release date was set to something like December 2024 (from what I remember). When it didn’t come in the mail, I did some digging and found that the pub date got pushed. I think it was pushed one more time before it was released and I received my copy for review.

When I started reading, however, something felt a little off. I checked the synopsis and it matched what I was reading but I wasn’t quite convinced…because the synopsis I remembered was completely different. I did some more digging and ended up using a time machine site to find the old synopsis: The tiny Norwegian town was meant to offer answers. Instead, Liv arrives to find a tale older than time—eerily familiar, filled with ancient secrets and perilous desire. In this new adult fantasy that fuses the mythic mystery of American Gods with the achingly impossible romance of The Cruel Prince, the legends of the past are never truly dead and buried.

Once I was able to figure it out, I was able to focus on the book more. Though, the main reason included the above adventure is that the changes the book went through di remain at the back of my mind throughout my entire experience reading Fallen Gods…and that’s important to keep in mind while reading my review: Compared to what I was expecting in the initial synopsis, the characters ended up being younger (to the point where this read as YA to me), and the setting changed from a small town in Norway to a college for the children of gods in the US. I’d be lying if I didn’t share that I was a bit disappointed…

That being said, the overall plot was fun! There were some twists I didn’t see coming (which is always satisfying). I definitely felt some chemistry between the leads, which is part of what kept me going (aside from the mystery aspect of the story). I had a lot of questions, and had to continue in the hopes of getting answers! All that being said, I’m not sure if I would continue with this series. And as I wrap this up, I again feel the need to stress that my experience was deeply affected by the change in the story, so please don’t let my experience discourage you from picking up Fallen Gods!