Promise of Shadows

This is a new author to me, Justina Ireland, and apparently this is only her 2nd novel. But the premise is a popular one, i.e., half gods (half humans) live among or near us and we poor mortals know nothing about it. Politics, feuds, prophecies and ancient enmities fuel this entertaining tale with a Harpy and various other beings based on Greek mythology providing the cast. When the book opens, we meet 20 something Zephyr Mourning (the aforementioned Harpy) who has been sent to Tartarus (part of the Underworld) to toil the rest of her life away, because she killed one of the  Æthereals.

Harpies are warrior women, but Zephyr has never really been any good at conjuring magic or killing people, so imagine her shock when she finds her sister murdered and she actually kills the murderer--who just happens to be a god. Harpies aren't supposed to be able to do that, and Zephyr is further surprised that the High Council (the gods) condemn her to a hellish labor camp instead of death. Someone is pulling strings. When a childhood friend, Tallon, along with his brother Blue, show up to break Zephyr and her guardian/friend Cass out of the Underworld and take them back to the Mortal Realm, things start looking up. And then Zephyr finds out that the half-gods all think she is their promised savior, the Nyx, a dark goddess who can finally help them regain power against the abusive gods. Zephyr is a coward as well as a klutz and she just doesn't see how she is going to save the world, but she is fueled by her rage against those who ordered her sister's murder, and then also killed her best friend, Cass. It looks like Hera is behind a plot to kill anyone who might have dark powers and capture their shades for a magical spell that will give her dominion over all mortals. Turns out that Hades is Zephyr's father, so she has much more power at her disposal than she ever realized and she swears she will avenge the shades of her sister, Cass, and all the other murdered victims or die trying. The powers of light are not always right, nor are the dark powers necessarily bad in this story--a welcome change. If you enjoyed the series from Rick Riordan or Michael Scott with similar mythological approaches, you will love this slightly older age outing. Review from Kirkus is here.