Book Review: Vowed to the Vulture God by Ruby Dixon

 It's been a banner reading week for me.  Firstly I had my brain rearranged by S.L. Huang. 

Then I finished up Vowed to the Vulture God by Ruby Dixon.   This wasn't life change or a 5 star read for me, but, it was a 4.25 read and I both laughed and cried while reading this, I think it was overall, pretty ok. 

Ruby Dixon is one of my favorite authors.  I started reading her ice Planet Barbarian series as a joke and then fell head over heels in love with it. Her characters are really relatable and Ruby does an excellent job- in my opinion representing a lot of different human conditions- in a relatable way, that has made me feel - at times- less alone in the world. 

Ruby Dixon's Aspect and Anchor series isn't that well known and, it's a bit different from the Ice Planet Barbarians.  I enjoy both series, and I do find that I rather like the odd world building in Aspect and Anchor.  

In the world of Aspect and Anchor, the Gods have fallen out of favor with their Parent and have been cast out to the human realm to learn to be more... human. It's a realm based on Medieval times, and as such, it's messy, full of superstition and a severe lack of communication devices. Indeed it is ALSO disease ridden. Women from current world Chicago seem to be disappearing into this realm and serving as Anchors for various cast out Gods.  Some of the women are falling in love!  Our Sunshine character Elsie makes a bargain to save her Brother's life and poof!  she finds herself in this realm as the anchor for the God of disease in his Apathy aspect.   Apathy is really very apathetic and Elsie must find ways to engage him and move him along, much in the same way a person might work with someone who is severely depressed.  There is a lot of mental health messages that are genuinely positive and understanding of folks who are dealing with mental challenges and trying as hard as they can to overcome. 

This is of course a romance, and thus, I can say there is 100% a happy ending, but I can also say that the way TO the happy ending was utterly devastating. I was sobbing down the highway listening to the last 2 hrs. 

 

This one was a lot of fun!!!  I think it may have healed a portion of Covid -19 trauma. Since it was written in 2025 or so, I take comfort in the fact that the God of Diseases now has Elsie to reign him in! 

So for me, this one's a yes.  I had the audio book and it was narrated by Elle Sonali!  The Narration was clear, and consistent, I never felt like her inflections or intonation distracted me from the story! 

This can be read out of order, but I do suggest at least reading the first before moving on to the Vulture God! 

STATS

First Published: 4/21/26

Pages: 514

Available as an Audio Book :  YES  ~ 15 hrs

Trigger Warnings:  violence, Death, multiple references to sickness, plague, brain cancer, vomiting, blood, on page sexual encounters, ghosts, farm animals

(this is not a full list, read responsibly)