A shield maiden blessed by the gods battles to unite a nation under a power-hungry king—while also fighting her growing desire for his fiery son—in this Norse-inspired fantasy romance from the bestselling author of The Bridge Kingdom series.
Bound in an unwanted marriage, Freya spends her days gutting fish, but dreams of becoming a warrior. And of putting an axe in her boorish husband’s back.
Freya’s dreams abruptly become reality when her husband betrays her to the region’s jarl, landing her in a fight to the death against his son, Bjorn. To survive, Freya is forced to reveal her deepest secret: She possesses a drop of a goddess’s blood, which makes her a shield maiden with magic capable of repelling any attack. It was foretold such a magic would unite the fractured nation of Skaland beneath the one who controls the shield maiden’s fate.
Believing he’s destined to rule Skaland as king, the fanatical jarl binds Freya with a blood oath and orders Bjorn to protect her from their enemies. Desperate to prove her strength, Freya must train to fight and learn to control her magic, all while facing perilous tests set by the gods. The greatest test of all, however, may be resisting her forbidden attraction to Bjorn. If Freya succumbs to her lust for the charming and fierce warrior, she risks not only her own destiny but the fate of all the people she swore to protect.
“You’re mine, Born-in-Fire,” he answered, reaching out to take my hand. “And I’m yours, even if only the two of us know it.”
Bloody, magical, and harsh – I absolutely loved every piece of this brutal Viking romance that Danielle L. Jensen gave us.
Our unfated couple. Freya is such a strong MC. The way she always tries to do the right thing and fight for what she believes in is admirable. I also loved watching her power grow and evolve. With Bjorn, I just loved him from the beginning. He’s extremely fierce yet has this underlying soft side. We see it from the first moment we meet him and then weaved continuously through the storyline.
“I see you asleep in my arms in the home I built for you,”
I also loved the old Gods’ lore woven into the story. It was such an interesting magical system created. So much cracks open at the end and the way that ending literally put an axe in my heart… I will absolutely be counting down the days until the next book.
Thank you to Netgalley & Del Ray for an eArc of this book.
Jotted by Jena 