A Fate Inked in Blood by Danielle L. Jensen
SYNOPSIS
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 attach.
It was foretold such a magic would unit 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 ste 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.
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This Vikings inspired Norse fantasy snags your attention with epic battles but falls short of true character connection.
I’ve never read anything by this author before but I LOVE any type of mythology inspired stories and there’s a devastating SHORTAGE of Norse inspired romantasy novels. This was one of my most highly anticipated new releases for this year. Unfortunately this book wasn’t really for me. We start off strong with Freya breaking free of her abusive marriage and becoming entrenched in an upcoming war that focuses on her god-gifted power. I think the author did a great job diving into the lore and battle knowledge. I was actually quite impressed with how in depth she described the weaponry. We also have a great main male lead with just the right amount of mysteriousness to keep us intrigued. The shortfall for me, however, was the main character. It was an ok read but I found the character building a little weak and found myself rushing to the end just so that the book could be over. I don’t love doing low rated book reviews but I also feel like it’s important to share the bad alongside the good.
Freya is the downtrodden fishwife of a powerful man in her village. Sold off by her family with little choice in the matter if they wanted to survive. After yet another fight with him, she runs into a warrior and, before she knows it, is fighting him to the death. With no other way to save herself but to call on her powers that she’s tried to keep hidden, she wins the fight and a place as the jarl’s second wife. With the premise of an extremely vague prophecy, Freya follows whatever anyone says of her fate without question or regard for her own free-will. In the synopsis it alludes to training as a battle warrior being a large part of this book…. it isn’t. We get one on page training session where Bjorn tells her how to hold a shield for long periods before she’s thrust into battle and all other training is done off page. This book had a lot of the “tell don’t show” aspect to it that made it harder to capture my attention.
Freya as a character didn’t seem developed at all. I understand this is the first in the series but this first book should be the one that makes me fall in love with the main character to the point that I very impatiently anticipate the release of the next book. This didn’t do that for me. I found Freya to not have her own thoughts at all. She did what people said to do, acted how they told her to, and even started to think how they wanted her to near the end. For someone who has no loyalty but to family and hates the jarl, she sure is patriotic and willing to do anything against her morals to please him. It wasn’t just survival, I felt like I was in the brain of a mindless follower. I had so much more hope for her to have any sense of free-will or fight but her fight response always seemed curb by her second guessing herself. I also couldn’t take the endless guilt. She took on everyone’s death around her as if she personally held the knife. Sometimes I’d be reading a chapter and feel like I already read it because her guilt-ridden thoughts were so constant and the same throughout the entire book.
This was a 2 star read for me. I just didn’t enjoy it. I know a lot of people have really liked it and so I’m finding this is definitely just a personal opinion of me not being able to connect to our main character. I won’t be continuing on with the rest of the series as it comes out.