{"id":929,"date":"2024-02-27T12:53:01","date_gmt":"2024-02-27T10:53:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/?p=929"},"modified":"2024-02-27T12:55:11","modified_gmt":"2024-02-27T10:55:11","slug":"a-fate-inked-in-blood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/?p=929","title":{"rendered":"A Fate Inked in Blood"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Danielle L. Jensen<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this book we follow a woman called Freya, who\u2019s stuck in an unwanted marriage to an awful man and spends her days longing for a life as a warrior. But when her husband betrays her to the region’s jarl Freya ends up in a fight for life and death. She is forced to reveal her greatest secret. She possesses a drop of a goddess\u2019s blood, which makes her a shield maiden with magic capable of repelling any attack. It was foretold such magic would unite the fractured region beneath the one who controls the shield maiden\u2019s fate. And jarl Snorri is not about to give up his chance at becoming King, so he decides Freya is now his. Leaving Freya not only forced to fight for the jarl, but also against her own rising, and very much forbidden, desire for his son.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I got this book to review, I knew very little of it and I hadn\u2019t read much more than the title and the fact that it was a Norse-inspired fantasy. That part is perhaps important considering my reaction to the novel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All in all, this is a really good book. It\u2019s easy to read, more YA-level than epic adult fantasy perhaps, but it also feels like we\u2019re more in NA territory here so I suppose that fits. I liked the characters and the worldbuilding. It was vivid enough that I could paint a picture in my head of what it looked like where the story took place, but not cluttered with so much detail that I lost the plot. Is it a case of poetic brilliance? No, but that\u2019s a good thing. It\u2019s fast and easy and the plot and the characters are always in focus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plot feels thought out and is executed pretty well. There\u2019s a constant pull towards the next page, and coupled with the tension between characters and their evolving relationships, it makes for a good read. The author has effectively portrayed the tension between the two main characters and it feels real and genuine. I believe them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, there are two things about this book that threw me off a little. One, it\u2019s a steamy read. And that\u2019s perhaps not a bad thing if one likes that sort of thing, but I was not ready for it. There\u2019s no fade to black around here, it\u2019s\u2026detailed, and since that\u2019s not really my kind of thing, I did quite a bit of skimming. But, if you like smut and fire, and tension and, yeah, this is for you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second thing is that this book is extremely predictable. It was a long time since I read something so obvious. I knew from the very beginning exactly how this would turn out. There were no surprises, which is a shame, because the book is good. And the plot itself is also good and interesting and fun and hard things happen, but every twist and turn is so obvious that it takes away a lot of the fun. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Had I been surprised, been forced to sit on the edge of my seat because I couldn\u2019t wait to see what would happen next, this would have been a five-star review. But it\u2019s not, because at every turn, I knew what was coming, and rather than sitting on the edge of my seat out of eagerness to know more, I sat there out of frustration because what was obvious to me still hadn\u2019t occurred on the page. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, all in all, this is a good read, and if you\u2019re into steamy books, then this is for you. Because this is more of a forbidden love kind of romance about two people forced into proximity than it is a plot-driven viking tale of battle and glory. The plot is in all honesty just a means to an end to get the relationship in the story to where it needs to be, which is fine, just not what I had expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4\/5 stars.

Also, the book is out today, so head over to your local bookstore and grab a copy.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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by Danielle L. Jensen. In this book we follow a woman called Freya, who\u2019s stuck in an unwanted marriage to an awful man and spends her days longing for a life as a warrior. But when her husband betrays her to the region’s jarl Freya ends up in a fight for life and death. She is forced to reveal her greatest secret. She possesses a drop of a goddess\u2019s blood, which makes her a shield maiden with magic capable of repelling any attack. It was foretold such magic would unite the fractured region beneath the one who controls the shield maiden\u2019s fate. And jarl Snorri is not about to give up his chance at becoming King, so he decides Freya is now his. Leaving Freya not only forced to fight for the jarl, but also against her own rising, and very much forbidden, desire for his son. When I got this book to review, I knew very little of it and I hadn\u2019t read much more than the title and the fact that it was a Norse-inspired fantasy. That part is perhaps important considering my reaction to the novel.  All in all, this is a really good book. It\u2019s easy…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":930,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[19,32,31,4],"wppr_data":{"cwp_meta_box_check":"Yes","cwp_rev_product_name":"A Fate Inked in Blood","_wppr_review_template":"default","cwp_rev_product_image":"http:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/afateinkedinblood.jpeg","cwp_image_link":"image","wppr_links":[],"cwp_rev_price":"","wppr_pros":["Good worldbuilding","Interesting plot","Well-written characters"],"wppr_cons":["Extremely predictable",""],"wppr_rating":"80.00","wppr_options":{"1":{"name":"Overall","value":"85"},"2":{"name":"Characters","value":"85"},"3":{"name":"Plot","value":"80"},"4":{"name":"Writing","value":"80"},"5":{"name":"Ending","value":"70"}},"wppr_review_type":"Product","wppr_review_custom_fields":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=929"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":931,"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929\/revisions\/931"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}