04/03/2025
I was thrilled to receive this book as an advance reader copy from since I've been a huge fan of her online content for a while, and had been wanting to read her books.
Thoughts:
The book focuses much more on the domestic life and internal life of Brynn, a young woman who has put herself aside for others her whole life and is now finally learning what it could mean to choose for herself and find her own happiness.
I'd actually categorize this more as historical fiction rather than fantasy, since fantasy plays a pretty minimal role in the book until the end.
While I am by no means an expert in the Viking time period, I know enough about it to know that Elisabeth Wheatley clearly put in time and effort to research the lifestyle of this stand-in for Viking period England. Many fantasy authors don't bother and as a result, their books are frustrating to read when you have things like, say, toilets.
The world setting reads as pretty realistic in its small size, technology use, food availability, housing situation, clothes, political structure, and even mental attitudes, though of course that is the most nebulous and challenging to achieve. The characters do not have attitudes that scream 21st century values. If there is anything that drives me crazy about a book, it's that, and this book did not commit that crime.
The writing style here is more down to earth and matter of fact, which reflects the perspective of the main character, who is quite pragmatic.
The love story here is understated and a slow build up. The main development in the story is that of Brynn learning to become independent and allow herself to choose her own life.
Viking activity forms some of the action in this book along with a conflict between Brynn and her plotting sorceress mother. To me, the main crux of this conflict was not the action but the relationship between Brynn and her mother, and Brynn's need to become independent of her mother.
Kudos to the author for writing a well-researched book. I much appreciate the ARC!
