Antonia Bernardin

My 62nd read of this year was A Fate Inked in Blood by Daniel L Jensen, the author of The Bridge Kingdom Series, which I absolutely loved.

Unfortunately I listened to those back in the days when I was less consistent with my reviews, so I never reviewed that series! You can see my thoughts on the last book, The Endless war, here though.

A brief summary

Set in the time of the Viking’s but in a world where the power of the God’s is real and children are born with a drop of a God’s blood that gives them incredible powers. Our main character, Freya, is the reluctant wife to one of these children, a horrible man named Vragi. Although she dreams of battle fame and adventures, Freya is stuck being a fishwife in a love less marriage. That is until a handsome warrior walks from the sea, with an accent from the Nordeland, their enemy. Freya soon discovers that he is here with their Yarl (leader) and his father, who has come to break her marriage, he pushes Freya into a duel with the mysterious handsome warrior, who is a child of Tiln with an axe made of fire. When she is forced to defend herself, Freya reveals she is a child of Hiln. Not knowing that there is a prophecy that the Yarl will control the fate of the child of Hiln, which will unite Skaland under one rule (his).

Freya soon finds herself forced into another reluctant marriage and starts down the path to her fate, all while trying to repress her growing feelings for his son. As a child of the Gods she is un-fated but how much of her story is written by the prophecy and how much is down to the choices Freya makes?

What did I think?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, the story is so rich, the setting has incredible visuals and, as huge lovers of the show Vikings, I absolutely loved that aspect of the world. I really liked the romance and the journey the main character goes through. It starts out slow burn but for the spice lovers, there is plenty towards the end. The slow burn aspect isn’t protracted and filled with frustrating obstacles that keep them apart for the sake of keeping them apart, rather the barriers felt a very natural part of the story. Although I figured it out before we got to it, I thought the ending was really good and such an annoying cliff hanger to leave it on!

Next one isn’t out until May 2025! I’m sad we have to wait that long but check back June next year for an update.