I really like Lisa Hendrix's writing style. It was easy to follow, and flowed well.
The story is about a Viking crew who killed the son of a sorceress in battle, and Cwen, the sorceress, in turn cursed them into animal form-some by day, some by night. Ivar is around a 1000 yrs old, when he is granted land and the land's lady by King William. He and Lady Alaida throw sparks immediately. For him-lust, for her- anger. They got married, had a fabulous wedding night, and then he left her. During the day he becomes an eagle. Parts of it were really cute, how Alaida would see this eagle soaring the skies and call him "her" eagle, and she wouldn't let anyone hunt eagles. When she realized she was pregnant, she called the baby her little bird. Cute. The ending was fantastic. Action, love, a happy ending. Cwen was not vanquished, of course, since this is only book 1, but it was satisfying. The epilogue, was less of an epilogue, and more of a bit of foreshadowing.
However, the main reason for this not being a 5 star book was that the middle annoyed me. The beginning was interesting, the ending was good, but the middle...okay, after their first night together, Ivar won't sleep with Alaida again because Ari, his friend and fellow cursed Norseman, had a vision of their child being an eaglet. So the book would say, a week passed, 40 days passed, a sennight passed...it got old with nothing happening during the time passing. Alaida bickered with Ivar, and at 4 months pregnant finally realized she was pregnant. Then she still won't tell Ivar. When she does they finally are together again, but then he leaves for 2 months and more "time passes." I got bored.
The ending was good, though, and it's a quick read. It's a medieval paranormal romance, and I liked the history that Lisa Hendrix threw in at the end as an author's note. Ivar has no history, but was a real man and the land, names and castle are all real.
3 stars
4 comments:
Great review. I have book one and two and keep pushing them back I guess I will get to them one day;)
Your review is dead-on. Pretty much echoes my own thoughts when I read it. There were some great parts, some slow parts, but ultimately it was a pretty good read. I love how she incorporates true historical facts into it.
The next book better in some ways, and follows the legend of Robin Hood in a pretty clever way. Also, another thing about the series that I like, the books don't happen back to back. It's sometimes very "convenient" that you have a group of immortal warriors of some description and they all find their loves/mates in a very short stretch of time. In this case, the second book is about 200 years later than the first, making it a bit more realistic.
Okay, I'll stop now... :)
Cool! Thanks J Leigh. I was super curious what happens after the healer woman died (I can't remember her name!).
It does sound like it could be a good summer read though. I am going to have to add the author to my list!
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