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whatdebsreads's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexism, Blood, and Murder
bookameme's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Intense and Heartbreaking with all the Viking Battles You Could Ask For
“I am yours and you are mine, even if we’re the only ones that know it.”
Thoughts:💡
Children of the Gods are unfated, yet it doesn’t seem like they get to make many choices. Freya least of all. Her love for her family and clan are continually used against her. She’s furious, bold, and occasionally brash, but still young enough to be manipulated while being a true warrior at heart.
Vikings are notoriously violent and bloodthirsty, especially in this book, which is why it’s no surprise the entire plot is built around that idea. Even the magic system, which was admittedly unique and interesting, was based on the premise of helping the characters achieve glory and spread their fame with acts of violence or response to it.
Dreams of battle glory and Valhalla are utmost on most of the characters' minds, even after their stomachs turn from the effects of war. It’s a main focus of the book from start to finish. The characters' fervor for it irked me at times just as Freya’s naïveté and soft heart frustrated me. Overall, I genuinely liked her character and Bjorn’s, especially their relationship. However, their characters have a lot of room to develop in the next volume, and I for one can’t wait for it.
Audio & Narrator:🎧
The audiobook for this added a fun and immersive feel to the story. The narrator had a norse accent that sounded believable and interesting. The volume and pace remained steady and easy to follow along with, and the perfect amount of excitement and inflection was used for each scene.
Fun Bits:
⚜️ Action packed and full of adventure
⚜️ Really cool magic system
⚜️ Lots of Norse Mythology
⚜️ An interesting romance
⚜️ Extremely fierce FMC
✨Beware the cliffy
⚠️: Violence, Death, Blood, Gore, War, Graphic Injuries, Slavery
Stats:📊
Spice: 🌶️🌶️
Characters: 💙💙💙💙
Audio: 🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧
Narrators: 🎙️🎙️🎙️🎙️🎙️
Historical Fantasy: Vikings, Norse Legends, Magic, Fighting Fate, Warring Clans, Hidden Secrets📘
First Person, Past Tense, Single POV
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
jadeyfish's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
inspiring
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Sexism, Sexual content, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Domestic abuse
ee1000's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
My first Fairyloot book! I was excited to read this, especially since I have other books by Danielle Jensen on my TBR. I did enjoy this book overall but there are some things that I hope change in the next book.
I really liked the setting and world building, the magic system rooted in mythology was really cool and I enjoyed seeing that unfold.
I want to hear more from each of these characters, I feel like there’s still enough secrets between everyone that I’m impatient to know what happens next.
What I really want to see is Freya to take control over her own destiny. She doesn’t like being used but her own inner monologue talks frequently about being owned or managed by others. I want so badly to see her be her own person while learning to rely on others to support her, not just manage her.
I’ll most likely pick up the second book when it releases but hopefully Freya grows a bit more in the next novel!
I really liked the setting and world building, the magic system rooted in mythology was really cool and I enjoyed seeing that unfold.
I want to hear more from each of these characters, I feel like there’s still enough secrets between everyone that I’m impatient to know what happens next.
What I really want to see is Freya to take control over her own destiny. She doesn’t like being used but her own inner monologue talks frequently about being owned or managed by others. I want so badly to see her be her own person while learning to rely on others to support her, not just manage her.
I’ll most likely pick up the second book when it releases but hopefully Freya grows a bit more in the next novel!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, and War
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Sexual assault
sarrie's review against another edition
emotional
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
TL;DR: If you enjoy Romantasy you’ll probably enjoy this, if you want nuance or depth maybe go elsewhere.
A Fate Inked in Blood is the newest Romantasy release from Danielle L Jenson, whose Bridge Kingdom is one of the most recommended in the genre. This one is Norse in inspiration about a young woman with the power to make a King after a spoken prophecy.
I can see this doing fantastic - I really can. This is going to be a hit for a lot of readers, especially of Romantasy. Unfortunately for me this was just okay? I found the writing easy, bingable, and quick. And there were moments that I really enjoyed! However I had a huge issue with the characters and what I felt like was very lazy writing in the characterization.
For the most part these characters filled roles, 2 dimensions at most. Our main character is treated as and used as a tool which led to my biggest issue in this. The only characters that weren’t outright sexist for most, if not all of the book, were… well all of them. Even our main love interest in this cracks sexist jokes constantly. Our primary ‘villain’ of the piece is interesting until he starts talking to or about our main character then he looses everything and it’s just sexism and neglect. Most the women in this were cold, or outright bad to our main character, an annoying trope in a lot of romance. All of this could be used well, but it felt like it wasn’t nuanced in any way or had a purpose besides riling up the reader.
As I stated, I enjoyed parts of this, but lack of depth and nuance to these characters just left me annoyed. As an aside, I also felt like the amount of work done to actual capture anything besides the ‘vibe’ of a Norse series was lacking as well. If you’re going in for the ‘fantasy’ or actual character depth, perhaps this is a skip. But if you want just a fast and emotional read, this could be a winner.
3 out of 5 flaming axes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Sexual content
bookrecsbyjess's review against another edition
While I was enjoying this story, the content is just way too graphic. Not only was there too much spice, but the way people and animals were treated was too much for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Sexism, Blood, Vomit, and Murder
knacksandnovels's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Minor: Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual violence, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and War
bookishxobsession's review against another edition
adventurous
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Thank you to NetGalley and the author for providing me an arc of this book for my honest review. It's been an absolute pleasure to read this book.
Holy cow! What a ride! I can say I have never read a book that was steeped so heavily in mythology but this book made it very easily digestible, explaining in small tidbits so the world building didn't feel overwhelming.
Freya is constantly used as a tool for her family. She is told to never be too loud, never be to opinionated, never be more, only do what is expected of her and not what she wants. I feel like this makes her a very relatable character, having been in her position of being told to do for the greater good rather than good of yourself. She's traded from one shitty husband to another to build their greatness and once again is used as a tool while she battles with what it means to be who she wants to be versus what is expected of her.
Danielle gives details that make you feel, hear and smell the world around Freya. Her horrors, her joys, her surroundings are yours while you're reading this book. Danielle gives you ample time to warm up to the idea of a love interest in this book and it gave me all the feels when it played out. He pushes her again and again to be her best self, to not rely on only one strength and to choose herself over, even if it means dishing out some tough love. The dash of spice through out the middle and end of this book more than satisfied.
I absolutely devoured this book and am utterly wrecked about having to wait for the next book.
Holy cow! What a ride! I can say I have never read a book that was steeped so heavily in mythology but this book made it very easily digestible, explaining in small tidbits so the world building didn't feel overwhelming.
Freya is constantly used as a tool for her family. She is told to never be too loud, never be to opinionated, never be more, only do what is expected of her and not what she wants. I feel like this makes her a very relatable character, having been in her position of being told to do for the greater good rather than good of yourself. She's traded from one shitty husband to another to build their greatness and once again is used as a tool while she battles with what it means to be who she wants to be versus what is expected of her.
Danielle gives details that make you feel, hear and smell the world around Freya. Her horrors, her joys, her surroundings are yours while you're reading this book. Danielle gives you ample time to warm up to the idea of a love interest in this book and it gave me all the feels when it played out. He pushes her again and again to be her best self, to not rely on only one strength and to choose herself over, even if it means dishing out some tough love. The dash of spice through out the middle and end of this book more than satisfied.
I absolutely devoured this book and am utterly wrecked about having to wait for the next book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Gore, Sexism, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and War
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