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adventurous
funny
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This was such a great read! I can’t wait for the next book! The romance was giving banter and tension. I love them. The twists were great! I saw it coming that she had two god parents, but wasn’t expecting it to be Hel. I saw Bjorn’s betrayal coming like two chapters before it happened so not too bad but I definitely did not see his mother being alive! What a crazy twist, I thought Sonnri killed her. there were a few times where I struggled with Freya bc i just wanted her to choose herself first instead of her shitty family. So I’m excited to see her put herself first in the next book and I want her to make friends.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, War
Minor: Domestic abuse, Drug use, Kidnapping
adventurous
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent
Minor: Rape
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I HAVE THOUGHTS
These are going to be unpopular thoughts.
This book isn't good. I'm glad some folks liked it - not gonna yuck your yum. This is the first true romantasy book I've read, so it's possible the genre isn't for me, but my issues extend beyond the subject matter. Maybe I just don't care for Viking lore because I'm not interested in "big muscle warrior" love interests. I'm going to start with what I liked:
PROS: Bjorn and an interesting magical system based on Norse mythology.
CONS: Bjorn and pretty much everything else.
Ok, my feelings about our MMC are complicated. Bjorn is a complex but obnoxious, God among men, best at sex there ever was male lead. He's big - like, really muscled with no body fat. He's the hottest and everyone wants him and no one says anything bad about him. He is very warm because of his Tyr powers and always saves the day. This inspires many tropes (touch her and die, cuddle to stay warm, one horse, I'd die for you, etc. etc.). I disliked Bjorn in the beginning, but found him growing on me as the plot went on and he dropped some of the sexual bravado. His story is the most complicated and interesting, and I had the most compassion for him.
No other supporting character has much depth. The villains are nasty and power-hungry, the allies one-dimensional. The Gods, supposedly masters of trickery and riddles, are not tricky or complicated. I guessed most of the plot twists within the first 25%, which stunk because it made the road to discovery really plodding. I could not deal with another extremely obvious non-riddle from Odin followed by, "How could we possibly understand the brilliance of the Gods?"
Some of the plot points went absolutely nowhere. Freya swore a runic oath in the beginning, but it was barely mentioned again and there were NO consequences to "breaking" it. Freya changes her mind on a dime and makes incoherent, bad choices. She acts like a child while insisting she's an adult. At one point, she has a tantrum and throws rocks at a tree. She doesn't have coherency as our FMC. I kind of hated her, which sucks because I liked her in the first 20%.
Also, just a side note. Freya vomits like 3x a chapter. It's unreal. She vomits when she's thinking about sad things, she vomits because of smells, she vomits because she gets anxious, she vomits from alcohol. When you skim-read this book as fast as I did, you notice these things.
I wanted to be immersed in this world, but the plot traveled at breakneck speed from trope to trope like a garbo map of viral moments (Special power reveal ---> murder ---> arranged marriage ---> training montage / pull into water ---> MMC saves FMC 20x ---> etc. etc.). Jensen doesn't trust her audience and/or doesn't have the skills and/or editors to show and not tell. (An example: "His head fell from the stump of his neck and he slumped. Dead." I know this person is dead. I get it. People without heads don't live in this world. Every time someone died, she'd be like "Dead [in case you missed it]. Holy shit!!)
I could talk about A Fate Inked in Blood (AFIB???) for a long time, but the last thing I want to highlight was the writing style. Jensen isn't a bad writer, which made the whole experience more confusing. There were actual bangers in there, but the style couldn't save the plot or characterizations. However, Jensen doesn't know what time period she's writing in. It's ostensibly Viking-era, but characters go from, "Maiden, we cannot and shall not know the will of the Gods" to "Shut the fuck up". It made the light leave my eyes (Dead.).
AFIB is a standard warrior romance with shoddy political intrigue squished in around it. Even on the brink of death, Freya can't stop thinking about those rock-hard, sweaty, washboard abs. No terrors beyond belief will quell her horniness, for she is just a girl.
I do not recommend this book, but try it for yourself. I know several people with similar literary tastes who loved it, so who knows? I won't be reading the sequel, but I wish the Viking-lovers well.
These are going to be unpopular thoughts.
This book isn't good. I'm glad some folks liked it - not gonna yuck your yum. This is the first true romantasy book I've read, so it's possible the genre isn't for me, but my issues extend beyond the subject matter. Maybe I just don't care for Viking lore because I'm not interested in "big muscle warrior" love interests. I'm going to start with what I liked:
PROS: Bjorn and an interesting magical system based on Norse mythology.
CONS: Bjorn and pretty much everything else.
Ok, my feelings about our MMC are complicated. Bjorn is a complex but obnoxious, God among men, best at sex there ever was male lead. He's big - like, really muscled with no body fat. He's the hottest and everyone wants him and no one says anything bad about him. He is very warm because of his Tyr powers and always saves the day. This inspires many tropes (touch her and die, cuddle to stay warm, one horse, I'd die for you, etc. etc.). I disliked Bjorn in the beginning, but found him growing on me as the plot went on and he dropped some of the sexual bravado. His story is the most complicated and interesting, and I had the most compassion for him.
No other supporting character has much depth. The villains are nasty and power-hungry, the allies one-dimensional. The Gods, supposedly masters of trickery and riddles, are not tricky or complicated. I guessed most of the plot twists within the first 25%, which stunk because it made the road to discovery really plodding. I could not deal with another extremely obvious non-riddle from Odin followed by, "How could we possibly understand the brilliance of the Gods?"
Some of the plot points went absolutely nowhere. Freya swore a runic oath in the beginning, but it was barely mentioned again and there were NO consequences to "breaking" it. Freya changes her mind on a dime and makes incoherent, bad choices. She acts like a child while insisting she's an adult. At one point, she has a tantrum and throws rocks at a tree. She doesn't have coherency as our FMC. I kind of hated her, which sucks because I liked her in the first 20%.
Also, just a side note. Freya vomits like 3x a chapter. It's unreal. She vomits when she's thinking about sad things, she vomits because of smells, she vomits because she gets anxious, she vomits from alcohol. When you skim-read this book as fast as I did, you notice these things.
I wanted to be immersed in this world, but the plot traveled at breakneck speed from trope to trope like a garbo map of viral moments (Special power reveal ---> murder ---> arranged marriage ---> training montage / pull into water ---> MMC saves FMC 20x ---> etc. etc.). Jensen doesn't trust her audience and/or doesn't have the skills and/or editors to show and not tell. (An example: "His head fell from the stump of his neck and he slumped. Dead." I know this person is dead. I get it. People without heads don't live in this world. Every time someone died, she'd be like "Dead [in case you missed it]. Holy shit!!)
I could talk about A Fate Inked in Blood (AFIB???) for a long time, but the last thing I want to highlight was the writing style. Jensen isn't a bad writer, which made the whole experience more confusing. There were actual bangers in there, but the style couldn't save the plot or characterizations. However, Jensen doesn't know what time period she's writing in. It's ostensibly Viking-era, but characters go from, "Maiden, we cannot and shall not know the will of the Gods" to "Shut the fuck up". It made the light leave my eyes (Dead.).
AFIB is a standard warrior romance with shoddy political intrigue squished in around it. Even on the brink of death, Freya can't stop thinking about those rock-hard, sweaty, washboard abs. No terrors beyond belief will quell her horniness, for she is just a girl.
I do not recommend this book, but try it for yourself. I know several people with similar literary tastes who loved it, so who knows? I won't be reading the sequel, but I wish the Viking-lovers well.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Alcohol
Minor: Drug use, Infidelity, Slavery, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, Toxic friendship
adventurous
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:
Yes
first of all- can we take a moment for the sprayed edges of this book? i can't stop looking at them.
second of all- the norse mythology was such a pleasant change of pace for me. the lore in this book is woven in well and the characters are so diverting. freya is *going. through it.* and i am excited to see where her story goes. also, i forgot how fun a golden retriever boy is. bjorn can be my tag-a-long any day. the second book comes out just after my birthday in may of 2025. yall know i've already pre-orded it. bring it on.
per my spreadsheet:
spice 🌶 - a 4 🌶 spicy (romance.io scale)
length - just right
reading speed - read in 7 days
did it make me cry? - nope
second of all- the norse mythology was such a pleasant change of pace for me. the lore in this book is woven in well and the characters are so diverting. freya is *going. through it.* and i am excited to see where her story goes. also, i forgot how fun a golden retriever boy is. bjorn can be my tag-a-long any day. the second book comes out just after my birthday in may of 2025. yall know i've already pre-orded it. bring it on.
per my spreadsheet:
spice 🌶 - a 4 🌶 spicy (romance.io scale)
length - just right
reading speed - read in 7 days
did it make me cry? - nope
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, War
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Vomit, Kidnapping, Pregnancy
challenging
emotional
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:
Complicated
Going into the last 50 pages I was thinking this was going to be a 4.75 star max just because of how long it took me to read. Though it was only 5 days, which doesn't seem long, the reason it took me this long was because I was putting it down and just not picking it back up for no reason in particular. Also there is not a real depth to the world building, taken more time with the characters and relationships and there were things that were predictable. However, the ending had me reeling, even with the one reveal that I guessed. I also just couldn't stop thinking about the book and what was going to happen next and trying to work out what the ending was going to be. It was so quick paced that there was never a chapter that wasn't moving the plot along and something important happening, often some sort of action. I loved Freya and Bjorn, both individually and together, they just were perfectly balanced. I loved how Freya had to battling sides to her and it was just so interesting seeing the conflicting sides. I am so excited for where the second book is going to take us as the ending set up for a lot of complicated decisions and I am not sure how things from this book are going to effect how things will work out in the next book. I have been craving a 5 star read as I haven't had one in 5-6 months and I picked this up hoping that it would bring me those 5 star feelings and I am so glad it did.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Murder, War
Moderate: Sexism, Death of parent
Minor: Kidnapping
The death of a parent is on paper but not detailed as it is really quick. Book moves at such a fast pace that the war and violence and death happen but then is moved on from quickly but often into another battle 40 to 50 or so pages later. The kidnapping is briefly mentioned as something that happened to a character before this book.
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny
Minor: Cursing, Death of parent
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Violence, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, War, Injury/Injury detail
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I’m so sorry but I do not get the appeal of this book. I like the authors writing style and enjoyed the Norse components but other than that is an extremely average or below average book. It was slow, predictable, and had very little compelling world building, instead relying on the reader having previous knowledge of Norse mythology to really appreciate the lore. I didn’t really care for the characters either. Bjorn is alright, I didn’t really like Freya, and none of the other characters are developed enough for me to care about them really at all. I also did not care for the way the intimate scenes were written.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Sexual content, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, War, Injury/Injury detail
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, War
Moderate: Cursing, Drug use, Misogyny, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail