Daughter of Fire and Ice, Marie-Louise Jensen

Synopsis: 'A sense of menace grew on me all morning. Not a vision. No glimpse of the future disturbed me. It was more a shadow of approaching danger...'

Snatched by a notorious Viking chieftain, Thora is set to leave her homeland on a ship bound for Iceland. But when her captor is murdered an altogether different journey begins...

My Thoughts: The phrase 'I couldn't put it down' is often thrown around and has been used so much that it's becoming clichéd. However, with this novel, it's completely true as this book was pretty much stuck to my hands for the three days it took for me to consume it.

Jensen shows once again that she is a master at creating a realistic world that blends the familiar with the foreign.

The protagonist, Thora, is a well balanced character who manages to be good without being saccharine and who pulls the reader along with her on her journey as it twists and turns.

Forbidden love can often be frustrating and annoying for the reader but Jensen manages it so that the reader feels as though Thora and Bjorn will be together eventually, making the reader willing to wait for this outcome.

The antagonist, Ragna, is also well drawn as Jensen avoids making her into a cartoon villian, instead creating a character who is complicated and for whom the reader feels a small amount of sympathy for.

Overall, this is a novel that twists and turns, taking the reader to places that they don't expect and that had me wishing for more as I read the final words.

*****