Guest Review: Viking in Love by Sandra Hill

Posted April 28, 2010 by Book Binge Guest Blogger in Reviews | 2 Comments

Publisher: Avon, Harper Collins
Judith’s review of Viking in Love by Sandra Hill

First, let’s be clear: the Viking is our heroine, Breanne of Stoneheim, who arrives at the castle of Caedmon of Larkspur with her many sisters in tow. They seek sanctuary with a bold, daring knight in his strong fortress of a castle. Instead, they’re faced with chaos. The buxom female servants barely perform their duties, countless children of dubious parentage run wild, and Caedmon himself lies abed by day and spends his nights carousing with his friends. So Breanne decided it’s time to straighten things out—and in doing so discovers that there is more to Caedmon than his strong arms and virile good looks.

If you are looking for a book that will make you laugh, this is a good candidate. If you want a sexy super-hero type, then you will like Caedmon of Larkspur. Set in the era of Britain’s Saxon kings, Breanne and her sisters, indomitable women of great wit and creativity, are the daughters of a Norse/Viking king whose headquarters are located in Jorvik, today’s modern York in Northern England. They are seeking sanctuary after having relieved their youngest sister of the burden of an abusive husband, having arrived at her home during a brutal beating delivered by said husband. Their defense of their sister resulted in the death of the husband whose body was then dumped in a brand new privy that was being constructed. The sisters seemed to think that was a fitting burial place for a person they considered a piece of @#$%. Because of the unpredictable nature of the Saxon king, they fled to the home of a distant relative of another of the sisters (by marriage) which then brings them into the world of Caedmon.

It is marvelous to witness Caedmon’s world being completely upended as these forceful women clean his house, take his children (and others whose parents are essentially unknown) in hand with baths and clean clothes and rules for good behavior, strategize to save Caedmon’s property from being seized by the king, and help find wives for Caedmon’s best friends which secures their future. Add in the adversarial relationship between Caedmon and Breanne—they take great delight in irritating one another almost to the point of shed blood – and you have a novel that is truly such fun to read.

This is a very cute book and I enjoyed it so very much. It was one of those books that is so fun that I read it straight through. The characters are wonderful, and Ms Hill has done very thorough research on the times so that the story reflects an accurate picture of what these people had to endure from the normal circumstances of living as well as a political context that changed as often as the dinner menu The dynamics between men and women in that time are deeply offensive to modern women, but whether we like it or not, it is the way women were viewed and was the reality of their lives. In spite of all that, there were still men like Caedmon who, even though he seemed to reflect the attitude of the times, was a man of honor and felt a deeply ingrained senses of responsibility toward those who were dependant on him. I grew to like him very much. I liked those sisters – boy, were they a bunch. And while they were women of their times, they still knew their own worth, and were more than able to stand up for what they believed. All in all, this book is a very good read.

I give it a rating of 4.75 out of 5.

You can read more from Judith at Dr J’s Book Place

This book is available from Avon. You can buy it here.


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2 responses to “Guest Review: Viking in Love by Sandra Hill

  1. Lorraine

    Great review, Judith. I love Sandra Hill’s books. Even though they can be silly and cheesy, they truly are laugh out loud funny.

    This book is in my TBR, waiting for a day when I need a little pick-me-up.

  2. Luci

    I have been meaning to start reading Sandra Hill’s books but haven’t yet gotten around to it even though i have three of hers in my piles. My question is, do the Viking series need to be read in order? Are there secondary characters in one book that then get their own book for eg?

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