Judith’s review of The Blue Viking (Viking I series #5) by Sandra Hill
Life has not been the same for Rurik the Viking since leaving Maire of the Moors, the fiery witch who put the blue zigzag on his face after a night of passion. For a fierce warrior, this blue streak is the last straw. And in the end, he’ll bring the witch to heel–or die trying.
Once again author Sandra Hill has gifted her historical fiction fans with the continuing story of life in 10th century Britain and in the Scandinavian countries, most especially ancient Norway. Rurik is your quintessential Viking–strong, big, ruggedly handsome, thinking of himself as a gift to women, and a man who is willing to wade into just about any situation, be it war or peace.
Yet he has now encountered a circumstance about which he can do nothing. He bears a blue mark on his face–right down the center of his face–similar, according to some accounts, to the warrior marks on ancient Celtic faces. Yet this mysterious mark appeared following a single night of passion several years before our present story begins, a night when Maire became his love, fell in love with him, and unbeknownst to him, became pregnant with his son. At the time she was a witch in training and Rurik blames her for his disfiguring mark and is bound and determined to make her remove it.
What he finds when he returns to Scotland is a Campbell clan in disarray, nearly beaten to death in more ways than one by their neighboring clan, led by Maire’s brother-in-law who wants the land the power and the position of being laird of Maire’s clan. This would mean death for her as well as for her son. Not quite the same situation as when Rurik was first in this part of the country.
This is a very serious book in that it chronicles quite graphically the political and cultural situation of ancient Scotland, the involvement of the Norse in this land, and the on-going struggle between the Scottish clans that continued on for generations. But don’t forget–this is also a very intense love story but always there are those wonderful personal interactions that are rib-tickling funny, the wonderfully corny and crazy “sagas” of Bolthor the Skald–a kind of oral historian and entertainer with his poems. some of which rhyme but almost all of which are summarily dismissed by his listeners. Yet everyone loves the gentle giant and his loyalty to his companions and theirs to him is never in doubt. I have to confess that seldom did a page go by but what I was laughing. It is fun to get to “know” these various characters as they will pop up in future books, some of which will feature these men and tell their stories of love and adventure. There is joy here, lots of it along with sorrow and disappointment, wondering what the future can hold for two very different people who are tied to pieces of the planet that are great distances from each other.
This book is a stand alone novel but reading the previous books makes each succeeding story that much more engaging.
I give this novel a rating of 4 out of 5
The Series:
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This book is available from Avon. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
This sounds like a great book.