Sandra Hill, Viking in Love

Viking in Love

Sandra Hill

Avon, Feb 2010, $6.99

ISBN 9780061673498

In 965 Northumbria the five Viking princess daughters of King Thorvald of Stoneheim in the Norselands kill the abusing spousal, Oswald the Earl; make that former Earl, of one of them, Vana. The dead miscreant had ties to the odious King Edgar so the fearsome femmes need instant protection. . They travel to a cousin-by-marriage, Caedmon, who resides inside Larkspar, a strongly fortified castle.

Caedmon does need five female bosses having spent nine months with one bossy monarch. He wants them out, but agrees to house and protect them in return for the most hostile of the quintet Breanne warming his body for ten consecutive nights in which he proclaims everything goes and she agrees

Although quite straightforward proving the shortest distance between two points is a historical novel containing no time displaced Vikings or Americans, this historical is an amusing gender war of what looks like the first of five Tenth century romances. The bickering starts even before Caedmon enters the plot as the fearsome fivesome argue over who did what to Oswald the brute and that argumentativeness never takes a respite even when the hero steals a kiss. Although the sisters especially Breanne seems more modern day than from two millennia ago, fans will enjoy this jocular jaunt with its key question being what is the Viking S-Trick?

Harriet Klausner