Review: SOUL’S FIRE by @sfanetti ★★★★★

SOUL’S FIRE

(The Northwomen Sagas, #3)

Susan Fanetti

BLURB

Soul’s Fire is the third installment of the bestselling Viking romance series THE NORTHWOMEN SAGAS, following God’s Eye and Heart’s Ease.

Astrid has been a warrior since the day she was old enough to make the choice to live and die with an axe in her hand. She is strong and stoic, powerful and brave, and she has the life she desires, free of complications and distractions.

She is a shieldmaiden, and that is all she wishes to be.

She has been the strong right hand of her jarl since the day they and their allies overthrew the cruel Jarl Åke. Jarl Leif is mighty and honorable, and with Astrid’s help, he has brought great prosperity to their people. Every summer, the raiders sail into new lands, traveling farther and farther, claiming treasure to enrich their people. They meet little resistance from the rulers or the people of these strange worlds.

Until they land in a country whose king has learned the lessons of his neighbors and meets the raiders with a cunning and brutality that matches their own. In that clash, and after it, Astrid’s shieldmaiden’s strength and will are put to the harshest tests.

Leofric is the second son of a king. Without the expectations or attention imposed on his brother, he is free to live more or less as he chooses. But he is a seasoned warrior and not half so dissolute as his reputation suggests. When his father and brother seek to salve their rage by torturing a captive barbarian woman, Leofric sees their action for the evil it is and does all he can to save her, and then to heal her.

To love her had not been part of his plan.

The captive is strong and stoic, powerful and brave. She is a marvel unlike any woman he’s ever known. But if she is to live, she must learn the ways of his world. If she is to thrive, she must cast aside what she was and become something new. Leofric would give her all that he has and more, but there is one thing he cannot offer.

His world has no word for shieldmaiden.

Note: Explicit sex and violence. Dark themes.

★★★★★

SOUL’S FIRE is a story that won’t let you go. I’ve been thinking about it non-stop. Shortly after I finished I quickly googled Vikings the TV show on the History channel. I’ve never seen it but I did spend some time watching some clips on YouTube. Now, I’m wishing I could binge watch the show.

At the amount of feels I’m having since I finished Soul’s Fire I might transport myself back into the Viking Age and become a Shieldmaiden. Actually, that’s not true. Soul’s Fire had some pretty brutal and savage scenes. I know I’m not cut from the same cloth as a shieldmaiden to handle that kind of treatment.

One driving force in the beginning of Soul’s Fire is revenge. A loved one is wrongly killed and a war is waged to avenge that death. The king has come up with a savage plan to right a wrong against the Vikings. Astrid is stolen and made to pay the price for what her people did to the king’s family. Astrid is one strong shieldmaiden because what she endured is beyond comprehension.

” Did love always change a person so completely? Or had she been changed already, in the black place, and simply loved the man who’d saved her from it?”

The king’s second son, Leofric, was not behind the treatment of the prisoner. He takes it upon himself to save her from that hell and use her for the good of the kingdom. His plan is to have her learn their ways and language and then have her give them inside info on how the Vikings world worked. What he didn’t expect while caring for her was to fall in love with her.

Soul’s Fire is set during the Viking Age. It’s the third book in Northwomen Sagas and the main characters in the previous books play a role in Soul’s Fire. To grasp the overall arc of this series it’s recommended you read them in sequential order.

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**Complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.**

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