I was hooked by the book seeming to be about a viking kind of setting, back in the day, based on the book description/title. Battles, war, traditions, lots of shouted things, I don't know, it looked liked a good time.
An amazon summary, where, I removed all the praise at the end because the length of the summary was out of control otherwise. Feel free to check out the full deal on the amazon website, "A 2018 Most Anticipated Young Adult book that is part Wonder Woman, part Vikings―and all heart.
OND ELDR. BREATHE FIRE.
Raised to be a warrior, seventeen-year-old Eelyn fights alongside her Aska clansmen in an ancient, rivalry against the Riki clan. Her life is brutal but simple: fight and survive. Until the day she sees the impossible on the battlefield―her brother, fighting with the enemy―the brother she watched die five years ago.
Faced with her brother's betrayal, she must survive the winter in the mountains with the Riki, in a village where every neighbor is an enemy, every battle scar possibly one she delivered. But when the Riki village is raided by a ruthless clan thought to be a legend, Eelyn is even more desperate to get back to her beloved family.
She is given no choice but to trust Fiske, her brother’s friend, who sees her as a threat. They must do the impossible: unite the clans to fight together, or risk being slaughtered one by one. Driven by a love for her clan and her growing love for Fiske, Eelyn must confront her own definition of loyalty and family while daring to put her faith in the people she’s spent her life hating." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE
The amazon summary does a really good job of laying out the summary. A few things I have to add; honor is a BIG DEAL, there is a lot of emphasis on tradition, there is also a lot of emphasis on the gods of their world, and the fight scenes in this book have an intense realism about them.
I enjoyed how the reason of why the clans fight was slowly revealed after we already saw them engage in a battle.
I really liked the world building and how they established the tone of the book. There seemed to be a really good balance between the action of the book and the regular life stuff, like chores.
I know this book just released, but I want to dive into spoiler land just a little bit. Like stick my toe in it.
So don't read any further if you don't want any spoilers. Cool, cool.
...the story went a little Beauty & the Beast. Eelyn is captured and taken away from her people, but Fiske manages to save her by shooting an arrow in her shoulder (so she can't escape or be shot in a more damaging place). He also buys her to be his dyr (which is basically a slave) in order to save her from another member of the Riska clan. This also serves to reunite her with her brother Iri. Really, Fiske seems to be doing it all for Iri... but the story kind of spins into, Fiske did it because he loves her. It was kind of, I don't know, too played out? Kind of like a Carly Rae Jepson song, "Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy, but I totally captured you in battle, so love me maybe". ...I have no regrets.
I also don't think there's a sequel, I suspect this is just a stand alone book. I'm super cool with that.
Overall, I did really like the book. Despite my reservations about the romance, I liked this enough to make it a recommended book due to all of it's other fantastic features.
Plus, I really just want more viking like books in the young adult world. Never forget THE LOST SUN, which is more Norse mythology but has beserkers, and I don't care! Shameless plug for books I still love! WHOO!
Happy reading!
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