A non-spoilery review for a new fantasy romance filled with Norse mythology by bestselling author Danielle L. Jensen; the first in the “Saga of the Unfated” series
Happy Wednesday, my fellow book lovers! I hope you’re all having a great week so far. Been a bit of a busy one for me; trying to get into the “spring cleaning” mood and let me tell you right now, it’s not quite working. Did my fridge though!
Today we’re going to be talking about a new fantasy romance that hit the shelves back in February: “A Fate Inked in Blood” by Danielle L. Jensen. This is the first book I’ve read from this author; I think she’s mostly known for “The Bridge Kingdom” series, but she has other books in the same genre. “A Fate Inked in Blood” will also be part of a series, the “Saga of the Unfated” series. I knew this, yet I read it anyway. I’m always afraid I’m going to like a new book that’s part of a series, then I’m going to be depressed because I’ll have to wait a few years before the next one. Anyway, let’s dive in, y’all.
First, a quick synopsis: Freya is not having a good time. She’s married to a horrible man and spends her days gutting and cleaning fish when all she wants to do is become a strong warrior. When an opportunity arises, her husband betrays her and sells her to a jarl (a title of nobility in Old Norse), who needs Freya’s secret powers from the goddess of protection, Hlin, to become King of Skaland. The one who controls the shield maiden will become king, so the prophecy says. Now Freya moves from one prison to another, forced to marry the jarl and obey his every whim otherwise he will kill her entire family.
When word spreads about Freya’s magic, she suddenly has a target on her back. The wannabe king tasks his son, Bjorn, to stay by Freya’s side and protect her no matter what. When sparks fly between the two, Freya has to choose between love and destiny.
My star rating: 3.5 out of 5. I rounded it up to 4 on Goodreads.
I was torn on my rating. I was originally thinking about giving it a 3 out of 5, but I felt that was too harsh. And since I’m not going to open that can of worms and start rating books by quarters, I went with 3.5 but rounded up to 4. (No joke, I’m seeing people rate books on Goodreads by the tenths. “3.2 out of 5 y’all!” I’m sorry, but I’m gonna need to see your grading rubric, like, right now.)
The reason I’m torn is because it started off strong, then dragged until about, oh… the last thirty pages, then ended stronger than the beginning. However, the fact that the bulk of the book was dragging and made it tough to pick back up was rather unfortunate. I liked the idea of mortals having the power of the gods with a single drop of blood. I liked the idea of Jarl Snorri becoming so obsessed with the power of the shield maiden and what she can provide for him that he will do anything to get that power and become king. A classic in mythology. I also liked the Norse background and the Norse gods. I read online that the author said this is only going to be a duology, so I’m hoping in the second book there will be more about the gods themselves. I don’t know, I really got into Norse mythology when I played the God of War video games. Plus a good chunk of my DNA comes from Northern Europe, so it’s fun to learn about the history and mythology of the area.
The Romance. The romance part of the fantasy romance was… okay. It happens rather quickly, where it could be called “insta lust” and such. I mean, Freya describes Bjorn as being so beautiful and so perfect, so if that’s the case I don’t blame her for having the feelings, but it’s not quite believable when it’s so fast and so sure. How can you be sure, Freya? You just met the man and he’s the son of the half-crazed jarl who will gladly keep you prisoner if it means he gets to be king. There’s not a lot of intrigue when it comes to a romance plot with that. When that happens, I know of only two ways the book will end, especially when I know the book is part of a series and there will be more to the story. And wouldn’t you know it, one of the two things happened. I don’t want to say what they are here because I’m trying to stay spoiler-free for the most part. Just know that for me, unfortunately it was a bit of an eye-roll. It didn’t pack the punch of a shock or twist, it was just… there. Like, “Oh, alright then.”
Also, half of their conversations are the same:
Bjorn: Now is your chance to escape the clutches of my father and live your own life, flee!”
Freya: I cannot; he will kill my family. He will also hunt me down and bring me back, you know this!
Bjorn: Flee anyway! Your family is lame and they don’t really love you the way you deserve.
Freya: Rude.
It was tough to read through their scenes when you know the conversation will eventually end with the above – or a derivative of the above. It got old, very quickly.
The World-Building. I can see the richness of the world-building, I just would love to see more. I know we’re focusing on Freya and her story, but I am intrigued and have questions. How do the gods decide who gets the “single drop of blood” and the power of the gods? How much power do they get? They can’t get the same amount as the gods themselves, right? That seems a bit much, and from what I’ve read about gods in any religion, gods are a jealous and vain bunch. They wouldn’t want mortals to have that much power, yeah? And how many of these people are roaming the land? Is there a limit to how many Baby Tyr’s and Baby Thor’s there are? Do they spread their blood like they spread their seed??
I understand that it would be a bit much, that having all these questions answered (and more) would turn this from “New Adult Fantasy” into “High Fantasy” with 1,000-page books and more than two books in the series. But I don’t know, I’m just curious, is all.
The End. Obviously I’m going to keep this short and sweet because I don’t want to spoil the book, but the ending did kick things up a notch and while it was a, “woah, okay, we’re doing stuff now” kind of situation, it wasn’t as big a payoff as I would’ve liked after pushing through the last 300+ pages. Since it’s a duology, it left the reader on a cliff-hanger, so we’ll see what happens next in a couple years maybe. It was very reminiscent of a book I read earlier this year called “Heartless Hunter” by Kristen Ciccarelli. A book I enjoyed, but it had the same vibe in that ending as this one: slow for the most part, then in the final handful of pages things kicked up a notch and got a bit crazy, just in time for the cliff-hanger ending.
While I’m not against cliff-hangers, per say, it does beg the question: is the cliff-hanger needed for the story or for the characters? I’ve read many series where there’s no cliff-hanger, but I loved how the story of that book concluded and I loved the characters themselves that I was excited to get the next book and see what happens next with them. The first book that comes to mind is one of my earlier memories: Harry Potter. I read the first one, it had a clear and succinct plot that ends (that we knew of at the time), Harry finishes his first year of school, then goes home for the summer. Not particularly a cliffy, but it leaves you wanting to see what happens next with Harry.
A bit of a tangent, I know. But the reason I bring it up is because with this book I feel like it’s a cliff-hanger where I want to know what happens next with the story more than the characters themselves. Meaning when their story ends, I will accept it and not need more from them in particular. Having other stories in this same universe, however… I’d be cool with that. Seeing what other “god-touched” mortals are up to, and how they’re dealing with their powers? Sign me up.
Have you read “A Fate Inked in Blood” yet? Loved it? On your TBR? Let me know in the comments below, I always love hearing from y’all.
As always: until next time, my lovelies!
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