Here is a quick outline:

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 neighbour 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.

The premise of this story was one of the main reasons I picked it up, “part Wonder Woman, part Viking” I was definitely intrigued! Unfortunately for me the story fell short of the hype. The only thing remotely Viking about it was the setting, which was disappointing, as I wanted to learn more about Viking Folklore and felt there were plenty of opportunities to do this.

Eelyn the main character wasn’t so much “Wonder Woman” as your stereotypical female who falls in love with the enemy whilst being held captive. Although she was battle hardened and proved she could hold her own, I think this was undercut when she was attacked looking for Fiske towards the end of the book, and the “big hulking man” had to rescue her.

This book was a 2.5/5 for me. It lacked depth to the story line and I felt the characters were quite shallow. However, the story was interesting enough to keep me reading till the end and if you put aside some of the bad points, it is worth a read.

Goodreads