Based on the poem Beowulf (which I haven’t read although a brief description is included in the prologue.) This is the story of the slave, in the last part of the poem.
I did feel it’s probably leaning more towards YA although the main characters are 20 (they read as a couple of years younger) - not that this detracted from the story at all.
Loved the glossary of how to pronounce the Olde English names & words but I do wish that this had been at the front of the book (only because I was reading an e-book version)! Made me smile that the author’s forward did point to this index but said she didn’t care if you ‘make up your own pronunciation’ or just ‘blip over the words you don’t know‘!
My heart broke for the lonely Fýrdraca, though & I loved her chapters.

DNF.

I got bored. So bored. I was 30% in and nothing had happened?
The characters were not compelling they were cardboard cutouts of people I should care about but don’t. They had no depth. The multi POV was too much. One or two POVs would have been enough for this story not 5.

I skimmed most of it. I kept waiting for a big bang to happen like something big and revealing that will move the plot forward but it didn’t happen.

The premise sounded so good and it fell so flat. It failed in what it promised to give. The worldbuilding was lacking a lot. I expected more Norse and just got… hardly anything

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.


This was an interesting read. I read "Beowulf " in my school career, and all I really remembered was his defeat of Grendel. To read this story and realise it was not about that aspect of the legend, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I found this book very enjoyable and hard to put down once I reached the climax of it.

A very clever piece of writing

Inspired by the epic poem of Beowulf, Shield Maiden tells the tale of Fryda, niece of the mighty King Beowulf as she aspires to become a Shield Maiden: a fearsome warrior and earn respect from her father for her ambitions. A tragic accident that leaves Fryda with a lifelong disability challenges her goals but with dragons, war and treachery surrounding her, will Fryda overcome her troubles?

Action-packed with myth, legend and lore, Emmerichs weaves the ancient tales of heroism adored from the Beowulf poem with that of a contemporary feminine retelling where his niece takes centre stage.

Rich with symbolism, the author explores various themes such as love, loss, betrayal and war in a dynamic and multilayered style that is engaging and fun to read.

While I did enjoy this novel, I do recommend this more for the young-adult audience as I found the prose a little light for my own tastes, but I would happily read this novel again!

genre: historical fantasy
minority representation: Disability, POC
trigger warnings: use of the C-slur (cr*pple), slavery, war, death, mentions of blood, sex.

shield maiden is the story of Fryda, daughter of the lord who wishes to become one of the fierce warriors called 'shield maidens'. Her father forbids her as he wants her to be a lady as expected of the lord’s daughter. Fryda, however, can only dream of battle and triumph. What will be her faith?
Fryda, our protagonist has had a big injury in her childhood which resulted in the bones of her hand being completely shattered and deformed. This disability makes her believe she’s worthless. Emmerich’s describes Fryda’s shame very well as she’s surrounded by people who believe disabilities devalue someone, as was the case with her betrothed.
In extension of this the C-slur is used in this book. However, I think this is one of the rare cases in which it is justified that the word is used by people who aren’t disabled. Fryda herself never refers to herself as a cr*pple and only describes her hand as disabled, but not useless. The villains in this story are the only ones ever to use the derogatory term and only to make it even clearer to the reader that these people are the worst. These villains for example also are openly racist (without using slurs) and talk down to slaves. The ableism really feels like an extension of bigotry where there’s no ambiguity that it’s not okay to talk to and about disabled people in that manner. Because of this, I truly believe that people who aren’t yet aware of ableism to pick up on this and learn from it. That’s exactly why I think it justifies using the term!
On to the plot. Even if you don’t know Beowulf or haven’t read his story you will enjoy this book. I will say it is still a niche subject as I think a lot of history nerds like myself will be drawn to the story of Fryda. However, this story is also about finding your place in the world, growing into yourself as a person, fighting back and celebrating all you are. Emmerich has changed this time of history to be a bit more inclusive and minority friendly, without erasing or denying the bad things. I think that is beautiful and it makes the story so much more fun to read.
However, it took a long time for the plot to really interest me, I had fun reading the first half of the book, but it was a bit too slow for my taste, which is absolutely subjective to me. This isn’t to say that nothing happens in the first half, but I like my action to come fast instead of creeping up to me.
The only other thing I didn’t really agree with was the timing of Fryda’s sex scene. I felt like it wasn’t the right time of place for it as I was anticipating the big climax of the plot instead of Fryda’s love life. Other than that, I really enjoyed the book!
To conclude this review, I would recommend this book to everyone who’s interested in history with a twist (even if you only like history just a little bit). I promise you dragons, fighting, strong female characters, a black side character with a great personality, disability representation and epic battles.

*Thank you so much to netgalley and the publisher for an Earc in exchange for an honest review*

Unfortunately, this was not the book for me for quite a few reasons.
Firstly, the characters were mid 20s, acting like teenagers but with some strangely un YA swearing ? i get trying to genre defy, but having 20 year olds acting like 16 just isn't the way, it's annoying. Age them down.
Then, the plot was nowhere to be found for the majority of the book. It was ridiculously boring to the point where it's put me in a reading slump and only my sheer fear of losing my 100% review rate on netgalley kept me going.
The world building was confusing, the characters were annoying, the plot was non existent for half the book. Thats just half the review.
There were a million and one POV characters, not too confusing but then again I'm used to it. Also throughout the book were chapters by what one assumes was a dragon with bare minimum relevance just there to keep the plot with some semblance of mystery.
What little plot there was seemed to split in increasingly irrelevant directions, getting more and more covulated as the book went on to the pount where i could not tell you how half of it was relevant.
On that note, Shield Maiden desperately needs editing to get rid of such random extras.
As for the Norse Mythology, there was an absolute bare minimum of it.
The characters annoyed me, the plot was predictable, the writing was... writing. It's a shame, but definitely not the book for me.

This was a mixed bag. I read Beowulf for college and enjoyed both the content and analysis, I love Norse mythology and historical fiction so this looked like a really promising read. However, it tried to be so many things at once it just fell flat.

There's politics, a dragon, family drama, romance, the chosen one trope, a curse (that I didn't fully understand) and none of it really gripped me. We're stuck in a relatively small place geographically and I would've loved to see this world more expanded through more day to day life and customs. The cast of characters also felt small. I liked Wiglaf because I hated him. His POV came as a surprise but I thought it well done and it painted his twisted thought process nicely. I didn't care too much about the rest of them. I understand the circumstances but Fryda was painfully naive and blind to the abuses around her and considering how much time she spent with a servant and a slave it was rough to witness. Theow was... eh. Beowulf was funny and that's pretty much it.

The plot picked up way too late, and failed to make me care about what was going on before the 50+% mark. For what it's worth, by the end the story got pretty exciting, it simply took too long to get there with a lot of plot lines but nothing really happening. This might be one of the rare books I read that would benefit from being longer, it just needs more meat.

If you're enthusiastic about Beowulf or the time period, go for it. I'd love to see more thoughts on this.

Shield Maiden
by Sharon Emmerichs


Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews

Genre: Sci-fi and Fantasy, historical fiction,

I was so intrigued to see this book, I love historical fiction and was really keen to read more of Beowulf, Grendel and that period.
Sadly I found the story just didn't interest me, I didn't connect with either the characters or plot, or even really understand what was actually happening.
I restarted a couple of times thinking maybe that would help but....its just not a story for me. At a different time maybe I'll enjoy it, I've not given up on it but right now its just not interesting me.
As always that's just my view, others will and do love it, and it may be the perfect read for you.

Stars: Two, not one for me right now, maybe at another time?

ARC supplied by Netgalley and publishers

Thank you Head of Zeus and NetGalley for providing me an e-arc in exchange for an honest review. My review is my own and not influenced by others.

The cover and description drew my attention and I decided to dive right into this e-arc as soon as possible. While reading this book I had trouble to keep my attention to the story because I found it very boring, there is little plot and the world building is not well developed by my opinion. Because of this I had difficulties to keep on reading and decided to DNF it.

𝐹𝑦𝑟𝑑𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑎 𝑔𝑙𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑡𝘩𝑒 𝑠𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑚𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑓𝑒𝑎𝑟 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑢𝑖𝑠𝘩, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑡𝘩𝑒 𝑠𝑖𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑡𝘩.

𝟹.𝟻/𝟻

𝐸𝑁/𝐹𝑅

| WARNING: This digital A.R.C was kindly sent to me by the publisher via NetGalley after I requested it in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. |

|DID I HAVE A TARGET ON MY BACK?|

I basically asked the publisher to allow me to read this book before its release. So yes.

Shield Maiden is Beowulf's retelling with a young, fierce but crippled woman who only dreams of glory and being a shield maiden. The second POV is a dragon's one which, if you're anything like me, you know It's really cool.

I found it to be an easy read with maybe too light writing for the story but overall It's a good debut (I think It's a debut, correct me if I'm wrong).
I also think It's the fantasy YA north mythology inspired everyone has been waiting for but It's also the reason why I did not enjoyed this book on a five out of five level.
Lord knows how much I frown when I read an epic story this much infused with teenage romance and the chosen one trope. But this aspect is entirely personal preference and has nothing to do with the book.

I highly recommend Shield Maiden if you're into YA fantasy and you feel like you've read it all. You've not.


------ 𝐹𝑅 ——

| WARNING : Cet A.R.C digital m’a été envoyé par l'éditeur via NetGalley suite à ma demande en échange d’une honnête revue. Toutes les opinions exprimées sont miennes. |

|AVAIS-JE UNE CIBLE DANS LE DOS?|

J’ai demandé à l’éditeur de me permettre de lire ce livre avant sa sortie. Donc oui.

Shield Maiden est un retelling de Beowulf, avec une jeune femme féroce mais infirme qui ne rêve que de gloire et d’être une shield maiden. Le deuxième POV est un dragon qui, si vous êtes comme moi, vous le savez, c’est vraiment cool.

J’ai trouvé que c’était une lecture facile avec peut-être une plume trop légère pour l’histoire mais globalement c’est un bon premier livre (je pense que c’est son premier livre, corrigez-moi si je me trompe).

Je pense aussi que c’est le YA fantasy inspiré de la mythologie nordique que tout le monde attendait mais c’est aussi la raison pour laquelle je n’ai pas apprécié ce livre à un niveau 5 sur 5.
Dieu sait à quel point je fronce les sourcils quand je lis une histoire épique autant imprégnée de romance adolescente et le trope de l'élu.
Mais cet aspect-ci dépend entièrement de mes préférencespersonnelles et n’a rien à voir avec le livre.

Je recommande fortement Shield Maiden si vous êtes dans le fantasy YA et que vous sentez que vous avez tout lu. Ce n'est pas le cas.

This was an easy read and I’m sure if I was into Norse mythology I would have been more interested. Unfortunately I found the storylines quite weak and fragmented and the novel as a whole did not fulfil my hope of a feminist one.

If like me you enjoy a good dose of mythology, and/or a good historical fiction, then I think this book will be right up your raiding party.

Fryda is the daughter of the chief, and twin sister to his heir: an enviable position to many. The only issue is all she wants to be is a Shield Maiden. But due to an accident when she was in her early teens, Fryda doesn't have the use of her left hand. Not that she let's that stop her, as she trains in secret and poses as the perfect lady of the house by night for her aging Father. Oh, and let's not forget that her Uncle is none other than legendary hero, king Beowolf.

This rite of passage book is masterfully told, mixing the legend of Beowolf with some new elements that fit together to make a wonderful story of love, betrayal, bloodshed and dragons. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did.

An interesting spin-off on Beowulf franchise, focusing on the shield-maiden that takes down the dragon that gets the aging hero.

Although not familiar with the original story I really enjoyed this book especially Frydas POV.
Thankyou for the opportunity to read and review netgalley.

I have read Beowulf earlier this year and absolutely loved it. This is a fantasy novel that is very much linked to the people and events in that epic poem, taking place after Grendel’s defeat. It’s written from two perspectives, the predominant one of Fryda who is a king’s daughter and relative to Beowulf, and one of the cursed dragon.

I really enjoyed all the references to the original story and how it was used in here, also I appreciated the use of Old-English words from time to time. I had to get used to the writing at first as it felt a bit too flowery and drawn-out and sometimes just didn't work for me. The dragon parts felt a little too repetitive as well. For me the weakest point was the very typical love story as well as the ‘chosen one’ trope but for people who like YA stories, I guess this wouldn’t be a problem. I preferred the side characters more and the plot twists along the way. Also, yes, Fryda wants to become a shield-maiden but the title might be a bit misleading as it doesn’t mean there are a lot of battles along the way.

Overall, I thought it was engaging enough and interesting in terms of all the connections to Beowulf but a story directed mainly towards YA readers. 4 out of 5 stars from me. I do recommend picking up Beowulf to compare the two.

Thank you to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for the e-ARC.

Our main character is spunky, young Fryda, daughter of a king. As a child she fell down a cliff and hurt herself badly. One of her hands never healed properly but Fryda is determined to become a warrior, a shield maiden anyways and trains every day with her father’s blacksmith to become stronger and better.

This story wanted to do so much that the story itself was lost. The main conflict is between Fryda’s father and the king of Sweden which is not explained enough before it all comes crashing down on the reader. There are some hints as to why this is going on, but they are not explained enough. Suddenly there’s a full-blown battle going. For some reason there’s a dragon and a “chosen one”-storyline which gives nothing to the story. Fryda’s twin brother suddenly turns megalomaniac for no apparent reason.

If this book had focused on the conflict between families and/or countries I think it would have been more cohesive and interesting. With all this going on the story is very divided and it staggers a lot. There’s not a lot to keep my interest.

It was very much a “and then this happened and then this”-story.

I initially picked up Shield Maiden because I thought it would be an empowering feminist book, similar to Kaikeyi or Circe. I was, unfortunately, disappointed.

Based on the description, the book is about Fryda who dreams of becoming a shield maiden but has to face some obstacles to do so. It is not.

Shield Maiden is an historical romance that follows the story of Theow and Fryda, two star-crossed lovers. Yes, Fryda does dream of becoming a shield maiden, but she actively does nothing to achieve that, beside training from time to time. She is too preoccupied with her relationship with Theow.

Relationship that we see from multiple point of views: Fryda’s, Theow’s, Hild’s, Bryce’s, Wiglaf’s, even Beowulf’s. Honestly, there are too many different POVs.

Having so many characters makes it impossible to really focus on each one in only 400 pages, as a result they all lack of a solid characterization. Fryda represents an exception, but only because she is defined by the relationships with the men in her life. Anything but empowering.

At this point we could say that book is character-driven, in its own wrong way, since it is barely fantasy and there’s not a clear plot.

On a positive note, Shield Maiden is a fast and easy reading.


I will post this review on Amazon when the site will let me and on Storygraph when the book will be available there.

Beowulf has always been an iconic story but this beats it without a doubt, the fierce female lead makes Beowulf seem like an almost hero in comparison. I completely adored this book, the perfect feminist fantasy version for young woman everywhere!

Shield Maiden is told in third person and is a fantasy novel derived from Beowulf. Fryda wants to become a shield Maiden after hearing stories of her uncle King Beowulf and his defeat of Grendel. Unfortunately her dream of becoming a shield maiden doesn’t seem likely and a political marriage is on the horizon. However, Fryda will have to fight for her people as a shield maiden would. This fantasy novel is perfectly serviceable and I can see many people enjoying it. It reminded me of The Voyage of Freydis by Tamara Goranson in the setting. The story did intrigue me but I was bored and struggled to connect with the story. Overall, I am going to give this three stars as it isn’t really my kind of fantasy but it’s not bad at all and it is written well.