Thank you to the author, publisher and @NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Goodness me, this has to be one of my favorite reads this year! If you loved the TV show Vikings or read Olivia Dade’s Ship Wrecked, I recommend this! It’s so fast paced, action packed and damn steamy that you will not want to put it down!

Freya might be married off to a fisherman with a drop off of god’s blood, but when he basically tries to divorce her and kill her off, she summons the magic she’s been taught to hide for years and becomes the heralded shield maiden. What ensues is the best fantasy ride of the spring, the craziest plot twists and an ending that left my jaw on the floor.

Please please PLEASE pick this up if you’re a fantasy reader and want something a little more Norse and a lot more steamy!

This book was good medium pace read the romance didn’t pick up until the end but a solid start to a series

I enjoyed this book. I thought the characters and the narrative structure were very interesting. I would recommend this book to those interested in this genre. I would be interested in reading more from this author.

First - thank you to netgalley for an e-arc of this book. I loved it so much I bought the sparkly edged physical copy to keep on my shelf. I loved this book, I devoured it in a day or so. I want to re-read it for the mythology and I cannot wait for the second one. This is definitely a top read for me in 2024 so far and I am thankful to have received an early copy to review!

Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are my own! OMG! WOW! This was so great! This is definitely a new favorite series in the works! I'm so excited for everything to follow! This was truly so good! Definitely worth the Tiktok hype!

A Fate Inked in Blood by Danielle L Jensen was such a great fantasy read! I hadn't read any viking fantasy books before and wasn't sure if I'd enjoy it, but the story had me interested from the very start and followed through with great world building, strong characters with god-like powers, some mystery, spicy romance, and lots of adventures and battles/action. I can't wait to read book 2 in this series and follow on Freyas journey!

"You are mine Born-in-Fire. Even if only the two of us know it."

Norse mythology
Spicy Viking romantasy
Forbidden romance
Forced proximity
Insta lust paired with slow burn

Everything went right with this one- the
plot, the action, the romance and the character arcs. I got no complaints at all. The fact that I could not stop reading it, tells you enough.

5 Stars (but I would give it a bazillion)

I knew I was going to enjoy this book going in; it has a strong female lead, fighting full on grit, to page her own future, as well as a romantic entanglement, that is delicious but isn’t critical to the overall plot and world building, yet enhances it.

This book was that, BUT SO MUCH MORE. The low fantasy magical system works well alongside the historical Viking aspect and I could not get enough. Freya is such a realistic and flawed yet motivating heroine and Bjorn is SO FUCKING DELICIOUS, but their destinies are set to forge separate paths and this story revolves all around what our fates dictate and can we choose who we want to be despite that.

The audio was fantastic and honestly I cannot wait for the next book. I’m so unwell now that I’m finished and need to know what happens ASAP.

For years, Freya has had a secret: she is an unfated, one of the rare people blessed with a drop of god blood that gives her a divine gift. Warned by her late father to hide her ability, Freya is finally forced to reveal herself to protect her family. It’s then she learns that there is a prophecy that claims whoever controls the fate of the woman with her ability shall unite all of Skaland and rule as their king. Soon Freya finds herself bound by a blood oath to the service of a power-hungry jarl, who is determined to be the king of the prophecy. In order to survive, Freya is going to need to become a warrior and fast, for there are those who would rather see her dead than bow to a king. But Freya’s got another complication: her growing attraction to the jarl’s son Bjorn, another unfated who is determined to carve his own destiny.

A FATE INKED IN BLOOD is an adventure-filled Viking fantasy romance that gets hamstrung in the third act by keeping its reveals until way too late. The first two-thirds of the book is a great adventure. Jarl Snorri is determined to use Freya as a symbol to rally around, proof that he is destined to lead. The other jarls in the area aren’t eager to fall in line, however, and so it becomes a race to build up Freya’s reputation before another jarl can kidnap her or kill her. It leads to a lot of daring trials, brutal battles, and harrowing moments as Freya tries to survive and to learn how to wield the magical and political power she is developing. It also leads to introspection about what kind of leader Freya wants to be. Does it matter if her own people fear her, as long as they are safe?

Alongside this adventure is a swoon-worthy slow burn romance between Bjorn, the jarl’s son, and Freya. What starts as flirtation builds to something more, made more complicated by the fact that, publicly, Freya is second wife to Jarl Snorri (Slight spoiler: they agree not to consummate the marriage as Snorri is very much still in love with his current first wife.) Bjorn is a great love interest who treats Freya as an equal, including being willing to butt heads with her when he disagrees. Of the romance part of this book, I have no notes.

I do, however, have a few issues that prevented me from falling in love with this book as much as I could have. The first is Freya herself, as I felt like she didn’t have enough growth to satisfy me. She rarely interrogates anything beyond surface level. As a person with a god gift, she is supposed to be “unfated” yet because of the prophecy that says someone will control her fate, she is all too willing to bend to blame things as being out of her control because the prophecy says someone will control her. At the same time, she takes on guilt for other people’s actions to a somewhat absurd degree, constantly insisting things are her fault. While this is technically a duology and there’s another book for her to evolve, I wanted her to become a more self-reliant person than this book let her be.

But the most egregious error this book makes is keeping its characters in the dark about secrets for way too long. There was a twist that became fairly evident to me early in the book that I was convinced that the characters had figured out, only to find out a hundred pages later that no one had made the same leap of logic – and they didn’t until the very end of the book. The clues were there in such a way that I didn’t feel like I had been a clever reader to have figured it out, it felt like the characters were blatantly ignoring evidence or refusing to ask decent questions. The result is that I spent the final third of the book increasingly frustrated with characters who were simply baffled by “mysterious” happenings, when there was an obvious explanation for events.

Still, I cannot deny that overall I had a really enjoyable time with A FATE INKED IN BLOOD. I was definitely picking it up at every opportunity, and enjoyed the Viking setting. Now that the not-so-secret secrets are out, I’ll be eager to see where things go in the second book of this duology.

This is the best book I've read this year so far. I really love it, and I highly recommend it to everyone I've spoken to. I can't wait until the next book in the series comes out.

dnf @ 20%


Very much not a book for me. I feel like if you like Sarah J. Maas's books (or those similar), this one might work for you, since I disliked it in ways I dislike Maas's books.

The main character felt pretty Mary Sue-ish to me. The vibe is def as a stand-in for the reader, which is fine if that's what you're looking for in this genre, but that is not my preference. We're also thrown pretty immediately into the action, which gives us very little time to connect to the characters. (Who, imo, are also pretty bland.)

The general Norse aspects of the world seem like they could be pretty fun, but the pointless misogyny of the world made me soooo much less interested in continuing. Also, as someone with a background in medieval studies, a few parts made me go Yay! while others made me stare at my kindle screen in resignation. (Tho I will say it does NOT seem to have white power vibes, thank God -- always a toss up with any fiction related to Norse history.)

Also, is this what cishet women find sexy????? Call me a lesbian, but ???????? That is just an annoying guy. But ok.

Anyways, not for me! Which is kinda sad bc I was excited to take a chance with this book. Alas.

4.5 stars

This book was very fun and the writing was so different from her other series, but in the best way. It really showed her range as an author. I also liked the grit in the writing with it being a norse story.

I do think the final twist was just a twist for the sake of having a twist. That is what keeps this book from being a five star for me.

I really enjoy Jensen’s writing! The world was well developed as were the characters. Freya was a strong lead and I enjoyed her character growth (though sometimes her choices didnt seem all that logical). The romance was decent but sadly I wasnt as invested in Freya and Bjorn as I wished I’d been. I could visualize the action scenes easily. The pacing did slow for me a bit mid way but picked up again at the end for the most part. Overall this was a good romance/viking book. I do think I might be getting a little tired of viking stories.

"A Fate Inked in Blood" by Danielle Jensen is a captivating blend of Norse mythology and fierce warrior ethos, wrapped in a story of survival and self-discovery. Freya, bound in an unwanted marriage and resigned to a life of fish gutting, emerges as a formidable shield maiden when her circumstances force her into a deadly fight for her life. As Freya trains to control her newfound magic and grapples with forbidden desires for her protector, Bjorn, the tension builds.


Jensen weaves a rich narrative, revealing Freya's latent powers as a goddess-blooded shield maiden destined to shape the fate of Skaland. Through Freya's trials and tribulations, Jensen explores themes of identity, loyalty, and the price of power.

I cannot wait to read the next one in this series!

I was enjoying this up until about halfway through. I'm thinking I don't really care for first person narratives because I get sick of hearing every single thought the main character has. Freya has three characteristics: lusting for Bjorn, feeling responsible/guilt for everything that goes wrong, uncontrollable rage. She's also incredibly stupid. At one point I started to believe that there was some curse placed on her that made her care about her deadbeat family instead of owning her power.

I am okay with tropes and predictable plotlines, but I can't stand idiotic characters.

This might be one of the best books I've read this year 👀❤ Everything went right with this one- the plot, the action, the romance and the character arcs. I got no complaints at all. The fact that I could not stop reading it, tells you enough.

This is the first book to a Norse inspired fantasy. We're following Freya, a fishwife in a small village who is a bit more than meets the eye. She is actually the prophesied shield maiden. The jarl takes her to become his wife and is the key to gaining political power. He unfortunately has a really hot son, who complicates things. It’s very much your typical danielle l jensen book, beautiful writing, swoony romance and just overall really creative.

A shieldmaiden with forbidden powers is forced to help a power hungry king unite the people of Skaland under his rule in this Norse-inspired fantasy romance.

I had a really good time with A Fate Inked in Blood by Danielle L. Jensen. The chemistry between Freya and Bjorn was sizzling right from the get go, though it did peter out a little towards the end. It was still very entertaining to read as their relationship developed. The banter was top tier at the start and I was thoroughly enjoying it until we started getting into the driving plot a little more. Once the conflict started picking up, I felt like the relationship took a back seat, which I didn’t mind, but I did miss it a little.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing/Ballantine/Del Rey, and Danielle L. Jensen for an e-arc of A Fate Inked In Blood in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

First of all, let's normalize authors giving us a pronunciation guide. I was so happy to see that Danielle L Jensen put this on her website.
Link for everyone else: https://danielleljensen.com/saga-of-the-unfated/pronunciation-guide/

I really enjoyed this book. I liked the how snarky and fun the Freya was and her banter with Bjorn was well done. I like the way the action and the romance blended together, and the novel had great pacing that made the book so hard to put down, I didn't particularly enjoy the way this one ended, but I'll save judgement on that particular issue until the sequel is released.

This book ended up being a DNF for me. Unfortunately I was not able to connect with the characters as I feel the plot dragged in the first hundred pages with nothing substantial taking place. The writing itself was also somewhat offputting as it used too many subordinate clauses to allow it to flow. This made the pacing feel clunky. I did genuinely enjoy the premise and did buy a physical copy which I hope to pick up again when sometime has passed.