Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinions.

Wow! I have no adequate words for how amazing this book was. I sat in shock staring at the wall for a solid 10 minutes after I had finished just so I could process it all. I absolutely can’t wait for the second one.

Freya has the power of Hlin but she has to hide it until one day she’s forced to expose herself. Once she’s exposed everyone knows that she’s the shield maiden everyone has been waiting for. But is Hlin the only god who has blessed her?

Bjorn is the jarls son and has been blessed by Tyr and now he wields the fire of the gods. He’s been charged with protecting Freya night and day. But will he be able to protect her even from herself.

In this book you have Vikings and Norse mythology and people touched by the gods who can wield their powers. I cannot recommend this book enough!!

10/5 stars and I will be recommending this book to EVERYONE…and buying a physical copy for my shelf. This will be hard to beat for my top book of the year!

Freya wants more than to be the wife of a god blessed fisherman in her small village. She longs to fight with her jarl as a shield maiden and bring honor to herself and her family. When her scummy husband betrays her secret, that she is god blessed and can call upon the goddess Hild for protection, she gets her wish, but not in the way she wanted. She is part of a prophecy proclaiming that she will help unite the lands for the jarl who controls hers. So, of course, this means that her Jarl, Snorri, must take her as a second wife.

Snorri is single minded and fanatical. He wants to become king of as much as possible no matter the cost. His people are slaughtered... no problem... this will fuel our vengeance and help us succeed. Every obstacle is just more proof that he is on the right path. He tasks his oldest son, Bjorn, with protecting and training Freya, so that she can help his achieve his grand destiny.
So of course they fall in love.
Bjorn seems like a pretty good character actually. He's attractive, funny, clever and protective. Freya, honestly seems a bit dull. She has one shinning moment in the beginning when throws an ax at her fish husband's head and becomes a widow and then it's all downhill from there.
Am I doing the right thing? Who is betraying me? Should I run away? Should I stay and protect my family? She's so overwhelmed with doubts over every decision she seems incapable of making a proper decision and keeps getting swept up in the action and then regretting what happens afterwards. She started off strong, but became a bit blah as time went on.
I also would have like some more info about her second god blessed tattoo. Sure, it was covered by the burs she received grabbing Bjorn's axes, but the fact that she had TWO, when everyone else only had one should have raised more concern? We find out why in the big reveal at the end... but was no one at all curious in the meantime?

Overall, not bad. A quick jaunt through some Norse/viking worlds with a little romantasy thrown in, but nothing that makes me yearn for the next installment.

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I received an ARC of this book by the publisher via Netgalley in an exchange for an honest review.

Okay, let's first get the obvious out of the way. This book has beautiful cover art! Now onto the review.

A Fate Inked in Blood is a new fantasy romance novel set in a Nordic inspired world. You've got Vikings, you've got the Norse pantheon, you've got spice, you've got a morally grey heroine, you've got political intrigue, you've got Bjorn! It all came together to make a fun reading experience. I felt like the book was well-paced until the last 8% of the book. The ending felt rushed. Kind of like Jensen wanted to write 50-100 more pages but was pushed into getting all her plot twists out asap.

There was an unexpected twist that partially caught me by surprise and I'm curious to continue the second book of the series. The romance in the novel wasn't my favorite part. But I enjoyed the political aspects of the story.

I give A Fate Inked in Blood a solid 4 out of 5.

Thank you to Del Rey, NetGalley, and Danielle L. Jensen for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5⭐️ rounded up.

I’ll start off with saying I enjoyed this book. It was a different kind of fantasy book than what I typically read. I haven’t read a lot of Norse-mythology inspired fantasy and I found that really interesting. There was very minimal world-building and it left me very confused at parts in the story. I really needed more from the world-building and from the description of the magic system/gods to be able to fully understand the setting of this story. The pacing of this book also struggles a bit for me. The action pretty much happened within the first 30 pages and was so great. Then the middle was very slow. The ending picked up again. I needed more of a balance. I had a very hard time with Freya as a character. She would have moments where I felt like she was finally coming into her own, and then suddenly it was almost like she was a completely different character yet again and acting in a way that I couldn’t reconcile with her previous actions. I also didn’t understand her blind loyalty to a “family” that continually showed her no love, actively betrayed her, and hurt her more times than I could count. She also blindly followed Snorri, while in her head acting like he wouldn’t make a great leader, and then never really trying to do anything to fight against him? But then randomly she would get a swagger and “challenge” him by mouthing off? I just couldn’t get a grip on who she was as a character and it left me really unsatisfied and I didn’t want to root for her at all. I liked Bjorn as a character, but do feel like I need more from his development. I saw the big twist coming, but I still enjoyed it when it was revealed (although I still feel like Freya’s reaction to it was ridiculous and the fact that she would try to choose to go back to Snorri who has also lied and manipulated and killed MORE people instead of stay to hear Bjorn out is crazy to me). The book really shines during the battle scenes. I am excited to see where we go from here.

Confession time: I didn’t love The Bridge Kingdom. Don’t come for me! I know it’s a booksta and booktok darling! So to say I came into this one with high reservations is putting it very mildly. So, why did I decide I wanted to read it? Early raving reviews by trusted influencers was the biggest reason, that cover is amazing, and I’m an absolute sucker for Norse mythology and feel like it’s highly underutilized in recent fantasy books (a girl can only handle so many Hades and Persephone retellings). The good news? This did not disappoint!

I found this to be a very satisfying read with its strong but challenged FMC, a swoony MMC, great romantic tension and pining with a very slow burn, an interesting magic system, and an ending that has me already eager for the next book. I did find Freya to be a bit frustrating at times but Jensen did a great job letting the reader see and feel how conflicted Freya was. Her emotions were just a tad all over the place for me. Bjorn was fantastic and very reminiscent of other popular romantasy leading heroes. Overall, lots of fun and I look forward to continuing on with the saga.

I need to stop torturing myself by reading arcs… this was SOO good. How am I supposed to wait for more?!😭

I was a little skeptical going into this because Ive never read a Viking/Norse mythology fantasy before, but idk why I had doubts, it’s right up my alley and I ate this up! The story was so good, I didn’t want to put this book down. I loved Freya and Bjorn, I loved the action, and I loved all the twists and turns. There were times I thought “oh this is kind of predictable” but then it still ended up catching me off guard. And that ending! I can’t wait to see what happens next! Hoping the sequel comes out like, a day after this one🤣

Arc provided by NetGalley!

Ahh another incredible piece of immersive fantasy from Danielle Jensen. This story was absolutely captivating, a wonderful shield maiden story. The lore was rich without being over bearing and her writing is so enticing

This new fantasy release from Danielle L. Jensen was easy to read and filled with intriguing twists, flirty banter and godly powers. In this fantasy world based on Norse Mythology, some humans are blessed by the gods allowing them the ability to channel the god’s powers. As Norse Mythology has a ton of gods, this created a fun magic system with a variety of powers. In addition to the powers from gods, there also exists magic based on runes and blood magic.

The book follows the main character, Freya, who is fierce, loyal and dreams of being a warrior, as she is forced to embrace her fate to unite the country. Alongside her is Bjorn, who is the brooding son of her power crazy new husband. I thought Freya felt like your typical reluctant hero while Bjorn felt like your arrogant forbidden love interest. I liked our love interest as I felt like he had an interesting backstory, however the main character felt a little too typical. This is the start of the new series, so I think there is a lot of room for character growth from Freya which I am looking forward to.

The romance between our two main characters is a pretty big part of the book and I felt like the characters had good chemistry even if some of the flirting was a little cheesy. Readers can expect a good amount of romance along with a handful of spicy scenes.

I thought the plot was a little predictable or well hinted at throughout the book. There are quite a few twists but none of them caught me off guard or felt too far out of reason. The main premise of the plot seemed to take a little bit of a backseat to all the trials she faces along with the romance, but I think we will find out more in the next book. I thought this book was easy to read and had good medium pacing throughout.

If I had to make a comparison to another book that I have read, I would say those who enjoyed the plated prisoner will also enjoy this series. The plot premises are completely different, but I feel like the vibes are similar - power hungry ruler, main character who fears her secret powers, brooding love interest who has more to them than meets the eye.

I’d like to thank NetGalley and Del Rey for providing me with an ARC of this book for my honest review.

The main character is bound in an unwanted marriage and spends her days gutting fish but dreams of becoming a warrior. Her dreams abruptly become reality when her husband betrays her to the region’s jarl, landing her in a fight to the death against his son, Bjorn. To survive, Freya is forced to reveal her deepest secret: She possesses a drop of a goddess’s blood, which makes her a shield maiden with magic capable of repelling any attack. This book was action packed and full of adventure. It had a such a good, slow-burn romance.

A huge thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Del Ray and NetGalley for sending me this e-arc!

I am a big fan of fantasy. Due to that, I am also a big fan of Danielle Jensen's Bridge Kingdom series. So when I found out she had a new series coming out, I knew I needed to read it as soon as possible. Yet when I dove in, I found that it didn't grip as quickly and easily as I was expecting. As I thought about it, I came to realize that this was due to two things: a) I haven't previously read Viking books, and while I think Jensen nailed the persona, it wasn't one that I'm overly familiar with and therefore took me time to get invested b) the married to the dad but falling for the son storyline was a struggle for me initially.

I was eventually able to accept these things and immerse myself in the world that Jensen had crafted and once done, I was hooked.

Here's some of what I loved about the book:
- Freya and Bjorn's relationship. I love the forbidden romance trope
- The magic system. I'm curious to dive more into Freya's powers in book 2
- The mountain of the dead part. It was tense and impossible to put the book down during this part!
- The ending! I can't wait to see how this twist plays out and see Freya come to terms with Bjorn after this

Here's something I hope to see in the next/future books:
- I felt like Freya was lacking agency in this book, and that's something I tend to struggle with in books. It felt like things happened to her rather than her making things happen. It felt like she was a pawn to be used. I'm going to give this the benefit of the doubt and hope that this was by design (I mean I'm assuming that's the case since that is part of the premise of the book). But I do hope that in future installments that Freya will get more agency as the series continues on and will take her fate into her own hands.

Overall, a great and fun series debut from Jensen. Can't wait to get my physical copy. I think Jensen fans will love this book, as well as fans of romantasy, fantasy, Vikings, and forbidden love stories.

Okay this book was SO fun!

i loved the Nordic inspired lore and the magic system in this world. There were parts of the story that were a little predictable but it didn't diminish my enjoyment at all. I really love how easily Danielle Jensen does world building in a way that isn't overwhelming or info dumping. The pacing in the beginning felt a little slow but by the time i really got into the meat of it i devoured it! Freya's character is really fun and i think she's really well done. Danielle Jensen is also so good at a GOOD slow burn romance while not sacrificing the plot. I can't wait to see what is going to happen with the rest of the series and am so sad i have to wait for the next book!!!

Thank you NetGalley for an e-book ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really really enjoyed this! This is my first Danielle L. Jensen read and it did not disappoint. I felt like it was the perfect amount of fantasy + romance and once I hit 65% I legit couldn’t put it down!

Excited to read the rest of the series and get some more answers!!

Norse mythology and Vikings, slow burn tension, fate and choice. This story started out very strong and had me gripped from page one. I was fully on board for Freya's journey as she left behind her life as a fishmonger's wife, and became a power player. However, by 30% through the book, I had lost my zeal for her story. The majority of the book felt quite repetitive to me: Freya does something the Jarl tells her to and endangers herself, Bjorn steps in and helps, they try not to give in to their desires, and repeat. Freya was a pawn through the entire book. I kept waiting for her to find her strength, but she never did, which was a big let down. I also struggled with the incredible amount of miscommunication. A little is fine, but the entire relationship is miscommunication.

So, overall it was fine. I love the idea of it, the brutality of Viking culture, the gods and fates and world, but the story missed the mark for me. I'm not sure if I'll continue the series.

I got this book as an ARC from Del Rey and NetGalley for an honest review so let’s get into it.

I have mixed feelings about this book. The plot is a really cool idea about the gods giving a drop of blood when a child is born and them having some of the gods power because of that but lord is our main character so wishy washy. So our FMC had to hide her powers because a seer had told a prophecy about her, and how she would unite all the clans. And the god is that she has a drop of blood from is the goddess of protection so she can basically put a magical shield around herself and other people. But in the story we kept getting told her she was so used by her family what you really don’t see you till like mainly the end of the book. And then the whole rest of the time is her basically trying to decide if she’s going to live out this prophecy, or if she’s going to change her fate, because her fate is undecided because of her having a drop of the goddess’s blood. Idk I got sick of her not choosing what to do like ever. The romance is good and I do kind of like that our FMC is weak and kinda doesn’t know how to fight but also does. I just feel like a lot of things in this book was rushed. The author tried to put too much in to this first book and I’m assuming that it’s going to be a dology because that’s what this author kind of always does but it was just WAY to much. She keeps trying to show this inner struggle that our main character is having but you honestly just can’t feel it because it only happens for a few pages before something else happens and then we don’t really circle back to it until again there’s a big crisis that happens.

I know I’m bashing on this book a lot but I did actually like it and I did pre-order and I’m very excited for that But this book is not perfect by any means I think.

I was all in for the first two thirds but then it became clear that Freya was going to be a one note character who every few pages would rage out and be miserable to be around. It’s one thing to have a character torn between the choices their circumstances have created. It’s another thing to have them be internally tormented every other page and the author did not pull this off in a way that left you sympathetic to Freya. She’s erratic and vengeful but not in a fun way! She just constantly lashes out blindly missing huge important details and always crying about putting people in harms way while acting out resulting in people being put in harms way.

I am hopeful that in the 2nd book the author finds a way to make Freya a more nuanced character. You want to watch her grow and make progress, I can’t take a main character who repeats the same mistakes over and over and over again. As much as I love and want kick ass female warrior leads, I am reading book two for Bjorn.

I would like to thank Netgalley for allowing me to read this book early.

(4.5 stars - rounding up to five)

oh my GOD. this is just. you know.

okay let's see if i can get it together. anyways i don't read a lot of adult fantasy/romance for various reasons but i took a chance on this because norse mythology and viking culture is super interesting to me.

i'm glad i did. i love freya she is my headstrong, stubborn, child. the worldbuilding in this is super interesting because it's informed - you're dropped into freya's world and you figure things out as she does. it's just so. good.

thank you to del rey and netgalley for the arc!

What I enjoyed about A Fate Inked in Blood - I haven't read many Nordic based stories, so I appreciated the mythology and point of view, the chemistry between Bjorn and Freya was there from the beginning, and Freya stood up for herself despite constant sexism and people trying to control her. What I did not enjoy - the story was very predictable as Danielle Jensen has followed a similar trope in her previous books. I also had a hard time picturing the settings as they were described in the book since there was so much travelling and moving from place to place.

The book was action-packed and felt new and fresh. It was a pretty quick read and held my attention throughout. I like Freya and Bjorn. The relationship tension was good.🔥 I enjoyed the different lore and unique culture.

But the book seemed to steadily lose me. There were a lot of different magical powers and secrets revealed in the last ~30% that left me a bit confused.🤔 The characters actions became pretty repetitive too.(I think the same scene occurred at least 3x in the last 25%.

The end was good and addressed some of the confusion/annoyance I had👍🏼 and I look forward to seeing where the series is going. I just didn’t *love* it.

I enjoyed The Bridge Kingdom novels from this author, I thought they had a broader goal with supporting plot points to make the story and characters compelling.

Sadly A Fate Inked in Blood was very disappointing, it was missing key factors from world building to character development. Heavy on dialogue, the plot was bland and boring. I found Freya to be a Mary Sue, she had all the power and no personality. Written in first person POV, everything happens around her and to her, she’s in the backseat of her own narrative. Bjorn was a generic male-lead shell of a character. The romance between them was non existent, there was no depth or chemistry, the romantic moments seemed very forced, like an afterthought.

The pacing struggled with short and very long winded chapters. Relying heavily on implied Norse mythology, without the actual build up. I think this would have benefited from a stronger emphasis on lore that included explanations and history, and a gradual love connection between the characters.

Thanks to NetGalley and Del Rey for an early copy to review.

thank you to netgalley for providing me with an arc!

Here's the thing, this book was really enjoyable and I liked the plot, the problem was completely a personal thing in that I am not that familiar with norse mythology and I felt like i was throne in to the story. That being said, I loved reading about the norse gods and how Jensen incorporated them into the story. I really liked the romance between Freya and Bjorn and thought that their dynamic was well done given the plot (Freya being married to his father) and how they had to act in the public eye. I didn't predict the twist at the end! That was really well done. Overall it was a great start to a new romance series and I will read the second book in the series.