I love Danielle Jensen and I will recommend this book until the end of time. In a Viking inspired romance, it was such a fun read.

I unfortunately DNF'd this book. It was long and slow and I was invested in the characters or the relationship.

This is the first Viking fantasy book I’ve read and I loved it. This was so fun. The story was great and the characters were lovable. If you like fantasy romance, you need to pick this up.

YES YES YES so amazing! Danielle L. Jensen is masterful at world building and character development. All the girlies need to read this!

This was an incredible experience from start to finish. The writing was beautiful, some of the prose was downright stunning, the plot pacing was perfect, the world-building was fantastic. The set up for book two was well done and I can't wait to get my hands on the next book!

I read the Bridge Kingdom by Danielle L. Jenson, but this title is on another level.

The pace of the plot is moderate to start and once it takes off it never stops. Being forced to read Freya's perspective when you as the reader knows there is more to what she is seeing and believing is quite frustrating. She lives as too extremes tending to think she is right about everything or she is worthless. The two cliffhangers we are left with will leave any reading anxiously waiting for the next book. The romance started right at the beginning, but readers will have to contend with a lot of "we can't be together".

A typical romantasy formula with a new setting.

Perfect for fans of Vikings (TV Show), Norse mythology, and historical magical realism.

I was hesitant to try Jensen again after not loving the Bridge Kingdom, but the cover drew me in. And dang, am I glad that it did! I'm a sucker for Norse inspired stories, and I feel like this was so much stronger than BK!

Fate Inked in Blood is a great story steeped in Norse mythology. Set in the time of the Vikings, it tells the story of battles fought by clans assisted by men and women gifted with a drop of blood from the gods. Those that control these men and women reach for great heights and control over the whole of the Viking world. Freya and Bjorn fight together against Bjorn’s enemies, and fight against their growing attraction, in this first installment of the duology. The reader is left on a great cliffhanger, and I can’t wait to read the next book and find out how the story ends.

I really loved this world! It was exciting and adventurous. I am hoping in the next book we get to know more details on the individual gods and their children.
I wasn’t particularly shocked by the ending. I think Danielle did a lot of foreshadowing and gave us plenty of details to hint at what she wanted us to see. However, I am excited to see how things develop and resolve in the next book.
Bjorn was everything I wanted in a MMC. Feyra is strong and determine, albeit a bit frustrating (rightfully so) as she tries to settle into her new role and what that means to those around her.
Definitely a series I will continue reading.

DNFed at 35%, repetitiveness and writing style unfortunately didn’t work out for me. But I am glad to see how a lot of people enjoy this book. Thank you so much for chance to read it.

This was an okay read tbh. I didn't hate it but I didn't fully love it. Maybe it was a mix of the writing, the development pace, and the way some things happened, that made me not fully be inmersed into the story. Still, I have friends that really did enjoy it so this might be a personal opinion and other readers might love it a lot more than I did!

I love the world and the mythology this has but I felt like it didn't live up to what I imagined it would be? Overall, everything fell short for me and I wish that that wasn't the case because it definitely had all the elements that could make it soooo great.

I absolutely love the author's author series, The Bridge Kingdom. This book lived up to her previous work and more! An addictive, immersive read with great characters.

A Fate Inked In Blood by Danielle L. Jensen was a truly enjoyable read. In a world where being given a drop of a god’s blood is considered an honor, Freya is forced to hide her gifts. Married to an odious man to help her family, Freya longs for the day she can reveal her gifts and become a warrior. However, on the day her gift is revealed to the jarl, she discovers it would have been better to have no gift at all.

As a daughter of Hlin, Freya is the shield maiden, able to protect herself and others from any attack. Jarl Snorri has been looking for her for years because of a prophecy… one that claims that whoever controls Freya’s fate will be able to unite Skaland. Freya is freed from one unwanted marriage only to be shoved into another. She works control her gift and learn how to fight under the supervision of Snorri’s son, Bjorn. Struggling with her growing attraction to Bjorn, Freya will have to decide whether to protect or conquer; to save her family or save herself….

Jensen does a great job incorporating various tidbits about Norse mythology throughout the story. Readers who are not already familiar with the pantheon of gods will have no trouble catching up. Jensen creates complicated characters with emotional impact. It is truly heartbreaking to see Freya grapple with the need to protect those she loves while also recognizing that they don’t necessarily deserve her protection.

The one potential critique to make of this novel is the twists: personally, I predicted two of the major plot twists by the halfway point. This didn’t particularly bother me; I read a lot of fantasy and, as such, am extremely familiar with the genre. It’s not surprising that I could predict a major plot point well ahead of its reveal. One could potentially make the argument that this is a critique in and of itself; if I could predict the twists does that make it a cliche?

I think not. There is a difference between overusing a technique to the point of exhaustion and having a plot point that is similar to what others have used because there are only so many ideas that make sense. This is more an example of the latter in my opinion.

Overall, I loved A Fate Inked In Blood and I think we can look forward to what Jensen comes up with next.

I love a good booked based in any mythology. I was happy to discover this was not a retelling, but rather a wholly new story with all the wonderful Norse inspirations I was hoping to find. The main character, Freya, has pretty much been used and abused her whole life and she dreams of breaking free of her arranged marriage to Vragi,
I don't wan to give too much away as it would be so easy to slip into spoiler territory. However, I will say, her fate does change even though she is "unfated" as the book states. I also find it kind of humorous since we are told the main character and one other character are "unfated", meaning their fates are not set and then the title of the book makes it seem as though their fates are definitely set.
I m giving this book 4 stars for the fact that 75% of the book was really good, but there was a turning point towards the end ( I won't say what it was) which started rubbing me the wrong way. Nevertheless, I do want to thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. I am interested to see where the story goes in the next book of the series. I hope it starts to make up for some of the "reveals" in the end of this one. My podcast Books are Magical will be doing an episode on this book in May 2024. We hope you will give it a listen and let us know what you think.

Ah I adored this book. From the very first page I was hooked onto Freya’s journey. She makes you want to root for her from the very start. Her character growth from the beginning to how that cliffhanger of a book ended was absolutely perfect. And Bjorn 🥵 I loved his character so much. He’s broody and mysterious and has all the comebacks for our girl Freya. I absolutely LOVED the Norse mythology magic of this book. It made for such a unique fantasy book and I need book 2 in my hands now!

I loved everything about this book! The Nordic mythology was amazing and I can't wait to see more of it in the next book! I also loved the chemistry and characters of Bjorn and Freya. I am literally obsessed.

This book has everything that I love banter, will they won’t they, a lot of battles and a bad ass female character but also lets not forget the handsome male character Bjorn. It is Norse mythology inspired so what not to love.

"A Fate Inked in Blood" was a bit of a hard read for me because my personal rating changed for it quite a few times throughout my read. Normally my initial thoughts stay more consistent.

At first I was very interested in this book and the world that was presented, with how the Gods worked. And the characters were pretty fleshed out and likeable as well. But then the ending of the book started to roll around.


The last little bit of this book completely ruined it for me because the protagonist was just so incredibly stupid. I'd guessed the three (I think?) plot twists about 30% of the way through and she was blindsided on all of them even though there was so much foreshadowing. I can't forgive her for that and don't really want to read more about her self righteous anger when if she'd just listened to people and used her brain she already would have guessed the secrets. She was not presented as naive enough for her to have been that stupid at the end.

Overall, interesting premise but I don't think I'll be continuing the series.

A Fate Inked in Blood was a unique twist on old myths. It’s always enjoyable to see a female lead in works relating to ancient myths, as male were often the heroes showcased. It was even more enjoyable to have a FMC that has as much depth as Freya. She was compelling, strong, and believable, with a story that forced the reader to feel sympathetic towards her plights. Which makes the reader root for Freya even more vigorously.

Then there is the end twist. Honestly, I was able to predict the big reveal at the end. That being said, I did enjoy the journey to the reveal, and I am intrigued how the author will capitalize on it for the next book.

Overall a fun and engaging read! I will certainly be picking up the next book.

A Fate Inked in Blood is very strong start to a Norse-inspired romantasy (series?) The story is fast paced, the magic/setting is interesting and fresh, the FMC is a bad ass but also complex, and her love interest is dreamy. Though the romance/plot did lose a star for being predictable. Overall, this was fun to read and I’m excited to read the next installment.

Thank you Random House Publishing and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy.