I really love Viking stories, so when I read the synopsis for this book, I was hooked. Yafeu is a young woman who is taken from her village in the Ghanaian Empire by slavers and ends up on a Viking shield maiden's ship headed North. Yafeu's father had taught her to fight, so she was enthralled with the idea of a woman warrior. Unfortunately, Yafeu ends up as a thrall when they reach modern-day Norway. Her warrior spirit shines through, though, and she is placed as the handmaid to Princess Freydis, and later becomes a shield maiden herself. Of course, this is all a total culture shock for Yafeu as she begins to learn the language, customs, and gods of the North. It was interesting how, at first, it all seemed so strange, but by learning more, she began to see more similarities between her gods and the Viking gods and between herself and Freydis.

This book did start out a bit slow, but I couldn't put it down towards the end! If you like fantasy with strong female leads, check out Black Shield Maiden. I'm hoping for a sequel! Thank you to Netgalley, Random House, Willow Smith, and Jess Hendel for the opportunity to read an ARC of this epic tale.

Our first main character is Yafeu (not her real name), who is living with her mother and brothers on the outskirts of her uncle’s village. Her father has left, and no one knows if he will return.

Then we meet Freydis, a princess in the North. Her mother has tried to have more children, as her father wants a male heir, but all have died except her. She feels like a constant disappointment to her parents, merely for being female.

Eventually, Yafeu is kidnapped and sold into slavery. She is rescued by some raiders in ships, only to be taken to their territory and become a slave there. So, now she’s further from home, and a slave anyway. Some rescue, huh?

Eventually, these two come together. Freydis is to be married off to and older man in another area, and wants a servant of her own to take with her. Her aunt, Alvtir – the raider who rescued Yafeu in the first place – gives Yafeu to her. They have a rocky start, but do form a bond. Freydis is just beginning to learn that she has her own skills and power. Yafeu is learning the language and customs of the kingdom she is in.

Later, after Yafeu shows her prowess as a warrior, Alvtir takes her away to train with the rest of the Hird – the group that goes out into the world to raid on behalf of the king. Alvtir has been demoted, and is no longer in charge of the Hird, but there is a small band of raiders who are still loyal to her. A few are even women! Yafeu fits in as well as can be with this lot.

A lot more happens in the back third or so of the book – big, exciting, climactic things – but I don’t want to spoil it.

This one is a little long, and it took a while for it to pick up. Not to say we didn’t need introductions to these characters and their different worlds, mind you – but I felt like it started to move more once the stories were moving together.

This book would appeal to those who like mythology, sword fights, and the like. Possibly the “Game of Thrones” folks (just as one example).

Thank you for my early copy of "Black Shield Maiden." I am looking forward to reading this book. Thank you, and happy pub day to Willow Smith and Jess Hendel.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this eARC.

Black Shield Maiden follows Ghanaian warrior Yafeu as she is enslaved by vikings.

I didn't know about the controversy surrounding the initial promotion of this book until I saw the concerningly low rating it has online and went scrolling through reviews. The long and short of it seems to be that a promotional excerpt from an earlier version of the book was explicitly Islamophobic. The copy I received, however, has very thoroughly tried to eradicate these moments. The book itself doesn't lack racism or prejudice, however it seems Muslims are no longer specifically mentioned. I'm not sure that this means the book has eradicated prejudice, however there was clearly an effort made to rectify the situation between then and now.

That item aside, Black Shield Maiden was a perfectly fine read. As far as historical fantasies go, many aspects seemed thoroughly researched (especially the different religious structures our main characters participate in), and the plot was decently interesting. I did think it felt a little overlong and off-balance -- the two main characters don't interact until like 30% of the way through, but then the final resolution of this book's conflict happened so fast I felt like I was missing something -- but in all, it was a decently pleasant experience. I'd certainly read a sequel just out of curiosity about how the changes to this world play out in the long term.

Black Shield Maiden by Willow Smith; Jess Hendel was an exciting read.
With both a riveting plot and well-developed characters this was a fun time.
The characters are so well described and developed.
The writing sucked me in and he,d me captive.
I’m excited for their next title.

Thank You NetGalley and Publisher for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Black Shield Maiden by Willow Smith and Jess Hendel is a multi-POV historical epic about three women whose lives are changed forever by each other. Yafeu is A young woman from the Ghanaian Empire who is kidnapped and brought to the home of Freydis and Alvtir to be a thrall. Freydis is the only child of Balli, a Viking leader struggling to have an heir, while Alvtir is her aunt and Balli’s second-in-command.

What I really liked was how Yafeu is given a very sweet romance where she is treated with respect and care. I wasn’t expecting her to have a romance given the context of shield maidens often forswearing relationships in fiction, but this was a very nice surprise and Ingard is a supportive young man with a complicated history himself.

Freydis and Yafeu are very often used in juxtaposition to each other. Freydis has a lot of pressure put on her as Balli’s only surviving child and her marriage is a very important political tool in the fight against Christians coming into the Nordic lands. Yafeu’s father was a blacksmith and she comes from an intercultural marriage. She is interested in being a warrior and expresses skills in smithy, creating clothes, and cooking throughout the novel, revealing her agency and her many layers.

Mawu-Lisa, a deity of the sun and moon from West African traditions, and Sol and Mani, the sun and moon deities of Viking tradition, come up often to show the similarities and also differences in the two cultures of our three leads. The use of these deities was probably my favorite part because it helps make the story feel alive and lived-in as well as highlighting a deity I was unfamiliar with.

Content warning for depictions and mentions of sexual assault

I would recommend this to readers looking for Viking historicals with a Black lead and fans of historical epics that reimagine what could or might have been.

I really loved this book, it was exactly what I wanted it to be and it surpassed my expectations. I loved the characters, I loved the growth, I loved the care taken to build this world in a (I hope?) historically accurate way.

My only complaint with this story is how long it takes to feel like anything is really happening with the main plot. Such great care is taken to establish the setting that the beginning felt a bit slow. As someone who really enjoys reading historical fiction, I didn't mind it too much. Also, a lot of that world building is describing the MC's experience of life pre, during, and post being kidnapped by slavers, which is not only important to the story but also important to illustrate for anyone not familiar with the subject, like myself.

Once I hit 70%, I literally couldn't put it down. I have so much love for the core group of characters and the way they come together and fight for each other. A great take on found family, even when you find them in the worst ways imaginable. I loved how many strong, resilient women are in this story, and the way that two cultures come together in the most unlikely circumstances.

I also appreciate that this book doesn't really hand feed the reader information. There are details and elements of the story that connect and the authors don't explicitly explain it, there is an expectation that the reader will figure it out. This isn't an overly-easy read, which made it more enjoyable.

When I was reviewing the Goodreads reviews, I was confused because they discussed an entirely different plot than what is here, regarding the African Warrior and Viking princess. Upon further research I learned that the original publish date was pushed back in 2022. I suppose the reviews were so poor that they changed the entire concept of the novel.

I think it’s a great read for anyone interested in historical fiction fantasy. Since this is a fantasy, historical accuracy is not as important. I think it is a great story of female empowerment. Personally, the subject matter and writing style were not my cup of tea but I see the potential!

I have a lot of opinions on this book, but unfortunately the most glaring is the islamophobia. i love willow and love fantasy. but unfortunately i have to give this a 2 star.

Fantasy isn't really my genre so I'm not a fair reviewer for this one which I DNF. It felt overwritten to me (I know the genre tends to have lush language) and I got a bit lost. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Over to others who I'm sure will enjoy it.

This is a very cool concept that could have led to an awesome book, but I’m unable to give anything higher than one star due to the rampant Islamophobia throughout. In addition to that, it’s grossly overwritten and the characters fall flat.

Two daughters who don’t quite behave as their communities believe they ought to forge new futures with paths paved with bloodied sacrifices in Black Shield Maiden by Willow Smith and Jess Hendel.
Taught how to hunt, fight, and forge weapons by her father before he left to explore distant lands, Yafeu is seen by those in her village as rather odd but that still doesn’t stop her from being taken from her home and separated from her mother and brothers by slavers and transported across the Sahara and sold. Rescued from a brutal fate by a trio of women warriors led by Alvtir, Yafeu travels to a distant kingdom in the North where she bides her time waiting for Alvtir’s approval to join the ranks of the legendary shield maidens by serving as the handmaiden to Freydis, the softly spoken princess awaiting her politically strategic marriage, though she dreams of a happy one, and/or the survival of one of her brothers past birth. As Freydis hopes to become friends with Yafeu like her mother is with her own handmaiden, Yafeu initially brushes her off but comes to recognize that they may be able to help one another, and, in fact, their fates and survival, as well as that of many others, might just depend upon them working together to build a future bigger and brighter than they might have ever individually imagined.
Weaving together the stories of young women who are vastly different from one another yet are similar in not fitting with the expectations that others have for them, a narrative of survival and defying the odds for a chance of hope is presented; with focus centering on harrowing, formative experiences and the resulting character growth of Yafeu and Freydis primarily, as well as some for Alvtir, the narrative uses the myths from their respective homes to connect them and it’s through Yafeu that they come to recognize there’s some similarities to them and the various gods they pray to, taking the vast world they’ve already traversed and shrinking it even further in a way that’s familiar for readers, especially those of mythology. There are some strong and distinct characters, such as Yafeu and Alvtir, depicted throughout the story, but there are many others who are more one-dimensional or cliched, leaving them as less than memorable or feeling rather interchangeable, which is a shame as the cultures shown have rich histories to pull inspiration from. Though feeling rather disjointed and slow initially as the story jumped between Yafeu and Freydis’s perspectives, once they were both in the same location it smoothed out and became more cohesive, quickly picking up speed as events snowballed to an incredibly eventful culmination before resolving into a pivotal moment that sets the scene for more to come.
Overall, I’d give it a 3 out of 5 stars.
*I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I'm not huge on fantasy, I chose this ARC simply because of Willow Smith, while this did not entince me to read more fanatsy it was not bad. This book while slow to start had a solid finish. The ending left a decent set up for a sequel but it wasnt moving enough for me to see it through another book.

Overall I thought this book was interesting. It took me some time to get into it and I felt the main character fell a little flat for me. She felt very hollowed out. Also she very quickly accepts her circumstances, despite being taken from
her home and everything she knew.

The concept for this book was great but the execution was full of racism and targeted hatred of Muslim people. I won't be recommending this to anyone.

Black Shield Maiden follows Yafeu, a warrior girl who is stolen from her people to become a thrall in the North during the time of the Vikings. As Yafeu forms alliances and accidentally shows off her warrior abilities, she is drawn into a complicated web of politics. In the North, she meets Freydis, a princess who is determined to try and forge her own fate. When Freydis is forced into an arranged marriage by her father, Yafeu and Freydis must decide how far they will go to control their own destinies.

Black Shield Maiden is an action-packed and rich fantasy. Yafeu is a character who it is impossible not to root for and she undergoes many challenges during her time in the North. There is a wide range of interesting characters and I enjoyed learning more about the shield maidens. Freydis and Yafeu have a complex relationship especially because of the power dynamic between them. As the story goes on, they form a strong bond. I’m curious if there will be a sequel and hope the story continues!

Readers who enjoy epic Viking fantasies, engaging characters, and fast-paced adventure should check this book out.

Thank you to Willow Smith, Jess Hendel, Del Rey, and Netgalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of thos book. The story is very slow to begin with but picks up halfway through and is actually worth the read. It's a beautiful tale and we'll written. Not typically what I would read normally but well worth it.

Yafeu, an African, has always felt different from her villagers. When her village is destroyed and she is forced into slavery, she must dig deep into her inner strength to survive. As she was taken to the slave auction, a group of Vikings raided the village. Mesmerized by the women warriors, Yafeu willingly joined with the Vikings. However, once they landed, she was once again enslaved.

It is hard to give this book a broad enough description to capture the book’s nuances. Well crafted, this book blended two worlds and cultures in a fascinating way. The characters were multidimensional and well crafted. They showed growth and expansion throughout the book. I would love to read a sequel. This is definitely an author I will be watching!

I was given this ARC by NetGalley and DelRey. I requested based on the cover and little blurb.
The plot is a good idea and story.
But the racism and portray of Muslims…. Yikes. Nope. I’m good.

This is quite a saga. There's A mix of cultures and beliefs. Well written, the reader can feel fear, excitement, terror. It definitely allows the imagination to expand on what being taken as a slave would feel like. Having Scandinavian heritage, I appreciated ( mostly) the Vikings. Well done