Looking forward to adding to our library collection. Thank you to NetGalley and Yggdrasil Press for the ARC.

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC!

This book has huge potential and I enjoyed reading it. There was a lot of descriptive settings and the storyline was relatively easy to follow. It was a good read for those who enjoy some minor fantasy with a dash of romance. However, there was a few things that I felt were missing.

Here are some of the things I wish that could have been expanded on in the book:

1. The plot. I loved the idea of the fight to the death to become the next king or queen, however I felt as though there were quite a few holes in parts of the book that I was hoping to get more detail on. Including the fighting between the champions and the main love interest for Sophia.

2. The back stories. When you start the book, things happen kind of abruptly and then immediately we get a time skip. While I understand that the book isn't about the characters before the time skip, we see a lot of references to them throughout the book, and because I didn't get to know and experience those characters on more than a couple pages, there was a lack of emotion on my part when I tried to understand what Sophia was feeling. The same thing for her main love interest. I didn't really get to see why she was so madly in love with him because a lot of that story was skipped over with only a few callbacks to things he had done for her. Overall, I feel as though this could be improved on.

3. The POV's. While I enjoy reading the different POV's from the characters and being able to see their inner monologue, I felt weird reading each individual one in the 3rd person. I think I would have felt better about it if it has been divided into separate chapters with the characters name as the chapter title and then have the character speak in the first person. Otherwise, I did really enjoy this was of telling the story.

Overall, this book was very good and I want to read more, even though the ending was relatively solid. Thank you once again for the eARC and I hope I get to read more of this authors work soon!

I really enjoyed the fantasy-romance of this book, it had that magical world that I was looking for and enjoyed how strong the characters were. I enjoyed the use of the Nordic culture in this and how it was used in this story. The setting had that feel that I wanted and glad I was able to read this. Kriss Dean has a strong writing style and can’t wait for more.

I received this book as an ARC.

I think that this story has potential but falls flat in several places.

1. The pace of the book
- I found that it moved at a rapid pace and could have moved a bit slower to include more details and build the scenes more. The ending was quite abrupt and felt lacking. I feel like key items we were waiting for either didn’t happen or were rushed through so quickly, they felt insignificant (ie, the instance with the cook as well as the information from the rival leader)
2. The character development
- I felt like we didn’t get to know much about the characters or see any growth from them since the book happened over the span of a few weeks
3. The POVs
- I don’t tend to enjoy when books use only 3rd person, even when sharing the characters thoughts. I wish that the 3 POVs we got had been in 1st person and that they gave us more insight into the individuals

I think that this book has a good basis and could be improved with a flesh out and some changes!