This book was so good! Honestly, no complaints! Spice was about 🌶️🌶️/5 and was more sweet than spicy. I loved the story, and was crying near the end, hoping that we would get the HEA. All I can say is, I need the next book now as the cliffhanger left me hanging! If you
Tropes include grumpy/sunshine, one horse, and one bed.

Could I love this more?
Honestly, probably not.
Like outlander but with Viking? Easy choice!
As someone from America who felt they never fit in and was always on the outside, traveling and living in Europe healed some part of me. While, I lived in Scotland and Norway, as opposed to Sweden; I can fully attest to the beauty of the landscapes. Even the cities are beautiful as are the people in Scandinavia.
It’s hard to discuss the plot without giving much away and good god the cliff hanger…
I think I spent the last 5 chapters crying.
This book takes you through all the emotions.

To sum it all up, outlander with a slow burn Viking romance, the Norns, and DRAGONS!
It needs to be a movie

Shelbie was an ordinary 31 year old from Denver before she landed back in time, with Vikings! Fates Illuminated by Aimee Vance is a time traveling romance that is such a magical read. I read this book in one sitting and loved every minute of it.

As a reader, I truly appreciated how Shelbie was such a relatable character. I admired how she was willing to travel to Sweden alone on this journey she didn’t expect to take.

When Shelbie is sent back in time she meets Domari who is a grumpy but also handsome, larger than life Viking. The romance was well written and it was one I wanted to root for. I enjoyed the element of the one bed trope.

I also loved how Vance incorporated strong female characters into this book. And I appreciated how valued the women were in the Viking village that was described. It was hard not to fall in love with this village and its culture when the men so fiercely loved and respected their wives and partners.

This book ends on a cliffhanger, and as a reader, I was left with a lot of questions. However it just made me want to read the next book in the series right away.

This book is for readers who love books with time travel, strong female leads, themes of found family, magical intrigue, and a grumpy-sunshine romance worth rooting for.

This is just book one of a trilogy and I can’t wait to go back into this world for the next book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Aimee Vance for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to the author & Netgalley for the review copy!

The way that Aimee can make me go from terrified for the character to laughing out loud to terrified again is a true gift. I had so much fun reading Fates Illuminated!

Pick this one up if you like:
✨ Vikings
✨ Time travel
✨ found family / close-knit communities
✨ fantasy that reads like contemporary romance
✨ grumpy/sunshine
✨ Norse mythology
✨ characters in their 30s
✨ dragons (CAN I PET THAT DAWG??)

I love a fantasy book that starts in our real world and then starts to build magical elements, which is how Fates Illuminated goes. Shelbie starts out a normal 30-something, who feels like she’s not quite reached the “adult” level of her friends and sibling. The best part of her life is her giant, grumpy dog Thor, but she feels like something is…missing…so for her birthday she books an epic trip to Sweden.

I loved getting to know Shelbie and all the people who surround her. From Charlene, the sassy woman Shelbie hires to help her horseback riding skills, to our favorite community of Vikings.

The romance had just the right amount of burn for me - from their meet disaster, to having to share space in her new environment, to their first almost-kiss, I could not put this book down! I can’t wait to see what happens in the next book.

Series Info: Start with Fates Illuminated! The first two books are out now, and the third and final book will be out in Spring 2025!

Frankly, I’m obsessed with this story and I’m not sure any review I could write would actually do this story justice.

I loved meeting our FMC, Shelbie. It was so refreshing to see a main character “my age” who wasn’t a part of some awful pregnancy trope, made to be seen as a spinster, or made to be seen as some kind of perfect being with her life together. She’s a freaking mess, like so many of us are right now. She was so relatable, and meeting her felt like connecting with a long lost friend. I absolutely loved how she just randomly decided she needed to go on a grand adventure after a few glasses of birthday wine, because it seemed exactly like something I would have done. Even though she has no experience, she decides to take the leap. It ends up being the best decision of her life.

I loved everything that happened after, and I promise not to spoil anything. Every character in the village was delightful. Magnus had my whole heart, and he was such a good man. We got to follow Shelbie as she finally found her family and her purpose in life. This book very much felt like coming home to the people you love. This was a story I never knew I needed, and I’m so thankful for the ability to read it.

Fates Illuminated is such a good piece. Aimee Vance did such an amazing job with this book. I really recommend everyone to read this book as fast as they can because it's really good.