Raised to be a warrior, seventeen-year-old Eelyn fights alongside her Aska clansmen in an ancient, god-decreed rivalry against the Riki clan. Her life is brutal but simple: train to fight and fight to survive. Until the day she sees the impossible on the battlefield—her brother, fighting with the enemy—the brother she watched die five years ago.
Eelyn loses her focus and is captured. Now, she must survive the winter in the mountains with the Riki, in a village where every neighbor is an enemy, every battle scar possibly one she delivered. But when the Riki village is raided by a ruthless clan settling in the valley, Eelyn is even more desperate to get back to her beloved Aska clan, which is rumored to have been decimated by the same horde. She is given no choice but to trust Fiske, her brother’s friend who tried to kill her the day she was captured. They must do the impossible: unite the clans to fight together, or risk being slaughtered one by one. Driven by a love for her clan and her growing love for Fiske, Eelyn must confront her own definition of loyalty and find a way to forgive her brother while daring to put her faith in the people she’s spent her life killing.
My first YA viking story! Maybe my first viking story in general. I don't think I've ever read one before.
I liked it a lot! It was filled with violence and action and was super fast paced. The world was interesting, if slightly underdeveloped or not fully brought to life. The characters were what made this story though, and I though they were pretty fantastically written. I appreciate all of that and would've given this four stars if it wasn't for the romance.
Look, I get it. YA has romance. Usually. Not well done romance. But this one was just meh on top of blah on top of feeling completely unnecessary.
I don't get why we can't just have a bad ass heroine without the need of a love interest. Eelyn didn't need that plot development. I felt like it crippled her a bit, as most romances tend to do in YA.
All in all, I liked this story and will definitely read more by Young. I just wish the romance element was missing.
Reading updates
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Started reading
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8 July, 2018:
Finished reading
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8 July, 2018:
Reviewed