The Viking Princess

This Viking Romance is a Freebie

2012-01-17T12:16:00.001-06:00

Dagger Heart by Ronnell D. Porter

Blurb
Norway, 704 A.D.
The valiant King Ulfur defeated the evil that swept the seaside village of Nornör into despair; Morgan, the demon witch, has been dead for nearly twenty years. The truce between King Úlfur and the Queen of the Fae has remained intact since the day that Morgan’s dark curses vanished. It seemed that peace had finally come to the wounded souls of the village.

But this peace is shaken when three curses that Morgan promised with her dying breath are placed upon the Norwegian village: who among them has cast the spell?

Seventeen-year-old Erica finds herself trapped in the middle of a witch’s deadly revenge scheme with no way out but to fight for survival. On top of trying to end the curses devouring her village like a savage beast she finds herself at the center of attention when it comes to Viking King Úlfur’s three sons: Kriger, Paul, and Finn.

Three of them will fight alongside her.

Two of them want to marry her.

One of them could be the son of King Úlfur… and Morgan.

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My Thor's Day Viking Reading

2012-01-12T12:33:00.001-06:00

The Viking's Sacrifice by Julia Knight
Blurb
Viking raiders destroyed Wilda's home. She witnessed the murder of her mother and would have been killed herself if it weren't for the Viking boy Einar, who saved her from his ruthless brother. The blood and murder left Wilda cold and shorn of feeling.

Eight years later, the heathens return for Wilda. As a captive in the Viking village, she finds protection and silent comfort in the man who once gallantly saved her.

Einar has been cursed to silence by his brother. With the dark net of his brother's power cast over their village, silence is a small price to pay for his family's safety. But Einar is immediately drawn to Wilda, and the need to protect her from his brother awakens his Viking courage. Can Einar break his brother's curse in time to save the village and the woman he loves?

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My Thor's Day Viking Reading

2012-01-05T12:21:00.001-06:00

The Viking's Forbidden Pleasure by Jennie Brumley

Blurb
Always the dutiful daughter, Elly Harding knows the only way to protect her father is to sacrifice her own happiness and marry a man she can never love, but when an unexpected honeymoon gift presents her with the opportunity to explore the darker desires this proper young woman has always repressed, how can she possibly give up what could be her last chance for sexual freedom…and love?

Once a Viking warrior, Haakon Arikson never lacked for women in his bed...until he insulted the wrong one. For almost a millennium he has been cursed to walk alone, living an odd half-life as a stallion by day and a man by night. Tired and lonely he craves oblivion, but the only way to end his curse is to kill the one girl who makes him feel more alive than any other has for centuries.

Excerpt

My Thor's Day Viking Reading

2011-12-29T08:01:00.001-06:00

My Lord Viking by Jo Ann Ferguson
Blurb
Viking Nils Bjornsson turns his back on a warrior's reward to find his chieftain's stolen knife and erase the dishonor brought upon Nils's family. When he appeals to the Norse gods to send him a handmaiden to help him fulfill his pledge to bring the knife to his chieftain, he forgets how the old gods like to meddle in the lives of mortals.

Lady Linnea Sutherland knows her father wishes her to marry their neighbor Lord Tuthill. It is certain to be the perfect match for a Regency miss. But Linnea is looking for a hero, a man who excites her heart as boring Lord Tuthill does not. When she discovers Nils injured on the shore, she is caught up in the adventure of helping this handsome, dangerous man complete the vow he made nearly a millennium before. But first she must teach this Viking how to act like a Regency gentleman.

To help Nils means that Linnea must dare the ancient ways of his past and risk her future. In a game played in the Norse gods' hall of Asgard, two human hearts are of little consequence and love can become an ally or a foe.

Amazon

My Thor's Day Viking Reading

2011-12-15T16:08:00.003-06:00

Mystical Viking by Heide Katros

Blurb
When Britta Viborgh gets her first look at the carnage that had once been her village, one warrior stands out among the rubble. She knows he is responsible for the massacre and swears that she will hunt him down and avenge her clan.

Ulf Sorensen is sick at heart. His second sight has let him down and brought him too late to help his friend. The last and only honor he can bestow upon Swen Viborgh and his clan is to send them in a cloud of smoke to Valhalla. While he waits for the pyre to catch flame, he is assailed by the eerie feeling of being watched. He shakes the sensation off and rides away with his men.

But Britta and Ulf are destined to meet again, and Britta finds herself at the mercy of her sworn enemy.
Excerpt

My Thor's Day Viking Reading

2011-12-08T16:17:00.004-06:00

Beyond the Sea Mist by Mary Gilgannon
Blurb
Irish princess Ailinn has already lost her home and family. Now her Viking captor intends to sell her as a bedslave in the markets of Dublin. Her only hope is another Viking, Magnus Gunnarson. Dare she trust this bold, young seaman to rescue her and help her fulfill her destiny...beyond the seamist?

Excerpt

My Thor's Day Viking Reading

2011-12-01T14:14:00.003-06:00

The Fall of Rain by Renee Vincent
Blurb
Leif Dæganssen, an archeologist from Norway, is determined to trace back his Scandinavian roots as far as the Dark Ages and find proof of their existence on the Emerald Isle. After several years of living off the west coast of Ireland, he finally uncovers an ancient artifact—an intricately decorated chest with pagan carvings—buried beneath the very porch of his coastal cottage. Knowing it only confirms the presence of a glorified Norse-influenced settlement on Inis Mór, he’s determined to establish a link between himself and those who once inhabited the rugged isle.

For as long as she can remember, Lorraine O’Connor has had dreams of a Norse warrior kissing her. And even though she’s never fully understood the reason for her vivid subconscious imagination, she welcomes the meaningless and wanton pleasure of being in a Viking’s protective embrace—until the day she meets that brazen Northman on an impulsive vacation trip to Ireland.

Though blindsided by the relevance of her dreams and the strange familiarity of the man within them, Lorraine can’t help but feel a deep-seated intimacy toward Leif. And the more she gets to know him, the more she’s convinced they’ve shared a life together in a time long forgotten.

Are the clues to their ancestral past hidden within the contents of the chest or buried deep within their hearts?
This is book 3 in the Emerald Isle Trilogy.

Excerpt

My Thor's Day Viking Reading

2011-11-24T09:16:00.001-06:00

Valhalla Wolf by Constantine De Bohon

Blurb
Have you ever wished your knight in shining armor would ride in from the mist under a cloak of protected shield and save you? Vicki had wished for the same thing…but her knight turned into a massive, gorgeous, Viking warrior, wielding a sword of such magnitude it dropped her to her hands and knees, literally!

Ulfr the barbarian comes at her hard and fast. He is determined to brand her body and make her his own with his sizzling touch. Flames of desire ignite Vicki’s deep yearning for naughty, wanton passion turned to love.

Add another Hott Viking to the duo and turn up the heat. When the three are together there is fire in the furs. Hott is a blond powerhouse of steely muscle. Ulfr is a dark animalistic predator hungering to be satisfied. It is his desire to bend Vicki to his every wish. Vicki in turn, has some cravings of her own. But she soon comes to realize Ulfr isn’t just some predatory myth, he’s a Valhalla Wolf!
This is book 2 in the Viking Warrior Series.

Excerpt

My Thor's Day Viking Reading

2011-11-17T20:36:00.001-06:00

On Timeless Wings Of Gold by Ciara Gold
Blurb
They say an eclipse yields a powerful force, an energy that can be harnessed by those with magic in their souls. On such a day when the sun disappears behind the shadow of the Earth, a mighty wizard evokes the elements of nature. With ancient, Celtic incantations, he sends an angel upon the wings of time to tempt a fallen king.

Angel Cashion is struggling to make ends meet and saving for when she can own her own repair shop in hopes of fighting her ex for custody of their daughter, but she is whisked away from home by a quirk of fate. Torin O’Faelain has spent the past two years enslaved by Vikings. A man of strong principles, Torin is committed to finding his way back to his native land and nothing will stand in his way, not even an angel from the future, but love and fate intervene.
This book is a sequel to On The Silver Edge Of Time.

Excerpt

My Thor's Day Viking Reading

2011-11-10T08:31:00.000-06:00

Ragnar the Murderer by Lily Byrne
Blurb
A tale of love and treachery.

It is a time of uneasy truce, of two races living side-by-side, inter-marrying even, but forever on the look out for treachery among their neighbors.

They meet, they bathe together and they consort. Life is short, fun is likely to be brief, and opportunity has to be seized wherever it can be found without unleashing long-held rivalries and carnage.

Then the youthful Dane, Ragnar, falls in love with Aelfwyn the Angle who is already promised by duty to one of her own village.

Ragnar and Aelfwyn's passionate love affair is a secret which will never be hidden for long, but theirs is not the only secret around.

When Ragnar finds himself charged with murder, he and Aelfwyn are forcibly parted. But is Ragnar really a cold-blooded, cynical killer or is there a more sinister plot being played out?

Excerpt

My Thor's Day Viking Reading

2011-11-03T14:40:00.000-05:00

The Seducer by Jianne Carlo

Blurb
Elaina’s step-uncle, Eógan, has murdered her father and usurped his crown. Desperate to save herself and her younger sisters, Elaina, the concubine’s daughter, takes the girls and vanishes from the world. But when she'd discovered by the tall, brash Viking known as the Seducer, he’s determined to make the unwilling woman his own. Even if it involves blackmail: Elaina’s hand for his silence.

Angry at being discovered and desperate to protect her sisters, Elaina agrees to marry Jarvik after he threatens to reveal her identity. She bids him to make haste and slake his lust, but Jarvik will accept naught but Elaina’s full passion. Their joining is explosive and magical, but how can Elaina trust a man called the Seducer? And even if he proves as good as his word, will the political maneuvering of rival kings force Jarvik to relinquish his new wife to the very man who wants her dead?

Excerpt

My Thor's Day Vikinng Reading

2011-10-20T13:27:00.003-05:00

Valhalla Hott [Viking Warriors Book 1] by Constantine De Bohon

Blurb
Hott, a massive, powerful Viking warrior, loses everything he has to live for in a murderous raid. That is, until the mist parts in the forest he has set out to die in and Odin gifts him with his own special Valkyrie. His little Valhalla Goddess tastes like sweet nectar and honeysuckle. She is filled with passion and fiery heat. Hott can't keep his hands off her. He vows to take her to his homeland and keep her safe from harm. But first he needs to verse his little Valkyrie in the arts of all forms of sexual pleasure. Almost all the women in Hott's village were killed in the raid. Hott will share his Valhalla gift with only one other, his brother Ulfr, whose insatiable sexual appetite burns as scorching as his own. Valerie is a woman of the twenty-first century. When she is faced with the idea of not one, but two huge, hot lovers in her bed, the ideas of overwhelming pleasures flow faster and hotter than the juices within all three of them. Her Viking warriors, one fair-haired as sun-ripened wheat, the other, dark-haired as a demon, are not only the sexiest men alive, one is decidedly more--he is more than just hot, he is Valhalla Hott!
This is book 1 in the Viking Warrior Series.

Excerpt

My Thor's Day Viking Reading

2011-10-13T09:28:00.003-05:00

The Viking and the Woman from the 21st Century by Lenette Taylor

Blurb
Wolf a man that thought he could and would get any woman is taught a lesson from a woman from the 21st century. When she is sent back into time she meets a viking that turns her world upside down. What will happen will he get her or not?

Excerpt

My Thor's Day Viking Reading

2011-10-06T16:04:00.002-05:00

Enslaved by a Viking by Deliah Devlin

Blurb
Eirik, heir to the Ulfhednars kingdom, was seduced and kidnapped by a bounty-hunting vixen. Now a pleasure slave, he is forced to feed the lustful whims of the elite. He bides his time, waiting for a chance to escape and get his revenge on the woman who betrayed him.

Once a sex thrall, Fatin earned her freedom through service. Now, as a bounty hunter, she is determined to earn enough to buy her sister's freedom-even if the brutishly handsome, breed-worthy specimen from the Viking planet must suffer.

But her desire for justice and his desire for freedom may consume both of them in a passion neither wanted-or can resist.

Excerpt

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Happy Odin's Day

2011-10-05T08:39:00.002-05:00

My Thor's Day Viking Reading

2011-09-29T06:32:00.000-05:00

The Norse King’s Daughter by Sandra Hill
Blurb
HELL HATH NO FURY LIKE A PRINCESS SCORNED!
Princess Drifa can certainly see why Sidroc Guntersson is a living legend—on battlefield and in bedchamber both. But the King of Stoneheim’s daughter pitches a royal fit when she learns of the true reason for the virile Viking’s passionate attentions. A third-born son with no hope of inheriting the family jarldom, scheming Sidroc must marry and is interested in Drifa only for her father’s land and money. The barbarian is lucky she just cracks him on his fool head with a pottery pitcher!

Five years later, Drifa needs Sidroc’s protection—in Byzantium, no less!—though revenge holds more appeal for this man she left for dead. ‘Tis a pity two such perfect enemies match each other so well, passion for passion. So much so that the bold Viking berserker is soon thinking marriage again...only this time it will be on his terms!

Excerpt

Happy Odin's Day

2011-09-21T08:43:00.000-05:00

My Thor's Day Viking Reading

2011-09-15T07:59:00.008-05:00

The Destroyer by Jianne Carlo

Blurb To Viking warrior Magnus, marriage is naught but a contract, a bargain between men for land and title. Lust, love—he scorns such notions as weak and unmanly. But three days before he’s to wed a highland princess, he falls into the maelstrom of a maid’s startled eyes. Their passionate tryst has him rethinking his notions, and he struggles to find a way to keep the beguiling Diedra while honoring the marriage contract he’s arranged with the father of his betrothed.

Deidra cannot take a walk in the forest without finding a wounded dove. Devoted to her menagerie of injured bears, peacocks, and wolves, she vows to disobey her Da when he betroths her to the Norse warrior known as the Destroyer. Until, disguised as a maid, she’s rescued from a would-be rapist by the Destroyer himself. How can any call him ugly or cruel? For he treats her as if she is made of spun glass, and teaches her the magikal pleasures of the flesh.

But Magnus is furious when he learns the woman he’s fallen so deeply for is none other than his betrothed. For there’s nothing he despises more than a deceitful female...except, perhaps, two of them...
Excerpt
JianneCarlo.com

This book will always hold a very special place in my heart. Author Jianne Carlo put a dedication in this book to me. I am flattered beyond words. Thank you Jianne Carlo.

Old Norse for Beginners

2011-09-10T09:29:00.000-05:00

I came across this site yesterday and thought I would share it with you. This is a free online course in Old Norse for beginners. Take a look around. There's a lot of intersting information.
Link

Happy Thor's Day

2011-09-08T08:47:00.006-05:00

My Thor's Day Viking Reading

2011-09-01T09:01:00.009-05:00

Love's Price, a BBA Menage story by Kara Larson
Blurb
Thora, Jonakr and Dag didn't live an idyllic life in Iceland, but they did live and love together in peace for the past five years. While Jonakr sailed off to raid, Dag would remain with Thora on the family lands to ensure that Jonakr had a family to return to. They always thought that Jonakr's being viking would drive them apart, if he died in the raiding season. They never expected him to be kidnapped by one of their neighbors and held for ransom. As Jonakr lies in captivity a mere day's ride away, Thora and Dag must band together to save the man they love, but at what price?

Excerpt

Words: 10161
Reading time: 29-40 min.

My Thor's Day Viking Reading

2011-08-25T17:25:00.003-05:00

Ever: The Turning by Eden Bradley

Blurb
The prequel to Eden Bradley's Midnight Playground series: When Ever’s Viking ship is destroyed in a storm, he's rescued by the vampire Vérún, who Turns him from human to immortal, creating a unique and enduring bond. But as Vérún becomes enveloped by the weight of time, even Ever’s great love for her is unable to save her from her fate. But that love will last for eternity...

Excerpt

MGM Viking Series

2011-08-22T19:45:00.003-05:00

After emerging from bankruptcy last year, MGM is going to produce a new TV series on Vikings. The project’s executive producers are Michael Hirst and Morgan O’Sullivan. This team has already proved to be successful in both Camelot and The Tudors. MGM Vikings saga is reported to be a 10-episode series. Lately premium cable channels have had a lot of success with period dramas like Rome or Spartacus.

Hirst, who wrote all the episodes for The Tudors, will write the most of the Vikings series, too (Vikings is the working title). Hirst is said to have authored an unproduced script about Norse warriors years ago. The production will begin next year in O’Sullivan’s brand new studio facility in Ireland. MGM is paying the cost outside Canada and Ireland (it will be a co-production of the two countries). MGM will also distribute the series in the U.S. and internationally.

The plot centers on Scandinavian, British and Irish history from the late-8th to the mid-11th century. The series’ main figure will be a Viking commander named Ragnar Lodbrok who once ruled Denmark and Sweden and was linked to two shieldmaidens and a queen.

Happy Thor's Day

2011-08-18T07:42:00.000-05:00

My Thor's Day Viking Reading

2011-08-04T12:59:00.004-05:00

Honor Bound by Stormy Glenn
Blurb
Jarl Radulfr is a warrior, the chieftain of his people. It is his duty to protect and fight for them. But duty comes at a price. Radulfr has no one to call his own. When his clan is attacked, he accepts a bride in a peace-pledge to avoid war with a neighboring clan. He doesn't know until he arrives that the bride he has come to claim is a man. His betrothed is not what he expected, but Radulfr has sworn upon his honor to accept the peace-pledge. It doesn't hurt that Ein is pretty damn cute. Radulfr decides to accept things as they are and begins to take Ein home. But there are those that don't want them to reach home—gods, mercenaries, and the man who started the war in the first place. Radulfr and Ein will have to use all of their wits, and the growing bond between them, to keep themselves alive because gifts from the gods come at a price.

Excerpt

Viking treasure found in cave baffles experts

2011-07-18T12:51:00.000-05:00

A TEAM of archaeologists are scratching their heads over the 'bizarre' discovery of a 1,150-year-old Viking necklace in a Burren Cave.

It is the largest Viking necklace discovered in Ireland and is said to be "relatively rare in the Viking world".

Dr Marion Dowd of Sligo IT is leading the excavation of Glencurran Cave in the Burren National Park, which she yesterday described as a 'treasure trove' for archaeologists.

The necklace was one of the major items discovered in the dig funded by the Department of the Environment and the Royal Irish Academy and is described as a 'stunning piece of jewellery' by Dr Dowd.

Dr Dowd said yesterday: "The necklace is the largest Viking necklace to have been found in Ireland. Normally, Viking necklaces that have been found have five to six glass beads, but this has 71 glass beads covered with gold foil."

A leading expert on Irish cave archaeology, Dr Dowd said: "It is really is bizarre how this necklace from a high status Viking came to be in a cave in the Burren. There is no parallel for it in Ireland and it is puzzling on a number of fronts."

"The necklace would have been imported into Ireland from Scandinavia in the late 9th and early 10th century. Small numbers of these beads have been found with Viking burials at Kilmainham, Dublin, but nothing like the number found in Glencurran Cave.

"Such necklaces were worn by high status Viking women that they might denote a woman's cultural and religious affiliations. These were certainly prestigious items."

Dr Dowd said that the Vikings never settled in the Burren and speculated that the necklace -- dating from the mid 9th century -- could have been the result of a trade with Vikings from Limerick and Gaelic chieftains in the Burren.

The cave is located in a remote site in the Burren National Park and according to Dr Dowd "has been the site of important archaeological discoveries since 2004". Dr Dowd said that the cave has been excavated in 2004, '08 and '09 and that she hopes to return next summer.

Among the discoveries were the skeletal remains of a two to four-year-old child that were placed in the cave in the Bronze Age, about 3,500 years ago. A 10,000-year-old bear shoulder bone has also been discovered.

- Gordon Deegan

Irish Independent

My Thor's Day Viking Reading is a Freebie

2011-07-07T15:03:00.002-05:00

LOKI'S DAUGHTERS by Delle Jacobs is free right now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords! Happy reading!
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Smashwords

What do you know about the Vikings?

2011-07-03T12:04:00.001-05:00

Try this online quiz. It loads 10 randomly selected questions from a large database, so each time that you return to the site you get a different set of questions.

My Thor's Day Viking Reading is a Freebie

2011-06-30T08:05:00.005-05:00

Her Viking Valentine by Kristen Painter
Blurb
In this stand alone short story featuring the characters from ALL FIRED UP , Viking chieftain Alrik Gunn and his modern day bride, Calleigh, get tested by Freya, the goddess of love, on their first Valentine's Day.

Click here to begin reading.

Happy Thor's Day

2011-06-23T07:40:00.008-05:00

I first saw this photo on author Sandra Hill's website. This photo of a Navy SEAL ran in the New York Times a little while back. Doesn't he make you wanna grab one of your Sandra Hill Viking Navy SEALs books and read it again?

My Thor's Day Viking Reading

2011-06-09T08:26:00.003-05:00

Dear Viking by Lori Soard

Blurb

Rok Erikson comes from a long line of Viking warriors. The tradition of his upbringing, his new Christian faith and the code of honor that says he must protect his family at all costs wage war within him. He and his brothers go on a mission to kill Jarl Van of Colby before the man can make another attempt on their father's life. The code of honor insists that they either kill or be killed, however, there are dark forces at work of which Rok is unaware.

Leani is the daughter of the jarl Rok believes is making attempts on his father's life. When the eldest brother reaches her village ahead of RÃ¶k and the rest of the party, he kills her father and defiles her frail sister. Enraged, and fearing for her own life, Leani drives a silver dagger into his neck. Leani is captured by the vile Eriksons and forced to leave behind her broken sister as they take her to face a trial for killing the Viking who murdered her father.

Leani's life hangs in the balance as she struggles with her guilt over taking the life of another and tries to find forgiveness where none should exist. Her faith will be tested to the limits as she fights a growing attraction to her enemy, tries to hide the truth about her identity, uncovers a treachery that runs deep within the Erikson clan, and sees how God can come to your rescue even when all hope seems lost...
Genres: Romance / Historical Romance / Inspirational Romance

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Lori Soard

Excerpt
...Bright twines of lightning lit the sky. Leani lifted her head, allowing the rain to saturate her face. If she could only wash the sin of murder from her soul. The thunder stopped for a moment, as if the angels held their breath.

Leani looked to the crest of the hill. Lightning spooned across the night, highlighting the dark figure standing on the mound. Leani’s heartbeat hammered in her ears. She rose to her feet, braced for another confrontation.

A leather tunic covered his torso and a red cape was clasped with a bronze brooch. With the lightning flashing around his head and his long golden-brown hair blowing in the wind, the man looked like the war god. Impossible. Leani didn’t believe in gods. Her family had converted to Christianity when she’d been in her ninth summer.

An inner awareness whispered that she knew this man, had always known him. Yet, he was a stranger. The night closed around them once again as the storm paused.

Leani pushed aside the stubborn hair that kept blowing across her face. Her gaze was unfocused on the blackness of the hill. The very earth seemed to hiss with the next jagged burst of lightning.

The man was no longer in sight, and Leani wondered if he had been real. A weight settled on her spirit, like water washing over the sides of a sinking ship. When the light came again, the warrior was twenty feet in front of her, taking ground-eating strides.

Leani’s knees trembled. Had she avenged her father’s death only to meet the same shame as her sister? She glanced around frantically for a weapon. She would not give up her life or her virtue without a fight.

With each step in her direction, the man appeared even more imposing—broader of shoulder, firmer of resolve. Leani took a step backward and another. Lightning flashed and she had the impression of pale silver eyes. Piercing. Cutting. Another bolt and she saw an angled jaw and firm chin.

Halting when her back hit the rough planks of the door, Leani resisted pushing her way inside. Another assault would kill what little essence her sister had left in a hollowed-out body. If she kept the Viking monster from her dwelling, he would never realize another woman was within.

Leani summoned all her courage into a tight fist of bravery, letting it sit heavily in her midriff. Her only weapon lay buried in the fallen man’s neck.

Fear dissolved as the man passed her by and dropped to his knees beside the dead warrior.

“Brother.” His voice cracked on the word.

Leani edged closer. The warrior pulled the dagger free and held his hands over the wound as if he could hold the blood in.

Vikings were cold, heartless warriors. She’d been raised among them. Never had she seen such a display of emotion on a battlefield. They did not stop to cry over those who had fallen. Dying in war was glorious. Brother… Father… It did not matter the relationship to the fallen warrior. Vikings didn’t lament the passing of life from this world to the next.

“May the angels of heaven escort you on your journey to Valhalla with the Valkyries.”

The man’s voice had the sharp timber of cracking ice. Leani shivered again.

“Angels?” The word slipped past her curious lips. Was the man a Christian? But, he’d also mentioned the lovely maidens sent down from Asgard to escort slain warriors to the great hall of Valhalla.

The man rose slowly to his feet and turned to face her. Leani’s heartbeat pounded in her ears. He had called the vile, murdering beast brother. Had he seen her plunge the knife into his brother’s throat? Would he now ram his sword through her?

“Murderess.” The words sizzled off his lips like steam.

Leani raised her chin, fighting her own conscience at having taken another’s life. She had killed to avenge two wrongs and to protect others from the same fate as had befallen her sister. If that was wrong, then she was a murderess.

“Your brother was the murderer.”

“Your jarl tried to assassinate my family. My brother was justified in whatever he did.”

“J-Jarl?” The bitter taste in her mouth must have been a premonition. Had these men come here to eliminate her father for political reasons?

“Jarl Van of Colby.”

Leani expected the words and yet they still stole her breath. “Jarl Van is dead.”

“It’s no less than he deserves.”

If Leani had possession of the knife she’d sunk into his brother, she’d sink it into his flesh as well. Her father had been a gentle farmer. Now he lay dead because of this man’s brother. What would he do to her if he discovered she was Jarl Van’s daughter?...

Author Jaid Black wants you to Cast Your Vote

2011-06-08T18:12:00.004-05:00

Jaid Black author of Warlords of the Viking Underground series is polling her fans to see if we want her to write more Viking novels. If you are a Viking lover like me then click this Link to vote for more Viking novels. Once there scroll down to the bottom right-hand corner of her website to find the poll. Happy voting.

The Outlaw Viking Cover Poll

2011-06-07T14:27:00.006-05:00

The Outlaw Viking by Sandra Hill has been reissued this month with a new cover. I thought it would be fun to poll Sandra Hill's fans to see which cover they prefer.

The new cover gets my vote. The new Selik is sexier and has much better hair and the new Rain is beautiful and I love the gorgeous dress she's wearing.

Be sure to read the comments because author Sandra Hill stopped by and comments and has a funny story to tell about the old cover.

My Thor's Day Viking Reading

2011-06-02T07:04:00.006-05:00

The Peacemaker by Jianne Carlo

Blurb
’Tis unfortunate that Njal The Peacemaker meets his bride to be dressed in breeches, flaunting a crossbow, and covered in boar’s blood. What he needs is a woman skilled with words, a woman with exquisite manners, a cunning woman capable of maneuvering the political intrigue of a king’s court. Not a rough country lass who hunts and whose kill at a crossbow rivals his.

Bettina wants a man who can thwart her step-uncle’s theft of Castle Arbroath’s treasures. A Viking warrior who’ll strike the fear of God into her enemies. Not a man who values words and peace over all.

Neither Njal nor Bettina expect the incendiary heat of their passionate coupling. What will win out, words or actions? Can a peacemaker tame a warrior bride?

Excerpt

The Peacemaker is book three in Jianne Carlo's Viking Warriors Series.

The Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award

2011-06-01T10:29:00.025-05:00

I'm just so sweet. Author Renee Vincent was such a sweetie to award me with "The Irresistibly Sweet Blg Award!"

The Rules of this award are pretty simple:

1. Thank and link to the person who nominated you.

2. Share 7 random facts about yourself.

3. Pass the Award on to 10 deserving blog buddies.

4. Contact those buddies and let them know.

So, here are my random facts about me:

I'm a southern girl from Alabama.
My scottish clan is Gunn. Yes, the Gunns were descended from the Norsemen.
I'm scared to death of snakes.
I'm scared to death of heights.
Guilty Pleasures: Coca Cola, chips & salsa and Starbucks.
I'm a jeans t-shirt and flip flops kind of girl.
I'm a member of Daughters of the American Revolution. Link

And now for those that I'm passing this award on to:

Victoria

Norwegian Producer of Liquor Gathers Viking-Herbs

2011-05-31T12:42:00.001-05:00

Arcus, a Norwegian Producer of Liquor, was out in the Norwegian woods Monday to look for the same herbs that vikings used to make their liquor. Pors is the name of the herb that apparently had such a strong effect on King Harald Hårfagre that he simply forgot to rain the country for about three years, according to the Snorre Saga. Now, a bus load of Arcus employees find the plant so fascinating that they want to produce liquor with it.

"Our goal is not to make people go crazy from drinking pors liquor," says Chief of Information in Arcus, Hege Ramseng. We only want to use this herb to add flavour to liquor that goes well with food, for example aquavit.

Normally they import the herbs from suppliers around the world, but for this particular mission the team went out themselves. They received assistance from the Porsgrunn Club, that knew exactly when and where to find them, and hoped to find at least 20 kg leaves to bring home, explains sensor technician Håkon Urdal.

Source: The Norway Post

Cute Viking Gifts

2011-05-28T14:10:00.002-05:00

I found a website with some cute gifts for any Viking lover at Link

My Thor's Day Viking Reading is a Freebie

2011-05-26T07:36:00.015-05:00

Pleasurable Punishment by Kate Hill

Blurb
After a hard day Erik Ice Tooth is looking for a mug of mead, good food and relaxation with his wife, but Bera has other plans. She's in the mood for some pleasurable punishment from her irresistible Northman.

Excerpt

Pleasurable Punishment is very short story that is avaliable right now as a free read at Link. Kate Hill also has a great Viking trilogy Link.

Happy Thor's Day

2011-05-19T07:49:00.002-05:00

Excerpt of The Norse King's Daughter by Sandra Hill coming September 2011

2011-05-16T18:29:00.012-05:00

Oh, I'm such a lucky little Viking Princess. Today I emailed author Sandra Hill asking if she could give her fans a sneak peek of her upcoming release The Norse King's Daughter. Not only did I get a reply but she also sent me an excerpt with permission to post it on my blog. This is an unedited copy, just in case there are some typos...enjoy.

Blurb
HELL HATH NO FURY LIKE A PRINCESS SCORNED!

Princess Drifa can certainly see why Sidroc Guntersson is a living legend—on battlefield and in bedchamber both. But the King of Stoneheim’s daughter pitches a royal fit when she learns of the true reason for the virile Viking’s passionate attentions. A third-born son with no hope of inheriting the family jarldom, scheming Sidroc must marry and is interested in Drifa only for her father’s land and money. The barbarian is lucky she just cracks him on his fool head with a pottery pitcher!

Five years later, Drifa needs Sidroc’s protection—in Byzantium, no less!—though revenge holds more appeal for this man she left for dead. ‘Tis a pity two such perfect enemies match each other so well, passion for passion. So much so that the bold Viking berserker is soon thinking marriage again...only this time it will be on his terms!

The Norse King's Daughter

by Sandra Hill

PROLOGUE

Comes a time when all good Viking men must bite the shield...and wed...

"Toss the babe in the fjord. Or leave it on the cliff. Either way, the whelp will be dead afore morn."

Sidroc Guntersson, third son of Jarl Gunter Ormsson, was a noted warrior who had seen cruelty in all its forms, but his father's pronouncement about Sidroc’s newborn child turned his blood cold. "How can you suggest such for your own kin?" Why am I surprised? No doubt, you wish you'd ended my life in the same manner.

His loathsome father, who had the paternal sensibilities of a rock, shrugged and leaned back in the throne-like armed chair atop the dais in his great hall. Even as he spoke, one paw-like hand stroked the long, pale blonde hair of his latest concubine, a girl no more than thirteen. In all his twenty and six years, Sidroc had many times witnessed his father's lusty appetites appeased by the more danico, multiple wives, as well as numerous mistresses, bed thralls, and any serving maid of passable appearance. On occasion, all at the same
time. The gods only knew how many by-blows he’d bred, along with his four legitimate sons and two legitimate daughters.

"'Tis a split-tail," his father pointed out, as a defense for abandoning a newborn.

Sidroc bristled. "Yea, 'tis a girl, and the mother is dead." Sidroc's voice was raspy with emotion. He'd seen men cleaved from head to belly in battle, but the image that would stay with him forevermore was of Astrid lying in a pool of her own blood. With a bloody mass of squalling, flailing arms and legs lying betwixt her thighs, its cord still uncut.

Eydis, the wet nurse serving his brother Svein’s one-year-old boy, had agreed to take his daughter to teat, but only until he hired another suitable maid, or until his brother found out. Svein did not share anything with anyone, especially not with him, ever since he thrashed him as a boyling, despite being five years younger. As he recalled, he’d been provoked by Svein drowning a stable cat, just for sport.

Sidroc was full aware that it was the practice in some parts of the Norselands to put a newborn out to die when it arrived underweight or handicapped in some way. After all, living was difficult in the harsh northern climate and survival was indeed best reserved for the hardiest. But to stand by and watch a child, one not handicapped in any way, be killed, well, it was something he could not do. Whether it be his child or some other’s.

To be honest, he felt no strong connection with the baby, less than a day old now. But he would be less than a man to abandon its fate to others, like his father.

"'Tis not uncommon for a woman to die of the childbirth fever,” his father remarked coldly. “You are too missish by half."

Missish? Sidroc shook his head at his father's perception of him. He was a far-famed warrior, adept with halberd and broadsword. But all his father saw was a man not in his selfsame mold of cruelty.

His wife had not been a love match for him, like most noble families arranged marriages for gain, but he had held an affection for Astrid from the start. Not that he’d seen much of her in the two years they’d been married, what with his a-Viking and fur trading. "I promised Astrid on her deathbed that I would care for the child.”

His father shrugged again, and now his hand was groping his concubine's small breasts. The silly girl giggled and preened at the attention of her master, even such a public display.

Sidroc knew he did not have his father's full attention. Still, he persisted. “Signe deserves to live."

“You named the child?" His father made a tsk-ing noise of disapproval.

It nigh gagged him to ask his father for favors, but needs must, he chastised himself. His much smaller keep at the edge of the Vikstead estates had burned to the ground last winter, along with a storeroom piled to the ceiling with precious furs intended for market. He and Astrid had been living with his father until he could rebuild. Even that favor had galled him. “All I ask is that Svein’s wet nurse be permitted to continue caring for the baby here at Vikstead until I return from a commitment I have made to the Jomsvikings. Once I have regained my wealth—“

"If you care so much, take the babe yourself."

“They do not allow women or children at the Jomsborg fortress.”

“How long would you be gone?”

Someday, old man...someday! he seethed with tightly fisted hands. As a third son with two healthy older brothers, Sidroc knew he would never inherit the jarldom and that he must accumulate wealth enough to purchase his own lands, hopefully away from Vikstead this time. Joining the elite Jomsvikings had been his best option for increasing his fortunes. "Two years. Three at most."

"Pfff!" his father scoffed. "Find a wife then, a rich one this time, for Thor's sake! One with lands."

This was a refrain he'd heard from his father many times in the past, a demand he’d resisted mightily. No doubt he’d married Astrid in part because she carried no dowry, just to defy his father. At the time, he’d had wealth and property enough that it had not mattered.

"Six sennights I give you to find a bride and a home for the whelp," his father conceded. "At the end of that time, the babe goes. That is my final word."

How had this argument with his father snowballed from a disagreement to a battle of wills? How had he allowed himself to be backed into a corner? "I suppose you have someone in mind, even with Astrid scarce turned to ashes in her burial byre," he gritted out.

"King Thorvald of Stoneheim has one more unmarried daughter. Try her." His father gave him an evil grin. "Or not. It matters not to me."

Sidroc knew the woman his father referred to. Princess Drifa. Although she was long in the tooth for a woman...at least twenty-four years old...she was not unattractive. Being half Norse, half Arab, her features were exotic with slanted dark eyes, and her body was fine-boned. As he recalled, however, she had an outlandish passion for growing things. There was ofttimes dirt under her fingernails, dried leaves in her black hair, and she was known to bring flowers and bushes indoors. On one occasion, she even reeked of manure that she claimed made her flowers sweeter.

Ah, well, he supposed there were worse things. He would need to find a mother for Signe eventually, in any case. Besides, it was good to have a ready bedmate when no other was available.

Thus it was that Sidroc Guntersson of Vikstead, instead of going a-Viking this springtime season, as was his norm, or rebuilding his home, went off a-courting. May the Norns of Fate guide him!

*****

CHAPTER ONE

Beware of rogues with bad intentions...

Drifa, daughter of the Norse King Thorvald, was being seduced, good and well.

After twenty-four years of resisting matrimony, even when she viewed the good examples of her four married sisters, Drifa was falling in love a little bit. Or in lust, leastways. And after only three sennights of the man launching his game of pursuit.

And what a handsome rogue, he was! Sidroc Guntersson was not much older than her. Perchance only twenty-six. She was of average height for a woman, but he was at least a head taller. With shoulder-length, chestnut hair, dark gray-green eyes framed by thick, dark brown lashes, a full sensuous mouth, and a battle-honed body, he was pure Viking man at his virile best.

He had been wed before, not that that mattered to her. His wife had died. What was odd to her, though, was that he refused to talk about her death. “Later,” he kept saying. “Not now.”

On the one hand, she thought his pursuit of another woman was disrespectful so soon after his wife’s death. On the other hand, some men were like that. If they loved hard enough, they wanted to replace that love with another. Not that he had said all this, but his silence on the subject was telling to Drifa. Who could not be drawn to a man who had loved so much?

"Open your mouth for me, princess," Sidroc murmured against her lips, which were already swollen from his numerous kisses. Somehow, he had managed to find her in a secluded section of her herb garden where he had her backed up against a stone wall.

"Why?" she asked, which gave him the perfect opening.

His tongue slipped inside and began to stroke her with an in-out motion that mirrored what he was doing down below. With his hands cupping her bottom and his thighs separating her legs that were dangling off the ground, he undulated his hips against her. It was impossible not to notice the hard rod of his lust as it sought her woman-channel.

"My sap runs thick and hot," he rasped out. "Quench me, m'lady."

Oh! Oh! She began to swoon with utter ecstasy, especially when he sucked lightly on her tongue.

So this was what her sisters had sighed about.

So this was all the fuss the maids were always whispering about.

So this was why the gods had created men and women.

How could she have been so ignorant for so long? Was her sap rising, too? Did women even have sap? Was it this man alone, or was the time ripe for her to yield? Oh, good gods! Was she overripe? Nay, she did not think she would yield to just any man. Holy Frigg! What is he doing now?

"Tell me you will be my wife," he whispered against her ear, which he was also plying with wet-tipped tongue and hot breath. "I. Need. You."

"Why?" she asked again on a keening wail of tortuous pleasure.

With a chuckle, he pressed the evidence of his need against her. If possible, it was bigger...and harder.

"Why me?" she elaborated.

"Because I want you above all others. And because you want me, too," he asserted with the usual arrogance of a Norseman.

She was confused. How could she answer when she was beset with so many conflicting emotions? She was not unaccustomed to yielding to a man's attention. In truth, more than two dozen Norsemen, and a few Saxons, had offered for her in the past ten years. None of them had affected her like this. What an understatement! My blood is boiling in my veins. My bones are melting. My brain is one big throbbing mass of sexual fog. "I...I...'tis too soon."

"Nay. Betimes too much thinking clouds a person's thinking. Betimes a person must jump into a decision. Betimes a woman must wed or go barmy from lack of carnal bliss."

What? You are making that up. She had no chance to say that, though, because he was kissing her again. And caressing her breasts. And rubbing himself against her nether parts.

A flush of arousal swept over her in waves, and when he asked again, "Please, sweetling, be my wife," she answered, "Yea, I will."

Then...oh, praise the gods and all the goddesses!...he used his wicked wandering hands and his thrusting hips to bring her to a peak which would have had her screaming her woman-joy if his tongue had not been firmly planted in her mouth.

For long moments, she lay boneless against his chest, her face nestled in the crook of his neck, panting like a war horse.

What just happened? Have I died? Was that what he meant by carnal bliss? Best I pretend that this was not a shocking happenstance for me, or he will laugh at me. "That was nice," she said in as calm a voice as she could muster.

He laughed. The brute just laughed at her. "We will go to your father this eventide," he told her between quick nibbling kisses, as he helped her straighten her gunna and the long, open-sided apron worn by most Norse women.

Did I say him yea? I must have, but... "Mayhap I should approach him first, alone." And mayhap I need to think this through in some quiet place far from his tempting self.

He shook his head. "Together. We will go together. And we will be wed within a sennight so we may return to Vikstead and present you to my father."

That was not going to happen so soon, for the simple reason that the sixtieth anniversary of her father's birthday was to be celebrated in ten days time. Everyone was coming, including three of her sisters who lived in Britain. Her father would never countenance her absence from such an important event. "Why must we rush?"

His face flushed, but all he would reveal was, "'Tis not important, but you will understand in good time."

*****

He'd landed in the royal barmy bin where all the king's men...and women...were missing a few stones from their turrets...

Later that day, Sidroc sat on a bench on one side of the hearth in the largest solar of Stoneheim, surrounded by members of the Norse royal family who had come from far and wide to celebrate the king's upcoming sixtieth birthing day anniversary. They were all that a family should be, and all he’d never experienced himself.

After at least a dozen futile attempts, Sidroc had yet to ask King Thorvald for his daughter's hand in marriage. He supposed that he should have told Drifa from the beginning why he must marry, and with haste yet, but he was experienced in the love arts, and he knew, sure as gammelost stinks, she would have balked if he told her it was not so much that he needed her, as that he had a newborn baby that needed a mother. Women wanted to be courted. Later...he would tell all later. They would both laugh about his craftiness.

For now, Drifa's sisters were eying him suspiciously. This family did naught but talk and laugh and shout over each other, and the subjects they discussed were outrageous. Like some experiments being done with honey on a man's staff to prevent conception, for the love of Frigg! "Now, if a man could lick his own cock, that would be another thing," the king had proclaimed, and they'd all laughed, even the women.

In truth, going by the glaring sisters, he would not be surprised if someone asked Drifa in front of one and all if she still had a maidenhead. Actually, he hoped they did. Mayhap then he would have a chance to make an offer of marriage and get it over with.

In the midst of his elation this afternoon over Drifa's acceptance of his proposal, he'd forgotten her having told him days ago of the planned feast, but she hadn't warned him of the deluge of guests who would arrive so soon. If she thought he was going to linger around this overcrowded castle for ten more days, without a wedding, he had news for her. "King Thorvald, can we speak in private?"

"Later, my boy, later," the king said jovially, turning back to a servant who was carrying a tray with goblets of mead.

Drifa, who sat on the bench beside him, squeezed his hand, "Have patience."

Patience! He gritted his teeth, trying not to appear overanxious. He'd already wasted three sennights in this drafty, hodgepodge, stone and wood castle, designed by one of the sisters, Breanne, who had a passion for building things. Chairs, tables, pig sties, castles, and whatnot. In fact, Breanne sat beside her husband, the Saxon Lord Caedmon, on an opposing bench whittling on a stick to amuse a child who hovered watchfully over her shoulder.

Another sister, Ingrith, was returning from the kitchen where she'd been engaged in her particular passion. Cooking. As evidenced by the delicious aromas wafting through the air. Roast hare and honey oatcakes, would be his guess. Ingrith's husband, another Saxon lord, John of Hawk's Lair, who seemed bemused by the whole situation, said near his ear in passing, "You are a dead duck, my good man, once these barmy birds get their claws in you."

Lord Hawk was the one doing the experiments with honey, cocks, and male seed caps. He had no room to complain of barmy birds, in Sidroc's opinion.

"I wish you would get your claws in me. Quickly. On the marriage bed," he whispered to Drifa.

"Patience," she said again, though she was now wearing a pretty blush on her face reminding him of how close to swiving they'd come today. Mayhap he would visit her bedchamber tonight, to seal the deal, so to speak.

"What did you say to Sidroc?" Ingrith inquired of her husband who tugged her down to sit on his lap. You’d expect that of a newly wedded couple, but these two had been together for at least a couple years.

"I was telling the man how fortunate he is to be in the midst of such intelligent Vikings, dearling," he assured his wife.

"Pfff! I can only guess--" Ingrith's words were cut off as the oldest sister Tyra approached with her husband, Adam the Healer. Another Saxon. What was it with these Viking women? Would a good virile Viking not do?

Tyra was a big woman. In fact, she'd trained to be a warrior at one time. Tyra stared pointedly at Drifa’s blush and at her hand laced with his, resting laying on his thigh, then glared at him.

“Should I kill him, father?" the bloodthirsty wench asked.

"Good gods, nay! We may have a husband for Drifa yet," said King Thorvald.

Drifa tsk-ed her opinion.

Obviously, the old goat was more aware of his intentions than he'd let on. In fact, he winked at Sidroc, then leaned his massive body back into an armed chair, a horn of ale in hands propped on his lap, his legs extended to the fire. Although he was an old man, he appeared to be in fine physical condition, and although his hair and beard were white, they were finely groomed and adorned with precious jewels. The quality of his tunic and braies and boots attested to his high station.

His best friend Finn Vidarsson, ofttimes referred to as Finn Finehair, who had traveled here with him, was the only other man of his acquaintance who took grooming so seriously. In fact, Finn was known to trim his chest and man-hairs on occasion, a habit that he claimed women loved. Finn had never wed, claiming he’d never met a woman who matched his beauty. If Sidroc had not witnessed Finn’s prowess in battle, he would question his manliness.

Calling himself back to the present, Sidroc demanded, "I must needs speak to you as soon as possible, King Thorvald. 'Tis urgent that I get home to Vikstead afore--"

"Did I tell you about the time Adam drilled a hole in my head?" King Thorvald asked him.

Only about a dozen times. "Did I tell you--?"

"Saved my life, it did," King Thorvald said, as if Sidroc hadn't spoken. "Made my cock get bigger, too, I warrant."

"Father! Such language!" five women protested, including Vana, who was married to Rafn, the Viking hersir who commanded all the troops at Stoneheim. Vana had a passion for cleaning and was scrubbing at a trestle table behind them while the family meeting was about to commence. Though why he would be included in a family meeting posed both good and bad possibilities in Sidroc's befuddled brain.

"Mayhap Adam should drill a hole in your head," the king suggested to him.

Sidroc sputtered. "My co...manpart is plenty big enough." Holy Thor! He hoped Finn didn’t hear about this. He would no doubt have a dozen holes drilled in his fool head.

"Well, I hope so. I have been trying to get Drifa married for many a year. After all this time, she deserves something...big."

Drifa tsk-ed some more.

Everyone laughed, except him. He was crossing his eyes with frustration.

“Since you apparently already know my intentions, King Thorvald, do you then agree to give your daughter Drifa to me?"

The king rolled his eyes. "I do not give my daughters to any man. They have the right to choose. A promise I made to their mothers long ago."

"What kind of lackbrained thing was that to do?"

Five women snarled.

"That does not mean like-minded men cannot influence them, however," the king added.

"Influence her," Sidroc sputtered. "Drifa has already accepted my suit. Have you not, sweetling?" he asked, picking her up and setting her on his lap. If Lord Hawk could take such liberties with his woman, so could he. Besides, if it was influence the king wanted, he was more than willing to…influence.

Drifa tried to escape, but he held on tight.

Everyone, even the women, stared at him, impressed at his finesse, no doubt.

"Let me up, you brute," she said half-heartedly.

"Stop squirming."

"Stop poking me with that...thing."

"Your father wants to drill a hole in my head to make it bigger."

"So I heard."

"Some folks think bigger is better."

"Some folks are lackbrained."

Tyra narrowed her eyes at him. “I thought you were already married.”

He had hoped to avoid the subject, but ‘twould appear he was not going to be so fortunate. “I was. My wife died,” he replied, stiff-lipped.

“When—“

“Stop, Tyra. Sidroc does not like to talk of his wife who has gone to the Other World.” She squeezed Sidroc’s hand.

He stared at Drifa with surprise. Drifa is defending me? He had conflicting feelings over that circumstance. A rather odd joy filled him that anyone, least of all a woman, would come to his aid. And he was filled with guilt that she did not know his true reason for being here. Ah, well, he would make it up to her later. He squeezed her hand in return.

He started to say, “It’s not that I—“

“Nay, Sidroc,” Drifa said, “It is for you to discuss if and when you choose.” She silenced Tyra and her other sisters with a glare.

Who is this woman I am about to be betrothed to? Can she possibly be as amazing as I am beginning to believe?

"So, what think you, daughter, of a combined wedding/birthing day celebration ten days hence?"

Sidroc was about to protest the delay, but bit his tongue. That would still allow him another sennight for what should only be a two-day trip back to Vikstead.

Drifa nodded and he kissed her thoroughly afore she could raise any objections. To his surprise, and pleasure, she sank into his kiss as everyone cheered their good wishes.

The Norns of Fate must be on his side after all.

Or not, he soon found out.

*****

CHAPTER TWO

The best laid plans of mice and clueless Viking men...

Drifa was happier than she’d ever been in all her life. Until, that is, Sidroc's well-laid plans caused her heart to nigh break.

It all started later that day with Drifa's ill-timed eavesdropping. Or was that good-timed?

Sidroc was at the lower end of the great hall speaking to his comrade-in-arms Finn Vidarsson as they shared horns of mead. Finn was a strutting peacock of a man, vain to the bone, who had every Stoneheim kitchen, chamber, and serving maid aflutter.

She heard her name mentioned and decided Sidroc must be announcing her father’s consent to their marriage.

"So, you have accomplished your goal, my friend. Well done!"

Goal? What goal?

"And just in time," Sidroc agreed.

In time for what?

"She is comely enough, though not up to my high standards," Finn remarked.

As if I would have you!

"No woman is comely enough to match you,” Sidroc scoffed.

“Still, methinks bedding the princess will not be such a hardship for you, Sidroc."

Sidroc chuckled. "It took nigh tupping to get her to agree."

Oh, nay! Please do not be discussing me so!

"And that would have been a problem?"

"Nay, but I needed to withhold that treat if I wanted her consent to wed."

Treat? You rat! You bloody, stinking midden rat! “I want you above all others.” That is what you said to me. Liar!

"And now what?"

"I plan to swive her silly tonight. Then we will wed in ten days. After that, I will take her to my father's estate and leave her there whilst there is still time to join the Jomsvikings. The funds in her dowry should satisfy my father."

Over my dead unswived body!

“Dost think your father will indulge her zeal for plants?”

“I daresay he will let her do as she wills as long it does not interfere with his drinking and whoring. She will have my baby to while away her time besides bloody roses and manure.”

He expects to plant his seed and have it take immediately. The arrogant ass! But, oh, his words cut to the quick. Apparently his interest in my occupation with growing things is as false as his supposed affection for me.

“By then, you would have rebuilt your fortunes and can build a home wherever you choose. Mayhap even the Orkney Islands where many Vikings have settled.”

“You make a good point, Finn. The Orkneys are out of my father’s range and yet only a day’s longship ride in good weather from the Norselands.”

He has no home of his own? He would move to another country without consulting me?

“The binding ceremony cannot come too soon for me,” Sidroc added, “but the most important thing is that she will wed me now. A betrothal is as binding as the actual wedding vows.”

“Or so you think," Drifa said, stepping out from the corridor where she had been standing, holding a pottery jug of mead, which she'd brought to replenish their supply. Her heart was nigh breaking, but she must get through these next few moments before letting loose her tears.

"Drifa!" Sidroc said with alarm, staring back at her over his shoulder.

And so you should be alarmed, you lying, lecherous lout.

He stood and approached her.

She backed up and held up one of her hands to halt his progress. "There will be no wedding."

"I can explain."

She shook her head. "You thought to wed me and shed me, all in one swoop. What a foolish maid you must think me."

"I can explain," he repeated.

“I ne’er expected love from you,” Drifa said, hoping the twitch at the side of her mouth did not betray her foolish dreams, “but you said you wanted me above all others.”

“I do.” But then he dug his own grave, so to speak, when he tried to jest, “The only other candidate at the moment is Brunhilda of Lade.”

Drifa’s heart shriveled. Brunhilda was forty if she was a day and weighed as much as a war horse. And Sidroc views me in the same way. Even if he is jesting, I am not amused. "Go! Leave Stoneheim and ne'er let me see your devious face again."

"We would suit, Drifa. You know we would."

She raised her chin haughtily. "Pigs will fly afore I accept you now."

"Is this a game you played with all your other suitors? Led them on to believe you will wed. Then cut off your favors at the last moment."

"Ooooh, do not try to lay the blame for this travesty on me."

"Travesty, is it?" He almost grinned.

The troll!

"You are a passionate woman, Drifa," Sidroc said, trying a different tact. "We would both benefit from this union."

I ne'er was before. Passionate, that is. And I ne'er will be again. Look what it has led me to. "You would swive me for coin?" she jeered. "What kind of man would do that?"

"A man who is desperate."

Does he imply that only a man who is desperate would want me? And why is he desperate? It mattered not. He was a nithing, withholding a swiving as if that was some grand prize. Implying that she was panting after him like a randy she-goat. "Stay away from me, you mangy dog," she warned as he drew closer.

He laughed.

Big mistake, that!

Before he could anticipate her next action, she raised the pitcher high with both hands and walloped him over the head. Not only did she knock him over, with mead flying everywhere, but the back of his head struck the edge of the bench on the way down. He landed on the rushes like a fallen oak, eyes closed.

"Oh, my gods! I've killed the man I love...I mean, the man I hate...I mean, HELP!"

*****

The Norse King's Daughter coming September 27, 2011

Sandra Hill's Website

Happy Thor's Day

2011-05-12T10:43:00.003-05:00

Today there is only one known example of a complete Viking helmet in existence. This Viking helmet was excavated on a farm in Gjermundbu, Ringerike, Norway. C 950.

There is no evidence that Vikings used horned helmets in battle, although it is possible that they were used in a ritual fashion.

Happy Thor's Day

2011-05-05T07:34:00.000-05:00

My Thor's Day Viking Reading

2011-04-28T14:44:00.032-05:00

Here's a sneak peek at The Fall of Rain book three in the Emerald Isle Trilogy by Renee Vincent scheduled to be released December 2011.

Blurb
Leif Dæganssen, an archeologist from Norway, is determined to trace back his Scandinavian roots as far as the Dark Ages and find proof of their existence on the Emerald Isle. After several yeas of living off the west coast of Ireland, he finally uncovers an ancient artifact—an intricately decorated chest with pagan carvings—buried beneath the very porch of his coastal cottage. Knowing it only confirms the presence of a glorified Norse-influenced settlement on Inis Mór, he’s determined to establish a link between himself and those who once inhabited the rugged isle.

For as long as she can remember, Lorraine O’Connor has had dreams of a Norse warrior kissing her. And even though she’s never fully understood the reason for her vivid subconscious imagination, she welcomes the meaningless and wanton pleasure of being in a Viking’s protective embrace—until the day she meets that brazen Northman on an impulsive vacation trip to Ireland.

Though blindsided by the relevance of her dreams and the strange familiarity of the man within them, Lorraine can’t help but feel a deep-seated intimacy toward Leif. And the more she gets to know him, the more she’s convinced they’ve shared a life together in a time long forgotten.

Are the clues to their ancestral past hidden within the contents of the chest or buried deep within their hearts?

Excerpt

www.reneevincent.com

Happy Thor's Day

2011-04-21T07:41:00.001-05:00

My Thor's Day Viking Reading

2011-04-14T16:54:00.020-05:00

The Dragon Slayer by Jianne Carlo

Blurb

To save her sister, can Catriona slay the Dragon Slayer?

Ruard, the Viking warrior known as The Dragon Slayer, has no great hopes for the wife he’s to take as the lord of Dunnsmuir Castle, so long as she’s a biddable wife, with all her teeth, who doesn’t drool—a plain, humble woman. He has no use for the flame-haired nymph with breasts as ripe as melons and whose supple hips beckon a man’s hands. Nor for a maiden with a stubborn chin and flashing eyes that speak of naught but trouble.

Catriona hopes for a husband ‘twill be easy to poison. Lord Ulfric holds her sister captive and demands Catriona do his bidding: poison his Viking rival, the man they call the Dragon Slayer. Catriona hopes for a cruel warrior, a man easy to hate, not this Thor god come to life with golden hair, sky blue eyes, and a laughing smile. Her sister’s life depends on it, but how can she slay this Ruard, her new husband, who makes her heart pound with joy?

Excerpt

The Dragon Slayer is a novella that has a lot of the things I enjoy when reading a Viking romance novel. Really hot love scenes between the hero and heroine. The Viking hero Ruard is big, muscular, virile and golden all over (yes, you have to use the word virile at least once in a Viking romance novel). He's also gets very jealous when anyone touches his Catriona or even looks at her too long. Oh, I just love a big beautiful jealous Viking...yummy.There are a couple of fight scenes and thank goodness author Jianne Carlo doesn't go into a lot of detail about them in this novella. I always skim through that part anyways when I'm reading them.

Thanks you Jianne Carlo for giving Ruard blond hair. I always have a WTF moment when I see the cover of a Viking romance novel and the Viking is tall dark and handsome. It immediately gets points taken off from me. A dark Viking bugs me the entire time I'm reading the book. I'm always trying to make him blond in my mind's eye. Give me talk dark and handsome in my highlander romance novels.

The Dragon Slayer is book two in Jianne Carlo's Viking Warrior's series. Book three in the series titled The Peacemaker is due to be released in June. This will be Ruard's brother Njal's love story. We get to see him a lot in The Dragon Slayer. Maybe Njal and Helen will end up together.Or maybe Helen and Captain drGrecy will fall in love. We really never find out what happens to Catriona's friend Helen at the end of this story.

I fell in love with Catriona's little seven year old sister Gaeierla who thinks Ruard is the norse god Thor. Maybe one day later in the series we will get her love story. I hope we get to see her grow up and fall in love with a big golden Viking like Thor.

I love the cover of this book. The cover model is Sam Bond and I think he makes for a perfect Viking. Great choice for the cover model.

I read this novella in about and hour using my kindle app on my iphone.

Happy Freya's Day

2011-04-08T11:08:00.002-05:00

A Viking Mother

by American artist FRANK STICK (1884-1966)

Happy Thor's Day

2011-04-07T07:51:00.000-05:00

Surfer/model Justin Zabinski

Happy April Fool's Day with Loki's Daughters

2011-04-01T08:05:00.007-05:00

Since today is April Fool's Day I thought this would be a great time to read Loki's Daughters. In Norse mythology Loki is known as a trickster; god of discord and mischief; contrived the death of Balder and was overcome by Thor.

Loki was the most unpredictable and certainly the most dangerous god in Norse mythology. His activities ran from the merely mischievous to the blatantly malicious. Supremely clever, Loki ensnared everyone in complicated problems, to which he always supplied a remedy - through his solution often engendered even greater troubles.

Loki is an immensely powerful magician, and shares with Odin the ability to sex and shape shift at will.

Loki's Daughters by Delle Jacobs

Blurb

The Vikings are coming! -But not to rape and pillage. They mean to stay and make the village women their wives. Maybe they should have picked a different village because the women they call Loki's Daughters are a Viking's worst nightmare.

Buy The Book

I think this book is somewhat of a cross between a Sandra Hill and Catherine Coulter romance novel. The Vikings are funny and super sexy and the women are always playing tricks and setting up traps like the women in Coulter's novel Lord of Hawkfell Island.

The Vikings arrive at Cumbria to find wives and make homes. There are no men at Cumbria because they have all been killed or captured during earlier Viking attacks. The women have been taking care of themselves and the land for almost two years. They are afraid of the Vikings and want them to leave so they try all kinds of funny pranks and tricks (this is why the Viking's have given them the name Loki's Daughters) to try to make these Vikings give up and just go away. But these Vikings are determined to win their trust and their hearts and set out to court them.

Happy Thor's Day

2011-03-31T07:26:00.000-05:00

On Odin's Day a Viking Battle Prayer

2011-03-30T08:29:00.008-05:00

Lo, there do I see my father.

Lo, there do I see my mother,

And my sisters and my brothers.

Lo, there do I see the line of my people,

Back to the beginning.

Lo, there do they call to me.

They bid me take my place among them,

In the halls of Valhalla!

Where the brave shall live forever!

Happy Thor's Day

2011-03-24T08:31:00.000-05:00

Model Brock Yurich

Happy Thor's Day

2011-03-17T07:02:00.001-05:00

Happy Freya's Day

2011-03-11T06:07:00.000-06:00

Happy Thor's Day

2011-03-10T12:25:00.006-06:00

Classic Norwegian painting of 2-year old prince Häkon being taken to safety in Osterdalen from Lillehammer in 1206.

On Odin's Day A Viking Poem

2011-03-09T08:19:00.009-06:00

The coward believes he will live forever

If he holds back in the battle,

But in old age he shall have no peace

Though spears have spared his limbs

~The Havamal

Happy Freya's Day

2011-03-04T16:13:00.002-06:00

My Thor's Day Viking Reading

2011-03-03T06:14:00.002-06:00

Through A Viking Mist by Tami Dee

Blurb
Two enemies left standing on a blood drenched battlefield. Who will take the as yet unclaimed land for their own?

Ofeig Nabboddrson, a warrior from his youth up, is determined to claim the rich land now stained with blood as his. The only thing standing in his way is a magnificent Valkyrie, a woman who he has seen only in battle and who is called ‘The Protector’.

Eva Samsdottir, an extraordinary woman who singlehandedly saves the children of her village from slavery amidst a deadly raid. Unbeknownst to her a bigger battle awaits her in a Time not her own. Will she have the courage to survive the future?

Excerpt

On Odin's Day A Viking Poem

2011-03-02T10:07:00.009-06:00

Young and alone on a long road,

Once I lost my way:

Rich I felt when I found another;

Man rejoices in man,

~The Havamal

Happy Thor's Day

2011-02-24T07:31:00.000-06:00

Happy Odin's Day

2011-02-23T08:13:00.000-06:00

Happy Freya's Day

2011-02-18T07:42:00.000-06:00

Happy Thor's Day

2011-02-17T11:32:00.000-06:00

On Odin's Day A Viking Poem

2011-02-16T11:50:00.006-06:00

A small hut of one' s own is better,
A man is his master at home:
A couple of goats and a corded roof
Still are better than begging.
~The Havamal

The Bewitched Viking Cover Poll

2011-02-15T08:16:00.001-06:00

The Bewitched Viking by Sandra Hill

The Bewitched Viking has been reissued this month with a new cover. I thought it would be fun to poll Sandra Hill's fans to see which cover they prefer. Do you like the old cover with the sexy Tykir Thorksson smiling with his long hair flowing giving you the come hither finger or the new cover with the very serious looking Tykir showing off his sexy tush and riped up arms and back?

The old cover still gets my vote. Tykir's come hither smile and finger makes me tingle. He kinda has that male stripper look going for him. Although the new cover is quit good, the new very serious Tykir looks a little bit Dom in his black leather studded armband and belt.

Happy Freya's Day

2011-02-11T04:29:00.001-06:00

My Thor's Day Viking Reading

2011-02-10T18:48:00.011-06:00

Semper Fi Magick by Faith V. Smith

Blurb
After a failed mission, Special Ops Marine Derek Harrison wants peace and quiet as he recuperates at his cousin’s home. What he gets is a sex-on-heels woman with a snooty attitude. Not only does she remind him of his ex-fiancée, but she claims she’s a faery princess of the Seelie Court. Now she’s not only getting under his skin, she’s getting into his head and delving into his nightmares. Maybe there is more to Catriona than he first realized.

Catriona is restricted to her palace for interfering in human affairs, but that doesn’t stop her from sneaking away to visit her mortal friends. Her fun ends—and passion ignites--when she finds herself involved with a sexy mortal male who treats her like a woman instead of a pampered faery princess.

But when magick and terrorism collide, Derek is injured. Catriona spirits the man she loves to her Faery home, but can her magick save him?

Excerpt

Derek and Catriona make a cute couple. At times they remind me of Darrin and Samantha from the tv show Bewitched. I can't wait for book three in this series featuring Tiernan, Catriona's dad. I hope we get a little peek at how things are going for Derek and Catriona. I bet Catriona is going to be a handful for Derek.

If you loved Viking Go Home then you'll be happy to know that Wulgar and Raven, the hero and heroine , are back as secondary characters in Semper Fi Magick.

On Odin's Day A Viking Poem

2011-02-09T10:00:00.005-06:00

The fool thinks that those who laugh

At him are all his friends:

When he comes to the Thing and calls for support,

Few spokesmen he finds

~The Havamal

Happy Freya's Day

2011-02-04T07:54:00.005-06:00

Model Brody Boyd

My Thor's Day Viking Reading

2011-02-03T16:19:00.004-06:00

Who Needs Tomorrow by Tricia McGill

Blurb

Widowed Australian, Madeline, is in York, England, to visit her archaeologist friend Amber. Fostered together when young, they share a fascination for the Viking period and studied the Old Norse language. They are swept back to Jorvik, as York was named in 879AD, then a thriving trading town. Norse trader, Erik, bears an uncanny resemblance to the lover of Maddie's dreams. When Amber is kidnapped, Erik agrees to track her down. Their journey takes them across to France and to Rouen then further inland, with many mishaps and adventures along the way. Erik risks everything to aid Madeline in her quest.

Excerpt

Happy Thor's Day

2011-01-27T07:30:00.000-06:00

The Vikings really were the greatest explorers the universe has ever known.

On Odin's Day A Viking Poem

2011-01-26T09:24:00.012-06:00

Wisdom is wanted
By him who travels widely;
Anything is easy at home;
He who nothing knows
And sits among the wise
Becomes a gazing-stock.
~The Havamal

My Fair Viking becomes The Viking's Captive

2011-01-22T18:33:00.004-06:00

Sandra Hill's new release The Viking's Captive is an updated reissue of the her book My Fair Viking. Yes, this is a new title and due to reader demand, she unkills Rain and Selik, the hero and heroine from The Outlaw Viking.

Just for fun I thought I would take a poll to see which cover her readers prefer. Which do you like best? The original cover with Tyra and Adam on a longboat or the new cover with Adam minus Tyra.

I still like the old cover best because it has both Adam and Tyra on it but I do like the new Adam better...minus his mullet haircut.

Happy Freya's Day

2011-01-21T06:41:00.016-06:00

Say hello to romance cover model Jed Hill. He's a former Penn State football player turned model and fitness personal trainer. This 6' 3" twenty-six year old hunk is the cover model for Jaci Burton's new book The Perfect Play.

Happy Thor's Day

2011-01-20T07:09:00.000-06:00

On Odin's Day A Viking Poem

2011-01-19T06:42:00.007-06:00

Fire is needed by the newcomer
Whose knees are frozen numb;
Meat and clean linen a man needs
Who has fared across the fells,

Water, too, that he may wash before eating,
Handcloth's and a hearty welcome,
Courteous words, then courteous silence
That he may tell his tale.
- The Havamal

Happy Freya's Day

2011-01-14T08:59:00.004-06:00

Model Karl Wehler

My Thor's Day Viking Reading

2011-01-13T10:28:00.022-06:00

Captured To Breed by Tina Folsom

Blurb

Norse warrior Leif is captured by a tribe of women who keep men as love slaves. When the crown princess is planning on using him to father a daughter for her so she can assume the throne, the princess' sister Selena comes to his help. As they try to free his fellow warriors, Leif and Selena give into their attraction for each other. But is Selena's help truly selfless?

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Princess Aurora needs a female heir and captures a group of Vikings. She chooses Leif to be her breeder. Leif and Selena have an immediate attraction to one another. Selena wants to helps Leif and his warriors escape. Leif's brother Gunnar and one other warrior are badly injured and can't travel. Leif promises to come back for them in a few weeks.

I purchased this ebook from B&N for .99 cents. It's a short story , I read it in about 30 minutes. I liked Leif and Selena as a couple and it has some really good sex scenes but the story ends very suddenly. I contacted author Tina Folsom on her blog to ask her if there will be a sequel and Tina replied:

"Yes, I'm planning a story about Gunnar, but haven't had time to fit it into my schedule yet. I'm sure you can guess who his heroine will be."

Tina

That's good news Tina because I can't wait to find out what happens to Gunnar and the other warrior. I wonder if Princess Aurora will ever get her female heir :)

On Odin's Day a Viking Poem

2011-01-12T08:27:00.004-06:00

Never walk

away from home

ahead of your axe and sword.

You can't feel a battle

in your bones

or foresee a fight.

- The Havamal

Happy Freya's Day

2011-01-07T18:55:00.008-06:00

Yes, the blonde and beautiful personal trainer Jessie Pavelka makes Freya smile :)

My Thor's Day Viking Reading

2011-01-06T01:10:00.025-06:00

Ravished by a Viking by Delilah Devlin

When his younger brother goes missing, Dagr, Viking warrior and Lord of the Wolfskin Clan, will do whatever it takes to get him back. But nothing could have prepared him for Honora—a feisty, intelligent woman who is nothing like the women of his world—women who are content to serve their men in all things. Drawn to her despite her recalcitrant nature, Dagr is determined to show her who’s boss both in bed and out.

When the two enemies-turned-lovers join forces to find Dagr’s brother they are thrown into a rousing adventure full of danger, intrigue and erotic abandon. Can their passion truly unite them or will their different worlds lead to destruction for them both?

{Click here to read an excerpt}

On Odin's Day A Viking Poem

2011-01-05T15:59:00.001-06:00

Never laugh at the old when they offer counsel,

Often their words are wise:

From shrivelled skin, from scraggy things

That hand among the hides

And move amid the guts,

Clear words often come.

- The Havamal

Happy Freya's Day

2010-12-31T23:23:00.000-06:00

My Thor's Day Viking Reading

2010-12-30T18:44:00.040-06:00

The Bear and the Bride by Jianne Carlo

Blurb

Torsten, Jarl of Stjórardalr also known as the Northern Bear, glimpses Ainslin of Durham, a recent widow with two sons, and immediately covets her for his wife. He outmaneuvers his rival, Ainslin’s neighbor Earl Sigrid, and receives the king’s blessing to marry her.

Ainslin fears Torsten's reaction when he discovers she’s a virgin.

How to explain both her maidenhead and twin sons?

She leaves Mercia to marry Torsten and live in Norway to keep her boys safe.

Ainslin’s worst nightmares are realized when her former neighbor - Earl Sigrid - arrives in Norway for King Cnut’s coronation.

What does Sigrid suspect?

Will Torsten cast Ainslin and the boys aside when he discovers the truth?

Excerpt

Torsten has been dreaming of Ainslin for two years. He first sees her two years earlier while on a visit to Cnut's court. Now she's Torsten's wife...married by proxy.

The book starts off with Ainslin arriving at Torstens longhouse for their honeymoon. The honeymoon love scenes are very sexy and also very romantic. I love when Torsten sits Ainlin on his lap and hand feeds her...very sexy.You feel that Torsten has love in his heart for Ainslin. Since he first saw her two years earlier he hasn't touched another woman. He has waited for her.

Torsten accepts her twin boys as his own. He tells her "we will raise them with our sons." Okay, this is where I fell in love with Torsten. He's all alpha male but also has a big heart.

Torsten is very smart and also very protective of Ainslin. This book has a few twists in it...makes you wonder who's the bad guy and who's the good guy...Helga, stepsister to Torsten with the evil eye, Martha, Ainslin's long time nurse, and Earl Sigrid who lusts after Ainslin. I have a feeling we haven't heard the last from some of these characters.

I'm hoping this is book one in a series because I want more of them. We get to meet Torsten's brothers so maybe there will be more love stories for us to read about in this family.

I purchased this ebook at All Romance Books and I read it in about an hour. I just wish it was longer...I wanted more :)

Romance Cover Model Sam Bond

2010-12-17T12:26:00.067-06:00

On Freya's Day let's enjoy Sam Bond. If you read romance novels then your sure to recognize his beautiful face and sexy body...he has great hair too. Sam Bond is a natural bodybuilder, trainer and he also appeared two seasons on UK Gladiator as Atlas. Check out Sam Bond's romance novel covers on the link below.

TheSamBond.blogspot.com

www.Sam-Bond.com

Sam Bond - UK Gladiator Atlas

Viking Vampires are coming in 2011

2010-12-15T10:58:00.024-06:00

I thought I would share some information from author Sandra Hill's monthly newletter...enjoy.

Dear Fans:

I am having a grand total of seventeen books reissued in 2011. Yes, I said seventeen. They will all have new covers (Check them out on my website). In one case a new title (MY FAIR VIKING becomes THE VIKING'S CAPTIVE), and they have been updated and tweaked for humor. In fact, and I consider this another Christmas gift for avid fans who bemoaned the death of Selik and Rain in MY FAIR VIKING. Guess what? I'm unkilling them in THE VIKING'S CAPTIVE.

Here's a schedule for the reissues:

January, THE VIKING'S CAPTIVE

February, THE BEWITCHED VIKING

March, THE BLUE VIKING

April, A TALE OF TWO VIKINGS

May, THE RELUCTANT VIKING

June, THE OUTLAW VIKING

July, THE TARNISHED LADY

August, THE LAST VIKING

September, TRULY MADLY VIKING, THE VERY VIRILE VIKING

October, THE LOVE POTION, WET & WILD, HOT & HEAVY

November, FRANKLY MY DEAR, SWEETER SAVAGE LOVE

December, DESPERADO, LOVE ME TENDER

I will have a new Viking princess historical romance out in October, 2011, tentatively titled THE NORSE KING'S DAUGHTER.
Princess Drifa has a passion for flowers and has gone to Byzantium to study the Imperial Gardens, but she gets in trouble while there and the only one who can save her is the Viking whom she once almost killed after ending their betrothal. Lots of fun!

I've save the best for last. I have contracted to start a new series: Viking Vampire Angels. I kid you not. I am so excited, and I hope you will be, too. I call it SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN VAMPIRES. Humor and sex guaranteed. Keep checking my website for more details. This does not mean I am going to stop writing historicals and contempories, just a little lagniappe, as Tante Lulu would say.

As usual, I wish you smiles in your reading (hope you get lots of books for Christmas), and the most joyous holiday of all. Sandra Hill

www.sandrahill.net

Happy Freya's Day

2010-12-10T09:02:00.001-06:00

My Thor's Day Viking Reading

2010-12-02T10:03:00.054-06:00

Mac Liam by Renee Vincent

A tortured soul…

Breandán Mac Liam, the strapping young hunter from Ireland’s lush forests, is in love with Mara, an ineligible beautiful princess. For seven long years, he has been vividly haunted by her memory, taunted by the throes of his heartache. And not even the thought of her marriage to a Northman can extinguish the fierce, burning desire running rampant through his heart and soul.

An innocent heart…

Mara, the spirited Connacht princess, has no idea she is the object of the Irishman’s longing. She is living out her days on Inis Mór, raising a troubled son and trying to endure the cruel loneliness that afflicts her.

A deadly secret…

Ordered by the king on his deathbed, Breandán must return to Mara and bring her through the perilous lands of Connacht to fulfill her father’s last dying wish. But as their worlds collide, Breandán not only finds himself wrapped in the arms of Mara’s embrace, but thrown into a struggle to defend his honor.

With Mara caught between the family she loves and the father she knows, can Breandán uncover the mystery of her past and still protect her from a secret that threatens them all?

{Click here to read an excerpt}

In an interview author Renee Vincent was asked if her books should be read in order. Here is Renee's answer; "Mac Liam is not a stand alone novel. It begins where Ræliksen left off, only seven years later. And there are things in Ræliksen that are brought up, but not resolved until Mac Liam. Without that knowledge, the reader may be lost, or at the least, may not understand the full impact of the climactic ending."

The Fall of Rain: Book Three of the Emerald Isle Trilogy is due to be released in December 2011. In an interview earlier this year Renee gave us a little hint as to what the readers can expect from The Fall of Rain - " it connects with Ræliksen in some way. While I do not necessarily have goals to write a prequel of Ræliksen, I do not think that this floating “story line” will disappoint you – especially if you are wanting more of Dægan."

Happy Freya's Day

2010-11-26T22:37:00.000-06:00

My Thor's Day Viking Reading

2010-11-25T14:41:00.015-06:00

Under A Viking Moon by Tami Dee

Bound hand and foot by his enemies and cast into the sea, Leif Nabboddrson, a mighty Jarl of Kopi SmykkerArhus, is washed up on the shores of a new land in a new century, rescued by a woman who is the very image of the treacherous bride he left behind.

His arrival turns the life of Katla ‘Kat’ Jonsdottir, a young woman of Nordic heritage, upside down. Together, they tumble through time, taking with them not only a powerful attraction, but a legend of love, trust and betrayal.

{Click here to read an excerpt}

For several weeks Kat Jonsdottir has been seeing images of an ancient Viking warrior. One afternoon she finds the viking Leif the Conqueror washed up on the California beach all bruised and bound. Leif was sent thought time to find her. Leif was dealt a terrible injustice by one of Kat's ancestors and his people suffered greatly because of it . Kat must go back through time to make amends to both Leif's people and her own.

Under A Viking Moon is a fun, exciting and sexy story that at times it even brought tears to my eyes. Leif Nabboddrson and Kat must overcome a lot of hardship to be together. I felt so sorry for Kat when she went back in time with Leif and had to be a slave.

Some of the most touching scenes in the book are between Leif's parents Nabboddr and Jora. After all these years and their still in love. The love scene between them was sweet. It made me want to cry. I would love for Tami Dee to write a prequel to Under a Viking Moon about Nabboddr and Jora's love story.

Under A Viking Moon is book one in the Mist of Time Viking Series. I can't wait to read about all of Leif's brothers in the sequel books. In Dawn of a Viking Sunrise I'm hoping we will get a little look at how things are going for Leif and Kat...I love when sequel books do that.

I won Viking Moon in a contest that author Tami Dee was having on her website. Thanks so much Tami.

Happy Freya's Day

2010-11-19T18:29:00.006-06:00

Model Derek Richardson

On Odin's Day a Viking Poem

2010-11-10T18:41:00.002-06:00

Go you must.

No guest shall stay

in one place for ever.

Love will be lost

if you sit too long

at a friend's fire.

- The Havamal

My Thor's Day Viking Reading

2010-11-04T16:25:00.023-05:00

Wolfskin by Juliet Marillier

Growing up on a prosperous farm in Viking Norway, young Eyvind dreams of the day when he can become one of the Jarl's elite warriors, the Wolfskins. For him, there can be no more glorious existence.

But Eyvind's life is to follow an unexpected path. A vow made in childhood binds him in friendship to the strange, silent boy Somerled, for whom he feels both pity and admiration. It is a promise that is to shadow Eyvind all his days, stretching his loyalty to breaking point.

From the dark forests of his native land, Eyvind voyages far. In the western sea lies a mysterious realm of peaceful waterways and fertile grazing lands. But the Light Isles are more than they seem. Powerful forces dwell there, beings as old as the earth itself, spirits of ancestral wisdom.

The Norsemen bring chaotic change to this ancient realm, threatening the end of a culture which has existed in the isles since time before time. It is up to Nessa, keeper of the mysteries and kinswoman of the last great king of the Folk, to find a way for her people to survive against daunting odds. For Eyvind, the choice is a stark one: to honour an oath made in blood or to act as heart and conscience demand. For either, the price may be death.

Wolfskin is book one of Juliet Marillier's The Light Isle Series.

Happy Freya's Day

2010-10-29T22:20:00.002-05:00

On Odin's Day a Viking Poem

2010-10-27T19:00:00.012-05:00

The fool who fancies he is full of wisdom
While he sits by his hearth at home.
Quickly finds when questioned by others
That he knows nothing at all.
- The Havamal

My Thor's Day Viking Reading

2010-10-21T08:10:00.010-05:00

The Viking Savior by Lillith Payne

Blurb
Unexpected events leave Esme far from home and at the mercy of a warrior she'd heard stories about. Accepting the Viking Valda will release her in the morning, she decides to view him as a gift she can only keep for one night, disregarding all thoughts of propriety.

After being schooled by the nuns, her curiosity will give way to sensual and erotic desires she'd only dreamed of. Ultimately, she will be the one to decide their fate.

Futures will change because of one night of exploration and passion that never should have happened.

Excerpt

Happy Freya's Day

2010-10-15T07:39:00.001-05:00

Here's a guy who could make Freya very happy. I wish I knew the models name...I would love to find more pictures of him.

My Thor's Day Viking Reading

2010-09-30T09:07:00.016-05:00

Dark Viking by Sandra Hill

Blurb
Rita, a former stunt woman, can't believe she signed up to be a female Navy SEAL. She needed the signup money to pay her mother's medical bills.

Steven, a fierce Viking warrior is depressed over the "death" of his brother Thorfinn. Yep, even Vikings get the blues.

Rita can't believe she's been tossed back in time to the tenth century wearing a head-to-toe wetsuit and flippers with her face cammied up.

Steven can't believe the gods have sent him a fish woman to ease his woes. Not a beautiful mermaid, but an ugly-as-death fish.

How dare the brute put her in a cage!

How dare the wench teach his people line dancing!

Love and laughter guaranteed in this trip down Memory Lane...uh Fjord.

Excerpt

Happy Freya's Day

2010-09-03T09:22:00.003-05:00

When I saw that Trollbeads.com had some Norse mythology beads I knew I had to have them. You build your own bracelet or necklace. They have Thor's Hammer, Fabled Faces , Viking Ship, Viking , The Midgard Serpent, Freya Knot and Ravens of Odin earrings. I got them all for my bracelet plus a few really pretty glass beads in some of my favorite colors. I think this the perfect for any Viking lover.

On Odin's Day a Viking Poem

2010-08-25T19:24:00.003-05:00

Be your friend's

true friend.

Return gift for gift.

Repay laughter

with laughter again

but betrayal with treachery.

~The Havamal
********************************************
Vin sínum
skal maðr vinr vera
ok gjalda gjöf við gjöf
hlátr við hlátri
skyli hölðar taka
en lausung við lygi

Happy Freya's Day

2010-08-20T08:35:00.002-05:00

Sean Sullivan is still one of Freya's favorites.