My Review:⭐️⭐⭐⭐/ 5 stars

This is for fans of Game of Thrones and Viking sagas - it has all the intrigue of familial plotting, backstabbing, betrayal, forbidden love, war, and so much more. The rich Scandinavian and Polish royal history really was intriguing because I knew almost next to nothing about this time period from the 900s -1000s. Duke Miasko I is at the head of the Polish throne and Swietoslawa and his other two daughters start alliances through their strategic marriages. Through this they are united by Sweden, Jomsberg, and Norway. This was such an interesting time as many of the people in these regions still practiced their Nordic pagan religion and to see the spread of Christianity by each family dynasty was very interesting. Swietoslawa was such a strong person, despite not having much say in her own life decisions. I am not sure if she really had lynxes as pets, but that would have been amazing. Also, the bond between Olav and Swietoslawa - I yearned for them to be together even though they spent most of the book apart. I couldn't find much online about them in real life, so that might actually be fictional. I can easily visualize this whole saga as a tv show - there is so much that goes on and so fascinating that most of this is based on actual history.

I highly recommend it for those that are big history/royal family nerds, but want to stay awake. This book is very well written and easy to read. It was very helpful for the author/translator to reiterate some of the names and who they were again and again throughout the book so you don’t have to keep flipping back.

Thank you to Tor Books for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

US Pub Date: April 6, 2021