Review The Vikings Sacrifice by Julia Knight
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?
This was a ROUGH book to get through. Emotionally it was difficult. Einar’s story is not an easy one. First he is all set to go on his first Viking Raid, thinking it will make him a man, when he sees his brother betray him and kill his other brother. Then he sees them pillage a Saxon Village, but his life is saved by a young Saxon girl, Wilda, who in turn saves his life when his brother tries to kill him. His brother then curses him and says that if he ever tells anyone what happened in the village he will kill their two younger siblings, and then he tells everyone that Einar was a coward in battle and ran scared.
Einar is forced to never speak, he is shunned in his village and with his family until he meets Wilda again. When Wilda is taken as a slave for Einar’s younger brother, she meets him again but of course she sees someone other than the coward that his family and villagers see. And even without words, through a language barrier that was beautifully detailed and discussed in the novel, they are able to find love and find romance.
HOWEVER, there was such a HUGE emphasis placed on Wilda’s prayer and reflection that it was so overwhelming and annoying it drove me to distraction. It was literally every single page, she was praying and reflecting on what this relationship meant and what she should do, it was beyond distracting it was annoying and frankly irritating to read.
The love story between Einar and Wilda was all the better because they couldn’t talk to each other. It happened entirely between meaningful glances, caresses and physical expressions of feelings. It was also extremely difficult to read because of Einar’s lack of self-esteem. His lack of self worth and his own self loathing was painful. He was miserable, and I wanted to see him happier, at the end for longer. I wanted to see him redeemed in the eyes of his people more, and for longer because the whole novel he had been so down trodden that you want to see him happy, relieved, fulfilled, and you hadn’t gotten a lot of that before.
The Vikings Sacrifice was an intensely emotional, expressive novel about pain and suffering in order to protect. About making the necessary sacrifices to ensure that your family is taken care of even when it means unlimited degradation on your part to save your family. There were a few things I wish had been different but overall it was a joy to read.
Overall Rating: B
