"Not one but two luscious Vikings!"
I have yet to read a Sandra Hill book and not laugh like a
loon and cry like a baby! That to me is the sign of a
keeper book. A big plus is that she can write Vikings like
nobody's business! In this story, we get not one Viking's story but two;
specifically identical twin Vikings. Toste and Vagn
Ivarsson were foolishly parted only once by their father.
Before and since that time they've been inseparable. They
even died together or did they? Actually Toste and Bolthor the Skald (who we met in several
of Sandra's previous Viking books) were rescued from the
battlefield at Stone Valley by a group of nuns. Toste had a
grievous head wound and was out of his head for days. Lady
Esme (he thought she said her name was Eat-Me) cared for
Toste who could only ask after his brother, Vagn. Esme is
hiding out in the convent until she is old enough to claim
her inheritance from her mother. The problem is somebody
wants her dead before her next birthday. It becomes quite
interesting when Toste decides to be her champion! Vagn was rescued by Gorm who thought maybe if they could
save Vagn he would be a good husband for his daughter
Helga. Helga still never forgave Toste (who she thought
Vagn was) for giving her the nickname Helga the Homely.
Vagn finds out that that Helga isn't homely any more but
she refuses to have anything to do with him and it takes
some mighty powerful persuading on Vagn's part which he
does very well. Sandra weaves both stories intermittently through the
entire book all the while letting Vagn and Toste think each
brother was killed in battle. They just can't understand
why they can still hear the other talk in their heads.
Luckily Toste gets to deal with Bolthor and his terrible
poetry as well. The culmination of both stories at the end was intensely
satisfying. Toste and Vagn both met their matches and even
though they refused to go down without a fight, succumb to
their ladies they finally did. I highly recommend this one
and eagerly look forward to the next one!!
Reviewed by Kathy Boswell
Posted May 18, 2004
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