In Sandra Hill’s latest novel Viking in Love, she returns with a new hilarious, and Medieval, story about love, folly, Saxon warriors, and not-so-helpless Viking lasses. Here, she introduces us to Vana the White and her four sisters, who, having murdered her husband the (ahem) Earl must, to save their own necks, cover up the murder and flee the scene of the crime. Their destination? The estate of their cousin-by-marriage Caedmon of Larkspur. Caedmon spends too much time in wars to tend to his neglected estate—and has no idea the storm that is about to hit him when Vana, and her sisters show up for a “visit”. Nor indeed what her sister Breanne will inspire him to do.
A landowner only by rights of inheritance, and by grace of the king, plagued with a houseful of children (ten to be exact—not all of whom may be his), Caedmon’s hold on his lands, and his sanity, is already precarious, but adding Breanne to the mix nearly pushes the poor man over the edge. Breanne’s penchant for rebuilding everything in sight (including adding a few unwanted embellishments to the pigpen and roof) and for giving him more than a little piece of her mind, drives him crazy—as does watching Breanne work. (Ahem) When he learns the reason for Vana’s many bruises and broken bones, and why Breanne and her sisters chose to make their surprise visit, he is furious—but far too gone over Breanne to simply hand her over to the king’s justice. So he makes a bargain with her: He’ll do what he can to protect her family from the king’s wrath, if— If she agrees to spend several nights with him, alone.
If it involves killing him, boy would she like to! But . . . of course, after a week of watching the lovely—infuriating—Breanne bent over her work, murder isn’t on his mind.
And then, the annoying and troublesome Archbishop Dunstan arrives. Can things get any worse? Or for that matter, chaotic?
This being a Sandra Hill novel, what do you think?
And yes, she’s delivered another fun one for her readers. In fact, I was laughing literally from the first page and had to subject my family to a few lines, who in turn joined my fits of giggles—and this is why she has such a loyal following. Haven’t tried Sandra Hill’s work yet? Well, you should! So, romance lovers, comedy lovers, since Viking in Love was just released by Avon books (and I thank them for sending me my review copy), you should be able to get a copy at any local bookstore, or online of course at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books A Million, and elsewhere. Do check it out; you won’t be sorry you did!
Also, I just spotted this Red Alert: coming up Thursday February 4th, Sandra is appearing on "Authors on the Air" at 1PM. You can listen to that (and call in with a question for her?) at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/romanceradio/2010/02/04/sandra-hills-vikings-are-invading-avon-books
So do check the novel out, and mark your calendars; I'm sure you'll have a blast with them! :)
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For further reading, see our Q and A with Sandra here, or our review of her previous novel So Into You, here.
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