Rating

About the Book

Brimming with romance, adventure and vivid historical detail, Christina Courtenay does for the Vikings what Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander and Clanlans does for Scottish history.

Born centuries apart. Bound by a love that defied time.

Madison Berger is visiting Dublin with her family for a Viking re-enactment festival, when she chances upon a small knife embedded in the banks of the Liffey. Maddie recognises what the runes on the knife’s handle signify: the chance to have her own adventures in the past.

Maddie only intends to travel back in time briefly, but a skirmish in ninth century Dublin results in her waking up on a ship bound for Iceland, with the man who saved her from attack.

Geir Eskilsson has left his family in Sweden to boldly carve out a life of his own. He is immediately drawn to Maddie, but when he learns of her connection to his sisters-in-law, he begins to believe that Fate has played a part in bringing them together. Amidst the perils that await on their journey to a new land, the truest battle will be to win Maddie’s heart and convince her that the runes never lie…

Review

Firsts Impressions

This one I was so excited to read, after the last one I just wanted more stories about this Vikings and their time traveling guests, I like that it feels so seamless with the other 3 actually, like just coming home.
Loving that is still our world just the age difference and the author is masterful in how to actually immerse you in this period of time, is amazing.
With this series I want to go visit Europe asap and see for myself all this beautiful places.

Characters

Geir is a rascal loving him so much and above all he is a gentleman, is interesting how he being the baby of the family was the one to go away so far because Rurik in a way wasn’t that far away either.

Maddie is crazy, but she has a good spirit, love that she wanted to do so many good things for the environment and that he did leave everything behind to fulfill the way of life she wanted. Loved that at the end she did lived as she wanted and found so much meaning in her life.

We had a full cast of friends and nemesis very interesting as usual, some more important to me than others but I do hope we have Ivar and Storm’s stories someday.

Themes

Loved the sense of adventure this one gives, with the settling at Iceland and the traveling from Sweden.

The environment impact was interesting too the way Maddy sees an opportunity to try and make a difference from the past to future generations.

Final Thoughts

In all I enjoyed and devoured this one yet again, they’re that good and they hook you up pretty fast at the beginning too, even with all the drama and the obstacles in the characters path it comes to be a very nice and cool read.

About the author

Christina Courtenay writes historical romance, time slip and time travel stories, and lives in Herefordshire (near the Welsh border) in the UK. Although born in England, she has a Swedish mother and was brought up in Sweden – hence her abiding interest in the Vikings. Christina is a former chairman of the UK’s Romantic Novelists’ Association and has won several awards, including the RoNA for Best Historical Romantic Novel twice with Highland Storms (2012) and The Gilded Fan (2014), and the RNA Fantasy Romantic Novel of the year 2021 with Echoes of the Runes. Tempted by the Runes (time travel published by Headline 9^th December 2021) is her latest novel. Christina is a keen amateur genealogist and loves history and archaeology (the armchair variety).