Reviews

The Valkyrie's Daughter by Tiana Warner

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vharting's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

3.5

This book was enjoyable. The chapters were short enough that it kept me engaged with reading it. Occasionally it felt slightly cringy because I think I’m a little above the target age group, but overall thought it was great.

alannaf182's review against another edition

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I found what appears to be a typo two pages in, as I couldn’t make sense of the sentence. After two pages, I can tell the author’s writing style doesn’t mesh with me either. It’s not bad, just not for me!

raebrock's review against another edition

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5.0

I’m glad I requested this ARC when it was titled The Helheim Princess with the gorgeous cover because with this new bland cover of The Valkyrie’s Daughter I don’t think I would’ve even bothered to read the blurb. They downgraded with the cover for sure but the book itself was fantastic. I missed out on sleep 2 nights in a row because I couldn’t stop reading and my workdays were filled with eager anticipation of getting home so I could read some more.

Prophecy can be a risky storytelling device because when you reveal big pieces of the climatic ending so early, the journey leading up to it has to be just as interesting to keep the readers attention, and you have to keep enough surprises in store for later once the prophecy has come to pass. Warner did this flawlessly. Sigrid, Mariam, and Fisk are wonderful characters with personalities, flaws, and realistic motivations and backstories. The supporting characters were written well, too. I’ve never been so attached to a fictional horse, but Hestur is everything. I can’t wait for the sequel.

tas_takes_down_the_man's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I enjoyed the world of Norse mythology and the names of all the characters were fun to listen to in the audio. The characters could have been more developed, especially the night elves. I wasn’t sure about the stakes of the fight between the elves and the Valkyrie but that may have been my fault for not paying attention.

spiringempress's review against another edition

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3.0

The Valkyrie's Daughter follows a stablehand, who has the blonde hair of a valkyrie but was born with a wingless horse and therefore, relegated to taking care of the valkyrie's horses. That is until the day Sigrid has a vision that shows her riding the most powerful horse in the realm: Odin's Sleipnir. Seeing an opportunity to have a grand destiny, Sigrid follows her vision and finds her only way out is to befriend, Mariam, an enemy valkyrie. However, as the two travel together across the realm they discover more about their world and about each other.

This was a fun novel. It had an intriguing premise as I had never really thought about the stables of the valkyries and who would care for their horse. This was an interesting piece of world-building, especially when Sigrid's origins factored into it and how the valkyries were chosen. I also found the main conflict: Sigrid discovering where she came from to be compelling and liked her relationship with Mariam, which was another bonus as they slowly became friends.

However, there were times when I felt like the plot was a little predictable, and some of the actions performed by the characters were convenient to the progression of the story. This made the story sometimes feel juvenile as things would fall into place quickly or at the last moment. And while I appreciate Warner's world-building in this Norse-inspired world, I felt like the author really hadn't done their research on this topic.

gonewithflynn's review against another edition

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3.75

This was an easy, fun, action packed read -the storyline had a slow start but became quite exciting (love an underdog story!) and the writing was very easy to follow. I love the Norse mythology and Valkyrie's in this one - so iconic and who doesn't love a story about female warriors on flying horses! Admittedly, as of right now, Sigrid isn't my favourite FMC - I found her selfish and very very easily manipulated. That being said, she goes through some growth in this book and that was nice to see during a first instalment. There is also a slow burn sapphic enemies to lovers romance happening in this story but so far it is still very sweet, can't wait to see how that develops as well. I always love it when animal companions are given personalities and that definitely occurs in this one! Will be looking forward to reading book 2!

Content warnings: Bullying, animal death, violence.

A huge thanks to Entangled Teen and NetGalley for the e-copy. All opinions are my own.