emmelnie's review
4.0
There’s stuff that’s great about this book and parts that are lacking. Her Gilded Firebird starts with the establishment of Gunnar and Elin’s relationship—their meeting, courtship, and marriage. And this first third of the book reads like a historical romance, with just hints of the magic that imbues this world. But the connection to previous books in this series by Shannon fully comes out as Gunnar is drawn back to his youthful life in the Snowforce when a completely unexpected danger comes upon the Keeps that protect their land from the dangers in the north. Their journey to the Keeps drives the last two-thirds of the book, where it’s revealed that Elin has her own unique destiny to fulfill.
There’s a lot to like about Her Gilded Firebird. I loved the characters of Gunnar and Elin. The book is told from Elin’s POV, and we see that she’s both young and inexperienced as well as smart and willing to learn. Gunnar is pretty much the perfect hero, which makes sense as we see him through Elin’s eyes. It is fantastic to revisit so many characters from earlier books in the Norse Warrior series, and to see them used in relevant ways in this book as well. And how can you lose when your hero gets to ride a moose?
But there are elements of Her Gilded Firebird that are more challenging. Elin’s abilities were weirdly anticipated by others, and I felt as if they were never explained fully. Elin seemed at times a healer, at times a clairvoyant, and at times a seer. She had moments of entering a dream state that weren’t clear to me as a reader, or feelings of being taken over that were hard to differentiate from a “normal” state. I wish characters who had a better understanding of what she was undergoing had explained more to her (and by default to us as readers).
I also felt the disciplinary elements between Gunnar and Elin were heavy-handed (sorry for that pun!). Multiple scenes of discipline happened so soon after another that I didn’t feel like Elin had a chance to recover, and that’s a bad impression to leave. I also think that they showed a lack of judgment on part of Elin, and that didn’t blend well, particularly late in Her Gilded Firebird, with the overall knowledge and awareness that Elin was gaining. I think several of these scenes, and a jarring and unrelated prologue, could have been dropped with no detriment to the overall story.
I really love the world Shannon is building here, the whole concept of the Snowforce, and the ongoing and growing threat from the north that continues to be explored. I hope future books focus more on this story and less on repetitive discipline scenes. And I truly hope Willem and Signe’s story is coming next!
There’s a lot to like about Her Gilded Firebird. I loved the characters of Gunnar and Elin. The book is told from Elin’s POV, and we see that she’s both young and inexperienced as well as smart and willing to learn. Gunnar is pretty much the perfect hero, which makes sense as we see him through Elin’s eyes. It is fantastic to revisit so many characters from earlier books in the Norse Warrior series, and to see them used in relevant ways in this book as well. And how can you lose when your hero gets to ride a moose?
But there are elements of Her Gilded Firebird that are more challenging. Elin’s abilities were weirdly anticipated by others, and I felt as if they were never explained fully. Elin seemed at times a healer, at times a clairvoyant, and at times a seer. She had moments of entering a dream state that weren’t clear to me as a reader, or feelings of being taken over that were hard to differentiate from a “normal” state. I wish characters who had a better understanding of what she was undergoing had explained more to her (and by default to us as readers).
I also felt the disciplinary elements between Gunnar and Elin were heavy-handed (sorry for that pun!). Multiple scenes of discipline happened so soon after another that I didn’t feel like Elin had a chance to recover, and that’s a bad impression to leave. I also think that they showed a lack of judgment on part of Elin, and that didn’t blend well, particularly late in Her Gilded Firebird, with the overall knowledge and awareness that Elin was gaining. I think several of these scenes, and a jarring and unrelated prologue, could have been dropped with no detriment to the overall story.
I really love the world Shannon is building here, the whole concept of the Snowforce, and the ongoing and growing threat from the north that continues to be explored. I hope future books focus more on this story and less on repetitive discipline scenes. And I truly hope Willem and Signe’s story is coming next!
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