Reviews with content warning for Violence - Shield Maiden

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Shield Maiden by Sharon Emmerichs

8 reviews

hnnhhrsvsk's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful fast-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? It's complicated

3.0

Shield Maiden is a retelling of a classic Beowulf story told from the perspective of a lord’s daughter who rises from a timid girl to a powerful warrior - although she maintains most of her naïveté by the tale’s end. A good premise, but overall the book fails to build the plot and flesh out relationships between the characters, and left me wanting more. The book easily could have been 100-200 pages longer - which is a compliment as much as it is a criticism. The characters were so interesting, yet the book was paced so quickly that it never felt that they were fully connected to each other. Additionally, there were several points in the book where characters made strange decisions that didn’t really make sense and were never addressed again. The ending seemed rushed and left much to be desired. Overall, it feels like a book 75% finished - which is a shame considering how fresh its concept is!

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oliviaalbion's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I have mixed feelings about this book. Some of the other negative reviews are definitely too harsh! It's typical YA fiction and far from historically accurate, but mixed with the myths and legend's it's a great introduction to the period of legendary Beowulf. It instils the feelings of hope and belonging for the main characters Fryda and Theow, but also for the readers, showing how a series of negative events do not make a person, but how you deal with those events and being surrounded by the kindness of human beings, and love, can help you get through the darkest of times. The intermittent short chapters from the dragons' perspective add to the fantasy fiction theme, which is then intertwined with the main characters during the final battle scene towards the conclusion of the story.

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destinied's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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notleanna's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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tashasbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging sad medium-paced

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

3.75

This is a fantasy and historical story loosely based and a retelling of Beowulf. Personally, I hadn't read that beforehand/knew the story, so I went in blind on that front and cannot draw comparisons between the two.

This story follows Fryda, a chieftain's daughter in the period of the late 900 CE to early 1000 CE. All she wants is to become a shield maiden, but a horrible accident causes makes it near impossible to reach her dream. However, she begins to feel a strange power growing inside her. Her father, Weohstan hosts the King Beowulf and other leaders to his village to feast and celebrate. During this time, Fryda learns of a conspiracy and has to do what she can to protect her people. Based on what I know of the time, I do think it's pretty accurate historically, the author did a great job of implementing this! I do see a lot of people saying the book is YA, personally I think it goes more into the adult range due to the language, gore, maturity, and sexual content.

There are a LOT of POVs in this book, especially at the beginning. I counted seven, where we have the main character, Fryda, and the slave Theow. There are also perspectives from the dragon, indentured servant Hild, the blacksmith Bryce, King Beowulf, and Fryda's brother Wiglaf. These tend to taper off as we get further in the book, mostly focusing on our main characters Theow and Fryda. I do think they are helpful to gaining information about the world and relationships, but it's just a lot in the beginning to switch back and forth and get your bearings. It is also very slow paced in the beginning, but once we get to some action, the plot jumps forward and things start happening with a purpose.

I thought Fryda was wonderfully developed. We see her struggle with her disability, but gaining confidence over time. A lot of attention is drawn to how she hides her hand from others at the start, especially around Theow. She cares very much about the staff of slaves and servants in her household, but she is quite naive (a little too much to be believable) about the poor treatment of them and always seems shocked when she learns about her brother's misdeeds and when a servant is treated horribly. Towards the end, Fryda gains agency and control of her life and decisions. I really enjoyed the romance in this novel as well between Fryda and Theow. It is forbidden and it's cute to see the little connections between them.

I really enjoyed this book once the action and plot took off! There were battles and a dragon fight and it was thoroughly entertaining and kept me engaged. I just felt the novel started off very weak. Overall, I do recommend this if you are looking to read a fantasy novel in this time period.

Thank you to Redhook Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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bookedbymadeline's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

Thank you to Netgalley and Head of Zeus for the eARC in exchange for my honest review!

I was really excited for this book because I loved Beowulf in high school and all things Viking/Norse myth related. It was a slow start and I almost DNFd but by the 20% mark I was more into the story. I enjoyed the character relationships and most of them are fleshed out/well written. For anyone that likes the found family trope, you may like this!

I normally love a switching POV novel but this one has too many. also they suddenly went away? For the start it was 6 characters getting a POV and then suddenly it changed to only 2 or 3 characters (plus the dragon). It felt like a weird choice, as most of the POVs were unnecessary. I especially didn’t enjoy the dragon’s POV chapters as it kind of pulled me out of the story.

The chapters were too long and too descriptive at times for my taste. It’s so much detail about the clothing and the views but somehow also zero world building! It’s a fantasy novel, where is the world building? Also with the descriptions; the gore and body horror was a little too much for me 🤢 it was so detailed it made my stomach turn.

The first half was so much better, I wished I had DNFd by the 65-70% mark. By the last third, I just began skimming the excessively descriptive passages because I couldn’t be bothered anymore. Sadly the most boring and lacking fantasy novel I’ve read.

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parchmentdreams's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

"She looked a glorious mess, this fierce and determined woman who loved strawberries, fought like a warrior, and hid her left hand from the world. The freckles across her nose stood out against the unusual pallor of her skin, which glowed with sweat from her exertions. Her hair tumbled in wild, loose curls to her waist. She had a tiny mole at the corner of her right eye, and a beautiful dark mark on her neck under her ear. She had a luscious mouth, pink and full, and he wished he could brush a gentle kiss across her bruised and split lower lip, erasing the evidence of violence with his tenderness. She wore no shoes and her thin shift was stained with dirt and grass. She had straw in her hair and a smudge on her cheek, and Theow had never seen anything more beautiful in his life."

This epic retelling of the third part of the poem Beowulf was an absolute dream to read. You are transported to a world of gods and monsters and kings that wield uncanny powers, those not unlike the beasts he battles. In Shield Maiden, Beowulf is an old king, ready to find a new heir for his kingdom.

Our main character, Fryda, is kin to Beowulf, and has dreamt her whole life of being a Shield Maiden - one of the famously fierce female warriors. After a horrid accident in her youth mangles Fryda's hand, she resigns herself to a life of running her father's household, befriending the servants and secretly training with the blacksmith, Bryce.

Shield Maiden follows Fryda as she discovers a growing power within her, and torn between loyalty to her family and the man she loves, Fryda has to choose if she will become the warrior she is destined to become.

The plot was somewhat predictable, but not in a bad way. As with any retelling, there were known elements of the story, but the characters and choices were refreshing and engaging. I fell in love with Fryda and Theow and Bryce and was fully invested in their story.

The writing style was easy to read, yet with flowing poetic descriptions that truly brought to life the tale of Fryda. The characters were lovable and believable. If you love Norse/Scandanavian mythology and epics, I would highly recommend Shield Maiden!

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carysbeesbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Shield Maiden was a slow starter for me. I didn't really get into it until about a third of the way through but, when I did start to get invested, I really got invested! This book follows Fryda, daughter of a well respected chieftain and family friend of the famous King Beowulf, who desperately wants to become a shield maiden and prove herself to her father. After an awful accident as a teenager, Fryda is left disabled and thinks that her dreams have been shattered. However, as romance begins to bloom between Fryda and one if her father's slaves, and a dragon starts to wake in a nearby cave, an unexplainable power rises within Fryda, making her wonder if her dreams of glory are not so far out of reach after all.

Now, like I said, this book has a very slow start. Nothing really happens for the first 100 or so pages. Every other chapter was written from the dragon's pov, with a totally different writing style to the rest of the book, and this totally took me out of the story, making me want to put the book down every time I saw the italic text. The author had given a bunch of back story and world building that I knew was going to be important to the plot later but felt that it had been dragged out for far too long. I actually had to step away from reading for a few days because I really wasn't feeling the slowness. When I came back to the book, however, I started to absolutely fly through it! I ended up reading the last 70% all in one day. I don't know if I was just in the wrong headspace when I started reading or if the last two thirds really are just way more engaging than the first third. Whatever the reason, I could not put the book down! The politics finally started to pick up, the romance between Fryda and Theow was so wholesome and pure, and the found family vibes between Fryda, Theow, Bryce and Hild were simply immaculate! One thing that I thought this author wrote particularly well were the battle scenes! I honestly felt like I was watching a movie and found myself having to look away from the book numerous times becuase the tension was so palpable! I loved seeing Fryda and Theow fighting alongside each other, each of them trusting the other to look after themselves, while also knowing that they had each other's backs if they needed the help. The way that the "villain" of the story was written was also very well done. I wouldn't call them morally grey, because it's very clear that they've been morally corrupt for a long time, but getting to read their pov and seeing the motivations behind everything they do was a really interesting addition. The relationship that this person has with the other main characters and the impact that the betrayal has on them just added even more layers to an already emotionally deep story.

Despite the slow start and a few niggles here and there, I ended up absolutely loving Sharon Emmerichs debut novel! The characters were well fleshed out and the action was fast-paced and engaging! The story of King Beowulf is not one I'm overly familiar with but this was not an issue as I was completely immersed in the world created in this book. I will definitely be wanting to add a physical copy of Shield Maiden to my shelves when it comes out next month!

I recieved a digital ARC of this book from NetGalley in return for an honest review. All of the opinions above are my own.

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