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A review by tvislife
A Fate Inked in Blood by Danielle L. Jensen
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I really wanted to love this book, but I just couldn’t. I’m somewhat of a fan of her Bridge Kingdom series (which I admit isn’t super high-brow, but it’s entertaining and easily readable). My expectations were I think fairly low for this, and yet I was still disappointed. It follows Freya, who has the blood of a god, and is the prophetic “shield maiden”.
If there’s one thing I hate more than anything in fantasy novels, it’s insta-love (or in this case, insta-lust). I’m pretty sure by page ten they were already eye-fucking each other, and the book lost me from there (which is a shame, because the opening few pages were very intriguing! I was excited!).
Even though I hated that, I still tried to keep an open mind, but I just didn’t find a lot in this story to really bring me in. Unlike her previous series (where it’s a complete fantasy world), this world has Norse gods and is grounded (somewhat) in actual history and mythology—and I think the book suffered because of it. With her earlier work, it was easy to overlook the minimal world building because it was something new and exciting. But because everyone has a passing familiarity with Norse mythology, it became very clear very quick to me that her world-building was lackluster. Name dropping a god’s name here and there, or mentioning runes, doesn’t really make for strong descriptions.
The mediocre world, combined with my general dislike of the main characters relationship for the most part, made this mildly enjoyable at best. I still think her writing style is highly readable, but this was not my favorite work.
If there’s one thing I hate more than anything in fantasy novels, it’s insta-love (or in this case, insta-lust). I’m pretty sure by page ten they were already eye-fucking each other, and the book lost me from there (which is a shame, because the opening few pages were very intriguing! I was excited!).
Even though I hated that, I still tried to keep an open mind, but I just didn’t find a lot in this story to really bring me in. Unlike her previous series (where it’s a complete fantasy world), this world has Norse gods and is grounded (somewhat) in actual history and mythology—and I think the book suffered because of it. With her earlier work, it was easy to overlook the minimal world building because it was something new and exciting. But because everyone has a passing familiarity with Norse mythology, it became very clear very quick to me that her world-building was lackluster. Name dropping a god’s name here and there, or mentioning runes, doesn’t really make for strong descriptions.
The mediocre world, combined with my general dislike of the main characters relationship for the most part, made this mildly enjoyable at best. I still think her writing style is highly readable, but this was not my favorite work.