Danegeld

Rating:
Summary: A great book that was hard to put down...
Review: "Danegeld" was a book that was pretty much unputdownable for me. The pacing was perfect and the story line was interesting, but at times a bit unnerving. There was a lot violence in this story and a part of me had trouble embracing the hero, Karn. The book opens to Karn and his Viking friends attacking a village. Some of the things that he not only participated in, but turned a blind eye to, put a bad taste in my mouth. However, there is a definite change in him as the story progresses and you can see him looking back on his past behavior with regret. In the end, I wanted him to have his beloved Britta. I was happy when they overcame their numerous obstacles to be together.All in all, this could have been a 5 star read, but I knocked off a star for some of my personal feelings towards Karn and the sometimes lengthly separtions of the central characters.

Rating:
Summary: A great book that was hard to put down...
Review: "Danegeld" was a book that was pretty much unputdownable for me. The pacing was perfect and the story line was interesting, but at times a bit unnerving. There was a lot violence in this story and a part of me had trouble embracing the hero, Karn. The book opens to Karn and his Viking friends attacking a village. Some of the things that he not only participated in, but turned a blind eye to, put a bad taste in my mouth. However, there is a definite change in him as the story progresses and you can see him looking back on his past behavior with regret. In the end, I wanted him to have his beloved Britta. I was happy when they overcame their numerous obstacles to be together.All in all, this could have been a 5 star read, but I knocked off a star for some of my personal feelings towards Karn and the sometimes lengthly separtions of the central characters.

Rating:
Summary: Danegeld
Review: Britta lives a solitary existence, haunted by events that happened five years ago. She was raped and held for three days by her attackers. Britta just wants to be alone, but she has the magical gift of healing, and the call of the wounded is undeniable.

Karn, an invading Viking, is the only man left alive in his troop, but he's wounded and dying. Britta is called in to heal Karn--just enough to keep him alive for the forthcoming torture. Britta comes face to face with her past. The men who are holding the Viking captive are the same men who raped her years ago.

Britta steals away with the tortured and unconscious Karn, taking him to her island home where he starts to heal. They slowly begin to know and trust each other. Time is against them though, and soon they are fleeing the island. They end up going their separate ways, but fate has other plans for these two. They will meet up again, because love and destiny cannot be denied.

DANEGELD is an epic tale about the force that formed England.
Readers need to be aware that there are male and female rape scenes, remembered and alluded to. I thought that the story could have held up just as well with one rape, if any. Aside from the rape issue, DANEGELD is really well written. Ms. Squires has turned out a historically rich, well-paced novel.

Rating:
Summary: Danegeld
Review: Britta lives a solitary existence, haunted by events that happened five years ago. She was raped and held for three days by her attackers. Britta just wants to be alone, but she has the magical gift of healing, and the call of the wounded is undeniable.

Karn, an invading Viking, is the only man left alive in his troop, but he's wounded and dying. Britta is called in to heal Karn--just enough to keep him alive for the forthcoming torture. Britta comes face to face with her past. The men who are holding the Viking captive are the same men who raped her years ago.

Britta steals away with the tortured and unconscious Karn, taking him to her island home where he starts to heal. They slowly begin to know and trust each other. Time is against them though, and soon they are fleeing the island. They end up going their separate ways, but fate has other plans for these two. They will meet up again, because love and destiny cannot be denied.

DANEGELD is an epic tale about the force that formed England.
Readers need to be aware that there are male and female rape scenes, remembered and alluded to. I thought that the story could have held up just as well with one rape, if any. Aside from the rape issue, DANEGELD is really well written. Ms. Squires has turned out a historically rich, well-paced novel.

Rating:
Summary: Simply a wonderful book!
Review: Danegeld is a truly fine book, one I found myself unable to put down and thinking about long after I finished it. The setting comes alive with the author's use of authentic detail, and she manages to capture the "feel" of the Saxon era. The love story is genuinely moving, the action scenes gripping, and the story line in each and every chapter carries high interest. I haven't read a historical romance this good in a long, long time! Carolyn Woolston

Rating:
Summary: Simply a wonderful book!
Review: Danegeld is a truly fine book, one I found myself unable to put down and thinking about long after I finished it. The setting comes alive with the author's use of authentic detail, and she manages to capture the "feel" of the Saxon era. The love story is genuinely moving, the action scenes gripping, and the story line in each and every chapter carries high interest. I haven't read a historical romance this good in a long, long time! Carolyn Woolston

Rating:
Summary: riveting historical romance
Review: Days after finishing this book, it lingers in my thoughts. The characters seemed real, not the cardboard cutouts that I so frequently encounter. This means that they had their faults as well as their beautiful strengths, making them so very memorable.

I loved how I could smell, see, hear, taste and touch the era of so long ago. I lived the story right along with the protagonists, thanks to the vivid writing and knowledge of the author.

Whatever Ms Squires writes in the future, I will buy and devour, no question. She is one of the brightest, most talented new authors out there.

Rating:
Summary: Dark but exciting Dark Ages romance
Review: During the Dark Ages in Dunford, Britain, Britta earned a reputation as a healer though followers of the new religion felt she was a disciple of the devil. Everyone feared her that is except for the Saxon warrior leader Offa. Five years ago he learned about Britta’s prowess and raped her to gain her powers. No one came to her aid and Britta fled to Devil's Island, a place everyone is afraid to step foot on. When Britta needs supplies, she visits Dunford to offer healing services in exchange for them.

On a trip to the village, Offa forces Britta to heal his wounded men having just fought against Viking raiders. Included among the injured is Karn, the Viking leader. Offa tortures Karn to obtain information, but Britta manages to free and take him to her island. Both have suffered at the hands of Offa, but that is not why love has sprung up between the healer and the Viking.

This Dark Ages romance needs to carry a label: not to be read by the faint of heart. The story line is loaded with action and a deep depiction of the era including that of torture and cruelty that will give readers the shivers. DANEGELD is graphically well written with strong characterizations representing a period of violence between Saxons and Viking, and Christians and Pagans. Skillful scribe Susan Squires shows her ability to paint a very interesting saga worth reading by those who relish a crimson Beowulf....

Rating:
Summary: Dark but exciting Dark Ages romance
Review: During the Dark Ages in Dunford, Britain, Britta earned a reputation as a healer though followers of the new religion felt she was a disciple of the devil. Everyone feared her that is except for the Saxon warrior leader Offa. Five years ago he learned about Britta’s prowess and raped her to gain her powers. No one came to her aid and Britta fled to Devil's Island, a place everyone is afraid to step foot on. When Britta needs supplies, she visits Dunford to offer healing services in exchange for them.

On a trip to the village, Offa forces Britta to heal his wounded men having just fought against Viking raiders. Included among the injured is Karn, the Viking leader. Offa tortures Karn to obtain information, but Britta manages to free and take him to her island. Both have suffered at the hands of Offa, but that is not why love has sprung up between the healer and the Viking.

This Dark Ages romance needs to carry a label: not to be read by the faint of heart. The story line is loaded with action and a deep depiction of the era including that of torture and cruelty that will give readers the shivers. DANEGELD is graphically well written with strong characterizations representing a period of violence between Saxons and Viking, and Christians and Pagans. Skillful scribe Susan Squires shows her ability to paint a very interesting saga worth reading by those who relish a crimson Beowulf....

Rating:
Summary: Too Bleak for Romance
Review: First the good news...

In a genre rife with Medieval, Scottish Highland and Western settings, historical romance could use a shot in the arm. Stories depicting the ever-fascinating Viking and their Saxon opponents in pre-conquest England might be the answer. Susan Squires has written a tale, DANEGELD, and she did it within the framework of accurate history and without time travel, goofy humor or Fabio (God love him) on the cover.

The author's talent for writing in a lyrical, mystical style is evident in both the prologue and epilogue. Throughout the book, certain phrases evoke strong emotional images: "The past rose up to swallow her like the dark sea of despair ..." or "It was not her at all who stood there keening, but something far more elemental, simpler and sure."

Ms. Squires does not shrink from depicting the era as socially dark, crude and barbarian. We get a vivid picture of ninth century England amid the chaos of the Viking/Saxon and Christian/pagan conflicts as well as the infighting within each culture. Kudos for Ms. Squires' attempt at a no-holes barred approach. However ...

Now the bad news ...

For all of its reality, the mood of the book is altogether grim and joyless. When Danegeld begins, our tortured heroine, Britta, has already undergone so much mental, emotional and physical pain that she seems incapable of love or begin loved. Cut off from the world, this wretched soul needs nothing less than Karn, a marauding Viking with few redeeming qualities. In the reader's mind, his journey from merciless pillager to hero will probably take all 358 pages of the book.

The two are separated for long passages, but blessedly so. The time they are together is full of distrust and anger, with Britta hissing and snapping, and Karn miserable and suicidal. We are subjected to pages and pages of introspection of their hellish lives. Their future promises no hope for tenderness, love, friendship or sexual chemistry.

Disasters mount relentlessly, wounds ooze, and people suffer without a ray of sunshine to be seen. We are subjected to gratuitous violent sexual acts and many evil bad guys. Britta's sporadic magic events border on bad science fiction. And look out for sentences that made it past the editor: "One could not kill when one's head was between one's knees."

Overall, Ms. Squires' unflinching imagination strains the limits of our suspended disbelief.

Ms. Squires, please continue to write romance about Vikings and those in their sphere. The history is rich and virtually untapped. But give us a Viking (and his or her counterpart,) with whom we can sympathize. Give us a Viking we can love.