Name: Defiant in the Viking's Bed
ISBN: 9780373297580

Joanna Fulford

Consumed by revenge—and desire! Captured by his enemy and chained like a dog, Leif Egilsson has one thought in his mind: revenge. He'll no longer be beguiled by the treacherous beauty of Lady Astrid, and her innocence, which he so craved, will finally be his. On his escape, this fierce, proud Viking is bent on making her pay the price of her betrayal—in his bed! Only, Astrid has the heart of a warrior, and she will not be tamed as easily as he believes…. Victorious Vikings No man could defeat them. Three women would defy them!

Defiant in the Viking's Bed

Angela Guilherme

*I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

I suspect what attracted me to this book was its cover, which is beautiful. The synopsis indicates a story full of potential but, sadly, it never really came through...

This is the third book in a series and I got the impression that there is a common story to all the books, relating to the villains and the war, but it's not necessary to read the previous ones.

The story begins with the hero Leif Egilsson rescuing Lady Ragnhild and her maiden Lady Astrid, who had been kidnapped by the villain Hakke who planned to marry the first. But it is King Halfdan the lucky man that makes her his queen and it is during the wedding celebrations that the attraction between Leif and Astrid begins to escalate. But Leif has already been married and the experience made him stop believing in marriage.

Meanwhile, Astrid's uncle and guardian (since she's an orphan) returns to retrieve her because he's arranged for a suitor for her. And what do you know, Astrid's uncle is Leif's neighbor? And since the suitor is none other than the cousin of the villain Hakke, Leif proposes that Astrid runs away with him and becomes his lover because, obviously, he's never going to get married again...

But when Leif goes to get Astrid, it turns out everything was a trap set up by her uncle and Hakke to capture him. He's captured and treated as a slave, complete with a haircut (a serious offense for a Viking), a collar and imprisonment like a dog. The worst part is that Hakke and Astrid's uncle forced her to pretend she voluntarily helped with their plan to capture Leif and, to prevent them to inflict more pain to him, she does. And the marriage with Hakke's cousin is still going to happen...

Luckily Leif's men are able to save him, but Leif won't leave without kidnapping Astrid, whom he believes responsible for everything he went through. They all go to an island so that Hakke and his men lose their track. And that's when the story started going downhill... Because in order to get his revenge from Astrid, Leif decides she will suffer the same punishment and become his slave. Which, curiously, does not entail having her hair cut but announce to her that she'll be his whether she wants to or not. Yes, the “hero” intends to rape the heroine... And the worst part is that the reason why he doesn't go ahead with the rape is not because he realizes the error of his way but because she tells him she's been raped before.

And it just keeps getting worse from here. It takes him forever to realize she's been innocent all along and even after he does, instead of telling her and apologizing, he keeps up the farce because she's beautiful when she's angry *rolls eyes*

And she's no better because she keeps alternating between he's a brute and I'll never want anything with him and poor him, after all he's been through, how could he be any other way? *rolls eyes some more*

In the middle of all this indecision on both parts we get to know what happened during Leif's first marriage and eventually he leaves to get his revenge on the men that enslaved him. And this is when we get the second what the hell? moment of the book: Leif does get his revenge on Astrid's uncle but, instead of going after Hakke, who is the real responsible for what happened to him, he gets his revenge on Hakke’s cousin Gulbrand, who wasn't even there at the time...

Oh well, not all is bad. The characterization of the Vikings' culture and habits is very interesting and it shows the amount of research the author made. It's just a shame that the story isn't on the same level...