A Fate Inked in Blood by Danielle L. Jensen – Review

Published: February 27, 2024

Publisher: Del Rey

Series: Saga of the Unfated #1

Genre: Fantasy Romance

Pages: 432 (Hardcover)

My Rating: 4 Stars

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:
A shield maiden blessed by the gods battles to unite a nation under a power-hungry king—while also fighting her growing desire for his fiery son—in this Norse-inspired fantasy romance from the bestselling author of The Bridge Kingdom series.

Bound in an unwanted marriage, Freya spends her days gutting fish, but dreams of becoming a warrior. And of putting an axe in her boorish husband’s back.

Freya’s dreams abruptly become reality when her husband betrays her to the region’s jarl, landing her in a fight to the death against his son, Bjorn. To survive, Freya is forced to reveal her deepest secret: She possesses a drop of a goddess’s blood, which makes her a shield maiden with magic capable of repelling any attack. It was foretold such a magic would unite the fractured nation of Skaland beneath the one who controls the shield maiden’s fate.

Believing he’s destined to rule Skaland as king, the fanatical jarl binds Freya with a blood oath and orders Bjorn to protect her from their enemies. Desperate to prove her strength, Freya must train to fight and learn to control her magic, all while facing perilous tests set by the gods. The greatest test of all, however, may be resisting her forbidden attraction to Bjorn. If Freya succumbs to her lust for the charming and fierce warrior, she risks not only her own destiny but the fate of all the people she swore to protect.

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I am ashamed to admit how long I’ve had an ARC of A Fate Inked in Blood (almost a year!), though I am glad to have finally read it and gotten off my TBR! I really can’t say why I put it off for so long, other than my TBR got in the way. 

A Fate Inked in Blood is a Norse inspired fantasy romance with plenty of action and a ridiculous amount of pining. Freya is married to an awful man named Vragi who sells the secret of her shield maiden’s magic to Jarl Snorri. Snorri grants him a divorce and takes Freya to be his own wife. You see, a seer prophesied years ago that a woman blessed with Hlin’s magic would unite all of Skaland under one banner and of course Snorri believes he will be the one to achieve this. Gods forbid a woman do anything on her own. Unfortunately for Freya, she’s trading one set of shackles for another and even worse, Snorri has a ridiculously hot son who is blessed with the fiery gifts of Tyr.

There is so much lusting for the forbidden in this book that it should be illegal. Freya and Bjorn already can’t keep their eyes off one another, but Snorri immediately forces them together by having Bjorn assigned as Freya’s guard. He can’t let anything happen to his precious property – oops,I mean prophecy! Oh, and Bjorn is also training Freya so they’re always together. Snorri doesn’t waste time trying to unite the jarls of Skaland and drags Freya into needless danger on countless occasions – she almost freezes to death, she almost gets ripped apart by draug, and I haven’t even mentioned her near death experiences by mere humans!

Freya is ultimately pretty tough if you look at all the things she’s gone through and survived, but more often than not she’s just lucky and protected by big bad Bjorn and his flaming ax. She does get progressively more frustrating as the story goes along. I think this is largely due to the fact that her whining, lusting, and catering toward her terrible family gets old after a while. She makes many choices purely to keep her family safe from Snorri’s wrath, but her family doesn’t deserve her. Her mother and brother only wish to profit from her marriage(s) but don’t seem to care for Freya at all. Freya doesn’t have the agency to be a truly lovable character, and sympathy only goes so far. She just gets dragged along for 80% of the story, serving the whims of others and all the while I just kept waiting for her to put an ax in someone else deserving.

A Fate Inked in Blood was an entertaining read and I did actually enjoy the tension between Freya and Bjorn, though it was ridiculously obvious to anyone with eyes they had something going on. No secrets there. The action was great and I particularly enjoyed Freya’s mad charge of vengeance toward the end of the book! I am currently planning to continue on with the series and I look forward to seeing where things go with the Nordelanders so heavily involved now!