Sons of Odin - Book 2 and Book 3

So, as predicted I tore through the next two books in this series once they arrived. Finishing a series is always a mixture of excitement and sadness because of course I want to find out what happens, but then the series is over and I have to look for more works that live up to the finished series. Ah, the perils of a bookworm...

Book two in the Sons of Odin series, A Flame Put Out, continues to follow Selia as she adjusts to life in Norway with her berserker husband, and of course she begins to have misgivings about her decision to stay with him. Her love spell is officially broken when Alrik goes into a total rage and seriously hurts their son, but Selia's hope of escape is complicated by the fact that while in his rage, Alrik also put a slave collar on her and essentially made her his thrall. She does manage to escape eventually, though, along with her children and Ingrid and Eydis. I thought the plot was pretty interesting in that Selia finally realizes what everyone else has been saying all along - that Alrik is unstable and capable of real harm. On some level, I think we can all relate to what Selia is going through and how hard it was to get away from a situation like that. Having spent so much time thinking she cannot live without Alrik, I think Selia surprises even herself when she finally finds the strength to get away. Her development as a character in this work was really enjoyable to read about, and I was rooting for her the whole time. The suspense got to me, though! I kept expecting Alrik to show up, or for Gunnar or one of his men to hurt Selia, or even for Ingrid to mess things up like usual.   

In book three, Oath Breaker, Ulfrik makes good on his past promise to help Selia should she ever want to escape. Along with Ingrid and Selia's brother, they move onto a small island off the coast of Ireland with the plan of avoiding detection until they can figure out where else to go. Ulfrik still has deep feelings for Selia, and although she resists at first, Selia soon realizes she feels the same way about him. The threat of Alrik finding them still lingers, though, and of course he eventually arrives to have his revenge. I immensely enjoyed the whole series overall, but have to say that I was a bit disappointed with the finale. I guess the whole love triangle took its toll in that I didn't enjoy Alrik's descent into madness and subsequent loss of Selia. I'll concede that Alrik was no picnic right from the get-go, but I thought the love between these two characters was genuine and I wanted things to work out for them. There was enough foreshadowing to know that Selia would eventually end up with Ulfrik, but for whatever reason I just didn't find their pairing to be very satisfying. I guess that's the ugly reality of a love triangle; three is a crowd, so someone had to get hurt. Despite his surly demeanor and obvious mental issues, I still felt bad for Alrik and how things ended for him. 

That being said, it bears repeating that I really enjoyed this series. The author has a natural gift for writing and I felt transported back to the Viking days alongside Selia. I'm so happy I stumbled upon this series (thanks Goodreads!) and would definitely suggest checking it out if you're also a fan of historical fiction, Vikings, or just a good series in general.