Review: Boring--No Plot, No Conflict, No Historical Accuracy--Just Sex
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 08 27, 2013
I'd seen some of the other bad reviews but I love this historical period, so I downloaded it anyway.  What a waste of time!It's a shame to be so disappointed, because the writer (I don't think she deserves to be called an 'author') clearly has a good grasp of grammar and basic writing skills.  However, it's plain she did zero research into the period, and some of her mistakes were so painfully stupid, it made me wince.WARNING: A SORT OF SPOILER ALERT, EVEN THOUGH THERE'S REALLY NOTHING TO SPOILThe Viking raiders ride HORSES when they attack the village.  Right, because there's so much room on a Viking longship that transporting a herd of horses is no problem.  Hilda pretends to faint so the Viking catches her, enabling her to steal his sword.  Yeah, because everyone knows Vikings are such gentlemen...and of course, when someone threatens one with his own sword, he really admires that and would never kill her for it.  And Vikings are always willing to bargain for one woman instead of just taking them all, because it's not like they sell them for slaves or anything.Give me a break.There's really NO plot.  A plot involves goal, motivation and conflict.  This is just a collection of sex scenes, none of which are particularly erotic.  In fact, I found myself skimming over the sex because it was so dull.  I can't remember the last time I actually skipped the sex because it bored me, but I realized after I finished that it's not the sex that's exciting--it's the conflict that moves the story which grips the reader, and there was no real conflict here.  The writer made a half-hearted attempt to inject some conflict by having the other Vikings get upset with the heroine's new husband (and explain to me why they called her a whore because she DIDN'T have sex with anyone but her husband?) but it was too little, too late--and the writer promptly neutered the conflict by having the husband reassure the heroine that it's just the way their society works.  Happens all the time, don't worry, he'll take care of everything.  End of almost-conflict.Even the small details were so wrong.  In this time period, a nine-year-old child isn't going to be running and playing like a modern child.  No, they're going to be working.  And village chieftains don't have large houses and hire servants.  I can accept somewhat modern language, because this is written for modern audiences, but many of the words used in this book weren't even in existence at the time this 'story' took place.The only good thing about reading this is that I'll know to avoid this writer in the future.  This is an example of the downside of the new ease in self-publishing: a writer who doesn't know enough about her craft to create something worth reading.  It's not enough to just string words together.  Please, Ashley Spector: learn what it means to write a story before you start typing up more pig slop.