Reviewed by Carissa

TITLE:  The Reluctant Berserker

AUTHOR:  Alex Beecroft

PUBLISHER:  Samhain Publishing

LENGTH:  347 pages

BLURB:  Manhood is about more than who’s on top.

Wulfstan, a noble and fearsome Saxon warrior, has spent most of his life hiding the fact that he would love to be cherished by someone stronger than himself. Not some slight, beautiful nobody of a harper who pushes him up against a wall and kisses him.

In the aftermath, Wulfstan isn’t sure what he regrets most—that he only punched the churl in the face, or that he really wanted to give in.

Leofgar is determined to prove he’s as much of a man as any Saxon. But now he’s got a bigger problem than a bloody nose. The lord who’s given him shelter from the killing cold is eyeing him like a wolf eyes a wounded hare.

When Wulfstan accidentally kills a friend who is about to blurt his secret, he flees in panic and meets Leofgar, who is on the run from his lord’s lust. Together, pursued by a mother’s curse, they battle guilt, outlaws, and the powers of the underworld, armed only with music…and love that must overcome murderous shame to survive.

Warning: Contains accurate depictions of Vikings, Dark Ages magic, kickass musicians, trope subversions and men who don’t know their place.

REVIEW:  

“I know all the songs tell us how terrible it is to be alone, without place or protector, a wanderer in the wilderness. I can recite the lament of the lordless with every syllable dripping with woe. It isn’t to be alone that I fear, it is to be caged. Bound to some man who thinks that because he feeds you he thus owns you.That his are the words that come out of your mouth, and his are your thoughts— that you exist only to praise and serve him. How can a man of pride bear that? How can any real man be content as another’s servant?”

Wulfstan has a secret.  A secret that would shame him in the sight of his family and friends.  He craves the touch of a man as other men crave the touch of a woman.  Except it is worse than that…he craves the touch of a man, as a woman crave a man’s.  One can be forgiven–or at least ignored–but the other is unforgivable.  For no real man would debase himself thus.

Leofgar has his pride and his instruments–but not much more than that. Anna, his master, and pseudo-father, is ailing, and it is not likely that he will last past winter, if that.   When a lord offers them shelter in exchange for their fealty, Leofgar says he will do anything to insure that Anna is kept warm and fed.  But the offer comes with some strings that Leofgar is unsure if he can be bound with, no matter how much he loves Anna.  How can a man willingly debase himself so…and still be a man?

When Wulfstan takes a life to keep his secret, and Leofgar breaks his oath to save his pride, they throw their lives and their fates to the winds.  They never expected to find their weirds (fates)so inexplicably tied.  But Leofgar does not know if he can see past the shame of the acts they crave, no matter that Wulfstan would freely yield himself to the minstrels will.  And even if he can, they are both being haunted by their pasts, and neither is willing to give up their hold lightly.

I freely admit that I have never been a big reader of historicals set in this time frame.  I’m more of a tight pants, high collars, and top-hats, kind of gal (especially when they are all lying haphazardly on my bedroom floor).  I also enjoy at least a nodding acquaintance with indoor plumbing and bathing practices.  These are not exactly things you are going to find in the Middle Ages.  But I also freely admit that I am willing to try at least anything, if it is well written and wonderfully executed.  And this book really does fit that bill.

Clearly this book was well researched…or, well, it was able to sound well-researched.  As I am in no ways a scholar on the Middle Ages, I honestly can’t say much about the facts.  But when it comes to setting an atmosphere, this book had it spot on.  I loved the subtle mix of archaic terms within the novel.  It lent the story a sense of age, but it was done in such a way as to not leave us overly confused about what was going on.  And the blending of the old pagan cultures with the Christian belief system was very well done.  It was great to see the way that the two seemed to both feed off and pull away from each other at the same time.

This book also played well with the idea of wants  vs. perceived roles.  Wulfstan is a big brute.  He is a berserker, and has extreme trouble controlling the rage that bursts out from him when he is threatened.  But at the same time he desires to be taken care of.  Not only in bed–though that one is a deep source of shame for him, during most of the book–but in life.  Outside his is all that his society expects of a man, and inside he is everything they find shameful.  It takes a long time for him to come to terms with the fact that what he craves is not by any means a weakness.  It is just another side of strength.

Alternately, Leofgar is a beauty.  But this is not the only thing that makes him seem weak to others. His profession, while an honorable one, is not exactly the most manly thing to undertake.  That, along with his looks, leaves him open for taunting and unwanted attention.  Yet, like Wulfstan, all is not what it seems, because if there is one thing that Leofgar will not do, it is bend for any man.

And here, my lovelies, is where we start running into trouble.  Wulfstan wants to be fucked.  Leofgar wants to fuck.  It should be a match made in heaven.  But dear lords in heaven…these two are about as thick as a block of concrete when it comes to their ‘relationship.’  Even when they finally–and I’m talking about 90% mark– come to realize what the other wants, Leofgar gets all righteous and refuses to bugger the poor bastard.  I swear this story was a step-by-step guide on how to cock-block with the best of them.  And then, when they get around to sorting all their personal shit out, the sex lasts for like half a page.  The tension has been racking up for a good 300+ pages, and it has really had a lousy payout.  I am a big, huge, ginormous fan of slow-burns…but I do expect something to catch on fire eventually.  I want a flame, not a flicker.

The writing in this story was great.  And the atmosphere in it was so much fun.  But sometimes it just got way too flowery.  I love a metaphor as much as the next girl, but when I have to re-read a fight scene three times to figure out exactly whom is hacking whom to pieces, it gets a bit tiresome.  I did like that it was Wulfstan who was the more poetic of the two—I think it mirrored nicely the whole notion of misleading pre-conceived notions of masculinity and personal taste–but it did seem a little odd that the poet/minstrel was more down to earth in his narrative voice, than the berserker.

This book kept me glued to my Kindle, and since I wasn’t expecting that at all, it was a big bonus.  And it also was nice to have a few pagan rituals pop up in the story, since I am a big fan of Norse mythology.  I really enjoyed reading this story, much more than I ever expected too, and will definitely be looking up more books by this author.  And if liked it this much, fans of the era are going to love it.

RATING:

BUY LINKS: Samhain  ::  Amazon