Reviewed by Taylor
TITLE: Brothers of the Wild North Sea
AUTHOR: Harper Fox
PUBLISHER: Samhain Publishing
LENGTH: 409 pages
BLURB:
His deadliest enemy will become his heart’s desire.
Caius doesn’t feel like much of a Christian. He loves his life of learning as a monk in the far-flung stronghold of Fara, but the hot warrior blood of his chieftain father flows in his veins. Heat soothed only in the arms of his sweet-natured friend and lover, Leof.
When Leof is killed during a Viking raid, Cai’s grieving heart thirsts for vengeance—and he has his chance with Fenrir, a wounded young Viking warrior left for dead. But instead of reaching for a weapon, Cai finds himself defying his abbot’s orders and using his healing skills to save Fen’s life.
At first, Fen repays Cai’s kindness by attacking every Christian within reach. But as time passes, Cai’s persistent goodness touches his heart. And Cai, who had thought he would never love again, feels the stirring of a profound new attraction.
Yet old loyalties call Fen back to his tribe and a relentless quest to find the ancient secret of Fara—a powerful talisman that could render the Vikings indestructible, and tear the two lovers’ bonds beyond healing.
Warning: contains battles, bloodshed, explicit M/M sex, and the proper Latin term for what lies beneath those cassocks.
REVIEW:
I’m not one usually for Harper Fox’s writing. Don’t get me wrong, it’s absolutely lush and descriptive and transportive, but there’s something about it that’s very distancing for me. I never feel one hundred percent connected with the characters. Her writing, in this instance, seemed better suited for the material, and at the encouragement of several friends I decided to try a historical by her.
This one really surprised me in all the best ways in the beginning. I felt I was walking alongside Cai feeling the sea breeze, tasting the salt, feeling his confusion about his beliefs and his place among other men. He’s a monk, but not a meek one, and one night his land Fara is raided by Vikings. I found every bit of this thrilling, with great pacing, and I never knew what would happen next between the enemies. Fen, a Viking, is left behind and Cai and his introduction was fantastic full of determination, anger, but an understanding of the man as a human being, not just an enemy. I connected with them, especially Cai. I was so HAPPY at the progression of their story.
But then…it stopped being so interesting. I put the book down, picked it up, put it down, picked it up and so on. I swear it took me a week to read 10%. There’s a lot to process here, despite it being a relatively straightforward story, but this is a long novel containing paranormal elements, religious prophecies, legends, kings, violence, and love. I loved each element, but there were definite moments where I felt the pacing could have improved. Somewhere around the time they went to the island and met a certain character and started really examining ‘The Treasure of Fara’, the book lost me.
But forgetting that Fen and Cai’s connection and slowly growing respect and love for each other was beautiful. It made me smile more than once, and when they bickered I laughed. This really does feel epic and the writing is gorgeous, with fully realized landscapes, characters, and plot.
Overall, I enjoyed it and for someone who is a much bigger fan of historicals than I, this would probably easily be 5 stars.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS:
I loved this book. I was a little slow to warm up to it but it ended up being one of my favorite books of the year.