Viking Warrior Rebel

August 15, 2016
Frustratingly clueless Astrid is an immortal valkyrie sent to modern-day eastern Washington State to thwart Loki’s plots against humankind. Fresh from a mission she fumbled, she decides that the only way to regain the respect of her fellow warriors is to singlehandedly retrieve her queen’s brother from the outskirts of Denver and bring him home. Fortunately, bland Luke, an undercover FBI agent pretending to be a corrupt club owner, is there to rescue her when she proves herself too inept to survive. Astrid and Luke fail to communicate, have chemistry, or make readers care about either of them as they move from boring sex scenes to a disappointingly straightforward battle with the human-wolverine hybrids bred as part of Loki’s plot. The thin plot gets plastered over with absurd and vexingly unengaging scenes of pseudo-romantic jealousy and an awkward sexual assault. The second half of the book improves, only to resolve everything through the power of shallow male possessiveness. Agent: Sarah Younger, Nancy Yost Literary Agency.

September 15, 2016
As Bradley continues her highly entertaining paranormal Viking Warriors series, following Viking Warrior Rising (2015), the immortal Valkyrie protagonist, Astrid, has trouble controlling her inner berserker until she meets and sleeps with a handsome human nightclub owner. Luke is actually an undercover FBI agent working for a top secret Domestic Terrorism Unit investigating Astrid and her associates. Needless to say, that changes after her berserker claims him as her soul mate, and he learns the truth about the Viking and Valkyrie warriors who live and work in a Norse fortress hidden in the pine forests of eastern Washington State. Possessing his own enhanced speed and fighting skills, courtesy of a secret lab he escaped from in his youth, Luke joins Astrid's battle against Loki's minions, genetically engineered wolverines bent on destroying humanity by triggering Ragnarok. The romance is sizzling, the battle scenes top-notch, and the characters intriguing. Bradley provides sufficient background for those new to the series, although the story is compelling enough to send them to the first book while waiting for the next in the series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)