Review: The Blood Tainted Winter by T.L. Greylock

 

After having this book on my shelf for 7 years, I finally got around to reading this. I have had this on many a TBR this year and I made my November TBR a priority one because I was in such a reading mood. Getting started with this, it was kind of hard to get really into it, and slowed down my reading to the point where it took me a full week to finish this. I really enjoyed my time reading it and I liked the story, but there were moments when it was just battle after battle and then traveling and describing the setting and it was very boring and I couldn't picture the landscapes besides the river scenes and waterfalls and caves.

There is a good handful of characters in this that it is very hard to keep track of everyone and who is loyal to who. We start the story off with our main character Raef and his dream of going out on a sea voyage but his father not approving of it. Then his father, his father's warriors and himself go to a gathering where there is going to be a choosing for a new king. Something goes terribly wrong and half of the lords out of all that show up pick a new king on the spot which leads to a war.

This is a novel about vikings and with my kids learning about vikings last year and this year, I was interested. There is also mentions of Odin, Freya and Thor and Loki, and Valhalla is the main goal. There were some moments where I was creeped out and couldn't put the book down, but it became one of those moments that when I did put the book down, the next day it took a while for me to pick it back up.

The ending was a little cliffhanger-y and I am interested enough to pick up the sequel. I just hope that it will have more mythology and plot beside the constant battling and blood and making sure there is a weapon in the hands of a fellow warrior to insure entrance to Valhalla.