New Fiendish Review: Ravished by a Viking by Delilah Devlin

Book:                   Ravished by a Viking

Author:                Delilah Devlin

Publisher:            Berkley Heat

ISBN/ASIN:        9780425239612

Rating:                  4 Stars

Release Date:    Out Now!!!

Check out: Delilah Devlin

Delilah Devlin keeps the fires stoked and the mercury close to bursting with her latest steamy read Ravished by a Viking. Don’t let the title fool you. Devlin detours far as far as she can from a traditional historical piece and ventures into the land of enterprising.  Ravished is a perfect marriage between two genres, tailor-made to Devlin’s specifications. Her Vikings hail not from Norway or Iceland, but New Iceland, a remote and bleak territory on a distant planet. Deposited there as slaves eons ago by the Outlanders and tracing their distant ancestry to ancient Scandinavia on Earth, the Vikings have whittled out an existence mining “pure light” ore for the Outlanders.

When his brother Eirik is captured by the Outlanders and taken off-planet, Dagr the clan lord of the Wolfskins, a powerful fiefdom, will do whatever he can to find him-even if that means stealing a ship and running the gauntlet through Consortium space to Karthagos. And he doesn’t bet on the insane attraction he has for Captain Honora Turgay when he commandeers her ship. But Honora will never be content being his concubine and their personal battle will be fought skin-to-skin…What he also doesn’t know is that the Consortium has a diabolical plan at the ready and finding his brother is only the beginning of a minefield of obstacles that he must overcome-with Honora at his side.

Ravished by a Viking is a tapestry rich and colorful, full of hot warrior action, an unstoppable pace and a great cast of supporting characters like Birget, Baraq, Fatin and Cyrus. Each has their own story, and I am betting that we are going to see more of them. The best part, is the backstory of the Outlanders, New Icelanders, and the legacy of the Bifrost, that ancient device that transported the Vikings offworld from Midgard. All of these add to the spicy flavor of this unique story.

The intense visuals, and impressions… the crack of the ice as the skiffs skim through the frozen waters, the colorful sea serpents that tunnel the icy depths, the frozen fortresses of New Iceland, and the seedy underworld of Karthagos all come alive in every sentence. As do the combustible romantic interludes of Dagr and Honora. Ravished is sexier, fleshier, and more mouth-watering than anything else that I have read from Devlin. And at its core, a tender love story about a Viking who has never known love, and just needs the right woman to show him the way.

Devlin has masterminded what it takes to prick the finicky interest in a reader. With one paragraph, even one statement she can collectively raise my eyebrows, and drop my jaw to the floor. Um yeah…dare I mention the scene in the gym? Or the bar scene in Karthagos? Volcanic. Everything has a purpose in Ravished, with the ultimate goal of entertaining the reader. Not to mention make smoke billow out of my Kindle.

A Fiendishly Bookish Review (and one grumpy cat)