Immortal Warrior, Lisa Hendrix

Historical paranormals, the best of both worlds! Vikings and swords and historical depth! This romance reader enjoyed Immortal Warrior very very much. I did have quibbles, nothing too serious, though.

The plot is your basic hastily arranged medieval political marriage with the added spice of the witch's curse. The overlord summons Ivo and tells him: go take this holding for me and marry the former lord's family member. Ivo and Alaida marry the day after he arrives. Ivo happens to be a Viking warrior from two centuries earlier who was cursed into a half life by a witch: half of his day he spends as an eagle, the other half as a man. In Ivo's native culture, free women couldn't be forced into a marriage, so Alaida's lack of input into her marital status is odd to him, no matter how long he's lived away from home. Alaida, however, sees the writing on the wall, and determines to make the best of the situation.

What I appreciated the most, however, was that the heroine was very much a woman of her times: understood the political issues surrounding their situation, had a realistic idea of her role and duties and responsibilities, had few illusions as to the likelihood that her marriage would be easy or pleassant for her yet was willing to admit when her preconceived notions about Ivo were wrong. I've really come to hate the word fiesty, but I will say that Alaida is a strong woman who will give as good as she gets even if she expects a bad outcome from her choices. She's a fundamentally fair person.

As for Ivo: he's lonely, he wants a place of his own, he wants to settle down no matter that the odds are stacked against him because of the curse. He wants to try and make the situation work so he enlists aid of the other men who were in on the raid with him to help manage the castle and it's inhabitants. That the title and land come with a prechosen wife? Well, Ivo will take her too. Why not? In for a penny in for a pound, after all. Meaning, he's going to give this his best try, but he's pretty sure the curse will complicate things so badly he'll fail. So, hey, a wife to keep warm at night until the other shoe drops? Why not?

A cursed immortal Viking trying to make his way in a human world with a new wife and a new demesne with the huge handicap that he's only human twelve hours a day? I was intrigued. I have quibbles about the huge chunk of time Ivo's gone every day and how that was treated. My husband works odd shifts, and it complicates life. A lot. I was willing to suspend disbelief, though. I hope Ms. Hendrix works on this more in the next books. The whole complication between Ivo and Alaida about whether or not their children might be cursed too was..contrived to a certin degree, I guess. It was one too many problems for them. For me the issue of Ivo's missing time and the plot twist would've been enough for the purposes of stirring the pot between Ivo and Alaida. The pregnancy problem was one thing too many.

I really really liked this book and I'm looking forward to the nest installment.