Beast Warrior – Eva Gordon
Historical Paranormal Romance
July 31, 2009
Paperback, 280 pages
Vanilla Heart Publishing
Before we get into the book, I first have to comment on the cover. Seriously, what is going on? Am I missing something? Is there something symbolic that is just going over my head? Or do we have a truly bad cover? This book is about werewolves, and romance in the viking era – and I enjoyed it. Would I have picked it up (or bought it in e-book form) on my own. I honestly don’t know. So let me just put it out there – close your eyes and just skip the cover part. On with the book.
Emelisse is a wolf maiden – she was not only born with a weak heart but also born with the five-toed birthmark of a wolf print on her hip. A prophecy has said she is destined to become the mate of a great alpha warrior. Growing up with her very overprotective alpha father, she craves independence from him and from the pack in general. She wants to live among humans and experience life.
After her father binds her to Radulf, a great warrior but cruel and vicous, Emelisse shocks her father with a secret. Emelisse gets sent to a monastery with the understanding she will marry Radulf after one year’s time.
Meanwhile Sigurd wants revenge. Bork the Mad and his son years ago killed his family, and now Sigurd, an alpha male, want to make him pay. He has been searching for him for years and finally found him. With a charm from a witch, he hides his wolf identity and passes for a human and proves himself with Bork and becomes one of his men. His plan is to infiltrate and wait for the right time to kill him. They raid and pilfer a monastery and this is when everything changes.
Sigurd sees Emelisse and knows she is the one. He can sense it with every wolf instinct inside of him. Still trying to hide his wolf idenity from Bork, he now must keep Emelisse safe while still pretending to be one of Bork’s men. Emelisse, being a wolf maiden, can smell that Sigurd is a wolf, and her mark burns every time he is near. Deep down she knows he is her mate and together they must work to escape Bork.
Although they both know they are destined for each other, they both still don’t know each other. Sigurd still wants revenge on Borks’ son, Mord and is an alpha and has dominance and protective issues. Emelisse is tired of being constantly protected, and the thought of living with pack scares her. Now they have Radulf hunting what he claims to be his, her father, thinking she has fallen slave to Sigurd, and the disgruntled Bear Skins who ware without their leader. They must face all their enemies and face each other, which may be the hardest part of all.
Beast Warrior has the feel of an epic tale. Not only is this a sweeping romance, but the werewolf lore is woven in. When Sigurd and Emelisse first meet, Sigurd is immediately devoted. It takes Emelisse more time – she has wanted her whole life to be away from the pack, and now she finds herself deep in the middle of it. She goes back and forth with her emotions, and this is where I found it to be a bit tedious. Sigurd saves her from the evil clutches of the bear skin, and yet she still doesn’t have trust in him. Sigurd must walk a fine line between falling at the feet of Emelisse and granting her every wish, which is what he wants to do. But he must come across as a strong warrior in front of the men if he ever wants a chance to continue with them to find Mord and finish his revenge.
This is not a quick tale of love and conquer – much of the beginning of the book Sigurd and Emelisse have not even met. Then Eva Gordon takes her time with their journey, allowing them to discover each other. There is plenty of villains to keep the action strong throughout the book.
I found Emelisse to be a worthy heroine. She had spunk despite her weak heart and I enjoy heroines who crave their independence. Sigurd was a very serious devoted warrior but once in a while he would get a mischievous grin. He was very cocky in confidence he could take on anyone who dared harm his mate – very alpha to the core, with that soft spot for Emelisse.
Best of all, Sigurd is described as:
His brawny chest was lightly covered with red hair making him look like a flaming god of combustion.
Overall, this is a fun story that I would recommend to any historical romance fan.
Rating: 4 stars
The Wolf Maiden Chronicles include:
Werewolf Sanctuary – May 4, 2009
Beast Warrior, Viking Werewolf – July 31, 2009
White Wolf of Avalon, Werewolf Knight – November 2009
Hm not a pretty cover but I guess they wanted to get the feeling of the Viking era with the stones we got.
I was more bothered with the name Emeliesse, yeah, not used
The cover looks bloody and creepy but the story sounds good.
Yeah, I don't like the cover. I know I wouldn't have bought this book based on its cover – bad I know, but I can't help it, if I see a lush cover I will buy the book and this cover would have made me put the book straight back on the shop shelf. Saying that, you make the book sound interesting. Thanks for the review :)
You're so right about this cover. I know I would walk right past it on the shelf. However based on your review the story sounds interesting and like something I would read. I do like an aggressive alpha and the viking angle appeals to me. Great review.
This is not a quick tale of love and conquer – much of the beginning of the book Sigurd and Emelisse have not even met. Then Eva Gordon takes her time with their journey, allowing them to discover each other. There is plenty of villains to keep the action strong throughout the book.
This right here is enough to make me want to read this book. I do like when the romance is well developed.
You are right about the cover, very bad. It's a shame too. Based on your review this sounds like a great read that some will miss out on because of the cover.
Good review, I believe I'll add this to my list cover be damned. :)
I dunno about the cover. It's not a typical romance cover, but I kind of hate typical romance covers. This one is about rune stones and the sword, so– mystery and phallic symbolism, seems reasonable to me!
I don't know about a character named Bork though, my head keeps going here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbs64GvGgPU
No, it's not just you. That cover is truly, honestly awful. But the book sounds like it could be a fun read.
The cover is really awful and when I read these names(Sigurd, Radulf and Bork) I couldn't hold the laughter inside. The story sounds great. But not always sure about historicals. Never quite like them.
"Glad" to read your review ;-)
Hmm.. I'm a buy-a-book-by-its-cover kind of girl so I would have definitely passed this one up. But I see that I would have missed a good romance having done so.
Great review Mandi and thanks for the recommendation!
;) VFG
I would never in a million years have guessed that storyline with that book cover.
The cover sort of looks like a pre-schoolers poster project on vikings…
Will be putting this book on my TBR shelf, for sure.
LOL. The cover is based on a runic stone so it may not convey paranormal romance.
The names were popular back in 840 AD but once you start the story you get used to them.
Mandie, glad you like the story. Thanks.
Feel free to ask me more questions.
Aha – I knew the cover would have a meaning I wasn't aware of.
I had no trouble with the names…except making sure I spelled them right in my review! :)
I really enjoyed this one!
Stop. Just Stop. You had me at Viking Werewolf. This bk sounds Kewl (notice the capital K for emphasis) aside from the kindergarden-esk cover (somebody quick, get this author a graphic designer STAT), my two fav things are Vikings and werewolves, so this IS going to be added to be TBR pile. Just in time, I gots the new credit card *evil laugh*
Sounds like a great read. Your right about the cover, definite case of don't judge a book by it's cover.
Mandi – Glad to see you enjoyed this one. I find it interesting that this book is a historical where the first book in the series was a contemporary. That is a bit unique for a series. I love a sweeping epic tale and this sounds right up my ally! Great review!