Viking Warrior Rising (Viking Warrior #1) by Asa Maria Bradley #BookReview

*** This review is SPOILER-FREE! Read on with confidence. =) ***

I’m a sucker for a good, strong heroine, and the first thing we experience in Viking Warrior Rising is an expert rescue orchestrated by Naya Brisbane. She’s smart, good with explosives, and knows how to kick butt. Not only is she exceptionally trained in the physicality of combat, Naya seems to crave a good fight nearly as much as her Viking, and she kills with brutal efficiency. This little whip of a firebrand is stubbornly independent and sometimes brash, but she sure gives Leif a challenge, and I love that about her.

“You don’t believe I really am a king, do you?”
“I believe you think you are their ruler and they do seem to obey you…”
“It’s so generous of you to indulge me in my delusions.”

Leif Skarsganger is fierce, a Viking warrior king first, friend and lover second. His resident berserker has a real hard on for Naya— probably at least partially because she’s effortless and magnificent in combat, like a Valkyrie warrior. Ms. Bradley strikes the perfect balance between alpha and relenting with Leif, supporting his reactions throughout the story with believable circumstances rather than penning him as a bullying or as overly dominating. Leif is the ideal Viking king and Naya his perfect Queen.

Ms. Bradley has cleverly differentiated her two romantic leads with a clash of logic and calculation against emotion and instinct. Naya’s thoughts and decisions at times resemble the computers she’s so skilled with while Leif operates largely on the impulse and intuition of his berserker spirit. He is reluctantly old-fashioned where she is fiercely independent.

“I love you,” he whispered, leaning forward and nibbling her lower lip. “You belong to me.”
She pushed gently on his chest to create some space between them. Meeting his ice-blue eyes, she corrected him. “I belong with you.”

Viking Warrior Rising echoes some of the best elements of other successful paranormal romance series without feeling like a clone: the camaraderie and tight loyalty of the Black Dagger Brotherhood, the lore and elegance of Jan DeLima’s Celtic Wolves, the pulsing sensuality and efficient lethality of Rebecca Zanetti’s Sins Brothers. Ava Maria Bradley has crafted a hard-hitting romance that is steeped in Nordic history and culture and feels authentic in every sense. Viking Warrior Rising is a celebration of all the intangible must-haves that make paranormal romance so addicting, and I freaking loved it! Now all I can think about is how soon can I get my hands on the next book!

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Viking Warrior Rising is…

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