Listening to Brothers of The Wild North Sea

I’ve read Brothers of the Wild North Sea before… a few years back, but I’m on a road trip and decided to listen to it while I drive. It is a great story set in northern England a couple hundred years after the fall of Rome. Pagan traditions are mixed with the new Christian traditions, and old world magic – which may or may not be real. There are themes of loss and forgiveness, and battling hate and ignorance – metaphorically and literally. Romance, and danger, emotionally layered, steamy sex (which always feels inherent to the story). At times the scientific and medical awareness of a few characters seem a little advanced for the time, despite the context of the greater knowledge of the earlier Greeks, but the story is engaging enough that one is willing to give it the benefit of the doubt for the story. I love history and though I can’t profess to be an expert on the British Isles after the fall of Rome, it feels well researched and full of details that make the story rich and very specific. I liked the first two seasons of VIKINGS – though it did get too violent for me, so I stopped at end of Season 2. But this book has some similar sensibilities. It is worth your time if you like adventure and m/m romance.

The audio version is particularly good. I keep forgetting that it is only one man, Hamish Long, reading all these parts. The book has held up very well with this revisit. There is an interesting twist (not sure I’d even call it a twist though)… but how the plot evolves involves some well plotted elements that keep the story fresh till the very end.

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Hundreds of years ago, on a wild sea coast, two men met in combat.

This is the story of Caius, a Christian monk struggling to reconcile his sensual nature with his newfound faith, and of Fenrir, a ferocious Viking raider abandoned by his comrades and left for dead. When Caius takes pity on the wounded man, his brethren are horrified: what kind of wolf has Cai brought into the fold?

But only when Cai and Fen join forces can the monastery of Fara be saved from the raiders from the east. And Fara holds a secret worth guarding, a legendary amulet with the power to bind even the might of the Vikings. Fen, his heart divided between old loyalties and a new love, must make a decision which could shatter his own heart and Cai’s into the bargain.

Will there ever be peace and a future for these brothers of the wild North Sea?

The Purple Fantastic Steam Meter gives this a 4… it gets steamy at times

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