Danegeld (Love Spell historical romance) [Mass Market Paperback]

I've bought "Danegeld" because I love books set in Dark Age Britain and because the other reviews awakened my interest.
I knew there was to be much violence in the book but I was still shocked by the amount of it.Danegeld is a story set in Dark Age Britain in the most turbulent times of battles between the Christian Saxons and the Pagan Danish Vikings.The two leading characters are Britta, a Saxon girl who is believed to be a witch and Karn a proud Viking warrior who wants to conquer the Saxons. They are both very strong characters and the author did a very good job describing them.Britta lives on a remote little island and comes to the Saxon village to heal the villagers for some food and necessities. She escaped to the island after Offa the village's cruel Saxon lord raped her and killed her mother and father. She is deeply hurt and she has never got over her suffering. Karn and his Viking warriors want to rob the village church but Offa and his men defeat them and he is the only survivor. Offa is a cruel and sadistic Saxon lord who tortures him, rapes him for information and for his own twisted pleasure. He wants to do the same to Britta again but she manages to escape and she saves Karn as well. She is a healer who is struggling to cope with her talent and magical power. She has visions about Karn and she doesn't want him to suffer at Offa's hands.She takes him to her island and tries to heal him. Karn's recovery is very slow and painful.They hate each other at the beginning because they stand on opposite sides and they don't trust each other. They have different beliefs and they are enemies.Their mutual sufferings at Offa's hands make them to
learn and trust each other slowly. They take strength from each other and they fall in love with each other. Their life is in danger during the whole story.
The author did a very thorough research of the era and the historical details are very accurate. The reader can imagine being there, touching, feeling everything in the Saxon village. It is very realistic. I understand that life was very difficult in those times and there was lots of cruelty, violence, torture and natural disaster. The writer is very detailed in describing all of them. I put down the book a few times but despite all of the brutal killing, torturing, wounds and blood I had to go on reading it.The storyline is fast and you keep turning the pages and waiting for the happy ending.The happy ending which you think will never come because our heroes encounter disaster after disaster.I think the author wanted to make up for all this violence, despair and hopelesness by giving Britta some magical power. A magic which enables her to to call down storms and eartquakes and heal deadly wounds by her touch.I didn't really belive and like this magical mystery.Karn is much more realistic and down to earth character than Britta is.I could imagine her being an excellent and compasssionate healer but I don't think that more magic happened in the Dark Ages than it happens today. This book is an excellent historical drama but not a historical romance. Historical romance readers read the genre because they want to escape from our everyday's routine somewhere nice, happy and exciting.Unfortunately Danegeld is not one of these stories.
DANEGELD is more a historical and pschycological drama than a historical romance. In its genre it is a very good book.The characters are living and suffering very realistically. The historical background is exciting and very accurate. The romance between Britta and Karn is touching, it grows from physical and emotional pain, despair and compassion. I gave this book a four star rating for its powerful impression on the reader but I find it lacking in happiness. I agree with the writer that the Dark Ages were about violence,cruelty, blood and especially power,but I cannot believe that there was no brightness, happiness, love and understanding among the people at all.

With so many of the writers in the romance field today opting for the lighter touch, a person that loves sweeping, gritty historical drama is finding it harder to discover such strong realism and historical details in historical romance... (Oh, where is Katherine Deauxville???

Susan Squires weaves a strong period drama about the Vikings and Danes that were in East Angelia, and since that is one of my home-bases, I was thrilled to see someone writing about this period of history.

She writes with a passion unafraid to take on the dark history of that era, with details and history so strong you will feel you lived it. So if you like your historical with more 'meat to the bone', pay attention to this new writer in the field.

Britta is a healer, but she lives haunted by events that shaped her world five years ago, when she was held captive for three days and raped. Now she prefers to be alone, but she cannot ignore the pain of another, the pain of Karn. A Viking invader, he is the only man left in his party. Taken captive, wounded and near dying, Britta tries to heal him, but it requires a lot from her since Karn had been raped by the same captors who held Britta five years before. She takes him away to an island and he begins to recover, and during this recovering they slowly learn to trust each other, and in some ways, mend the deep mental wounds in the others. Too soon they are drive apart, made to flee the island, but fate once against brings them together.

Some people will have problems with the rape scenes, male and female, but Squires is painting a very violent period and she does not do this for sensationalism, but depicts the violence of the dark ages in realistic terms seldom seen in today's romance market. It is so rich in history, in a book where the writer does not pull any punches.

Please note Danelaw is the sequel to this.

Susan Squires is known for her 'Companion' series of vampire stories set in the Regency period or earlier. However Danegeld was her first published novel and it's set in the time of the Vikings and with a rather different supernatural element.

Britta is a Saxon woman whose parents have been killed by local chieftain Offa. After her parents' deaths Britta was raped by Offa but eventually escaped and made her way to a local island where she lives with her dog, Fenris, and collects herbs for her healing medicines. Her mother was known as a witch and healer and it seems that Britta may have inherited those talents - she trades with the local villagers for food and other necessities by carrying out healings and wound dressings.

When the Vikings come to the Saxon village they are defeated and all but one of the group of raiders is killed. The leader of the group is taken by Offa and tortured. Britta finds herself rescuing this man, Karn, and tending his wounds back on her island. Initially Karn is afraid of Britta, assuming that he is being restored to some strength so that he can be tortured again, but as time moves on he realises that she is doing this on her own. As Offa tries to kill them Britta and Karn have to work together, to learn to trust each other and to try to find a place for themselves somewhere in Anglia. Britta needs to learn more about her magical skills and what causes them and Karn has to find a future for a man who isn't physically whole and who is a member of a race that the Saxons hate.

Susan Squires is always a good author and, like her other books, this one moves along with great pace and some good characters. The setting in this period of history, not one that I regularly come across in fiction, was fascinating and Squires has included many historical people and places in the story. I particularly liked the way in which she described Karn's feelings of despair over his situation as a injured foreigner in a hostile land. This isn't a particularly cheerful book - the times were too difficult for that - but there is a deep love story within it and the central characters are both very endearing. It's certainly a book to enjoy for those who like Squires' other work and who are interested in different periods in history.