Tempted by the Runes
Born centuries apart. Bound by a love that defied time.
She couldn’t believe her eyes. The runes were normally so reliable and
she had never doubted them before.
Madison Berger is visiting Dublin with her family for a Viking
re-enactment festival, when she chances upon a small knife embedded in the
banks of the Liffey. Maddie recognises what the runes on the knife’s handle
signify: the chance to have her own adventures in the past.
Maddie only intends to travel back in time briefly, but a skirmish in
9th century Dublin results in her waking up on a ship bound for
Iceland, with the man who saved her from attack.
Geir Eskilsson has left his family in Sweden to boldly carve out a
life of his own. He is immediately drawn to Maddie, but when he learns of her
connection to his sisters-in-law, he begins to believe that Fate has played a
part in bringing them together. Amidst the perils that await on their
journey to a new land, the truest battle will be to win Maddie’s heart and
convince her that the runes never lie…
The Viking Age is one of my favourite areas of history, I
could talk about it all day! I have followed Christina Courtenay on Twitter and
Instagram for some time, and I know that she puts a lot of effort into the research
for each book - and it shows! Details of clothes, old Norse words, Norse gods,
traditional housebuilding techniques in Iceland, and Viking law, are what bring
this time slip novel to life. Reading it feels like you have travelled back in
time yourself!
In the 9th century Geir is planning a one-way
trip to Iceland, he plans to establish his own settlement in Iceland, which
still has very few people inhabiting it. Meanwhile in the 21st
century, Maddie is in Dublin with her family at a Viking re-enactment festival,
something they do each year. Bored, when her family ditch her at the hotel and
still dressed in her re-enactment outfit, she goes out exploring. Finding an
ancient artefact, Maddie reads the runes inscribed onto it and travels back in
time. She initially meets Geir while she is being attacked. She is knocked out
cold and Geir has no choice but to carry her onto his boat while she recovers.
Maddie wakes up while they are out at sea and travelling to
Iceland. When she explains she is from the future she expects the handsome
Viking to be shocked, however he knows all about time travel – that is how his
brothers met their wives! Realising that he must have a fate similar to his
brothers when it comes to love, Geir has to think of a way to get Maddie to
stay in his time, long enough for her to fall in love with him! He manages to
persuade her to stay with him while he and his small group of people establish the
settlement in Iceland.
Although Maddie is initially attracted to Geir, she can’t
help but apply 21st century ways of living to the situations she
witnesses - such as the ownership of thralls, which make being with Geir long
term something she can’t contemplate. However, he eventually comes around to
her way of thinking when she explains her reasons.
Although Maddie knows a lot about the Viking age, the reality is very
different when you are in the 9th century and living it! She enjoys
the simpler way of life and the feeling of fulfilment after an exhausting days’
work, and each day she falls a little more for Geir. However, 9th
century Iceland is a very dangerous place to live, can she make it work, or
will she be forced to return to her own time?
Although Tempted by the Runes is connected to the authors
previous books: Echoes of the Runes, Runes of Destiny and Whispers of the
Runes; you can read this book as a standalone. The plots and characters of the
previous books are mentioned, so you know roughly how the
stories are related to each other. I loved this novel, it’s hard not to fall in
love with both characters. I enjoyed the way the author didn’t gloss over the
hardships of the past and romanticise it in this time-slip. Viking age life was
hard, and I think Christina Courtenay captured this perfectly. I am excited to
read the rest of the series and I highly recommend this book.
So, tell me if you had the chance to go back in time, would
you? If so, what time period would you visit? Tell me below!
Christina Courtenay writes historical romance, time
slip and time travel stories, and lives in Herefordshire (near the Welsh
border) in the UK. Although born in England, she has a Swedish mother and was
brought up in Sweden – hence her abiding interest in the Vikings. Christina is
a former chairman of the UK’s Romantic Novelists’ Association and has won
several awards, including the RoNA for Best Historical Romantic Novel twice
with Highland Storms (2012) and The Gilded Fan (2014), and the
RNA Fantasy Romantic Novel of the year 2021 with Echoes of the Runes. Tempted
by the Runes (time travel published by Headline 9th December
2021) is her latest novel. Christina is a keen amateur genealogist and loves
history and archaeology (the armchair variety).
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