Stepping away from my obsession with fantasy rom coms for a moment, this week I read Elisabeth Wheatley’s Tears of the Wolf.
It’s still a fantasy romance (and a damn good one, if I might add) but it is not a comedy. Grief is a major theme woven through the story so thoroughly that wihtout it the plot would evaporate. There is also discussion of past relationships where there was a lot of imbalanced power dynamics and what i view as abuse. Those are past relationships, however, so they aren’t happening in the story. But do be aware of that before you start reading it and this review will go into some of it so, likewise keep yourselves safe.
This book is also the reason why I keep bringing up wergild to my friends. It makes sense in context, I promise! Check out my latest LARP update for an explanation. But yes, this is the Viking Fantasy Romance I’ve been nattering on about. Sorry, not sorry?
The main character, Brynn, is a fantastic character, and I love her to pieces. I am a crafty person who does a lot of historically feminine hobbies and doesn’t get into fights, so it is immensely gratifying to see someone on the page that I can connect with. So many characters in fantasy are kick ass and confrontational – and that’s great, I love that for them! But it doesn’t connect me to them the way that I instantly felt with Brynn. She has seen the horrors of war and has decided, nope, not doing that again. She is doing things to reduce the harm to others almost constantly. It shows perfectly how peace only exists because people are working through the night to build it, that it is a thing in itself, not just an absence of war. Honestly, I think the world could do with more fantasy that shows that than the murder hobos and empire building that typically happens.
Not going to lie, though, the scene where she rips a guy’s head off and tells the watching crowd (and her love interest) that she doesn’t avoid violence because she is bad at it, but because she is too good (to paraphrase) is going in my inspiration scrapbook. Like I got flustered reading it, it was a total kick my feet and squeal moment for me.
Speaking of the love interest, Cenric is a delight. He just wants to make the people who believe in him happy! And god, it is good to read a fantasy story with an actually competent and likeable leader. So many people seem to think that you can only have one or the other and frankly, I think it’s a skill issue with the authors. Cenric shows how the world works in a lot of really interesting ways. Like, he knows people who are Vikings/Raiders and he understands them, but he also understands that other people are not going to have the same contextual fondness. That is a surprisingly big deal, I really didn’t expect it to effect me so deeply. But it turns out a male main character understanding that not everyone has to be friends with his friends hit me surprisingly hard. And by everyone I obviously mean Brynn. She isn’t immediately trusting of his Viking relatives and he respects and empathises with that. And that is the moment when I fell in love, I guess.
Other things I loved;
The undead peanut gallery promising retribution.
Women being friends and, even more rare, acknowledging that they don’t need to be friendly to be polite and to get shit done.
Telepathic dogs and puppies!
Anyway, if you are looking for some historically grounded fantasy romance, with deep feelings and a surprsingly healthy relationship, I would highly recommend Tears of the Wolf. Elisabeth Wheatley eschews the Big River Website, so here is a link to her personal website. It will be getting posted there at some point, apparently, but until then check out (LINK) to pick up a copy.
I did a sneaky thing to get this eBook a week early – I joined Elisabeth Wheatley’s author newsletter! Ok it isn’t actually that sneaky, but it does give me a chance to point out that if you would like to get these posts emailed to you, you can sign up to follow this website. If you would like to just get updates on my publishing news, then check out the link here!
Thank you for reading and stay safe out there,
K
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