Category: Historical Fiction for Hipsters

Waaaay back in Viking era Norway, teenage Ran has just about had it with her selfish mother. Ran’s dad is dead, and Ran’s mom has decided to take up with her old flame, Vigut, your average burning and pillaging evil Viking warlord. So Ran is forced to leave her beloved granny Amma and travel with Vigut and her mom to their new digs a few moons away. Too bad for Ran that en route mom dies, and nasty Vigut gets it into his pea brain that Ran is somehow responsible for putting an evil spell on her old lady. So now Ran is on the run (hee hee! love that word play!) from Vigut and his murderous band of Viking dudes. Lucky for her that she meets up with Toki, blind bard who also happens to be a hottie. They hook up typical Viking style (due to the short life expectancies of these guys, they had to get together and have babies fast and young, before they were snuffed out by disease, cold weather, or wolves) and cross over into Iceland, where they hope to be safe from Vigut. But Vi is on his way–Ran can feel it. Will she ever be able to escape his vicious Viking wrath? Be prepared to sit down with this one and read it straight through–it’s under 200 pages and so action-packed you won’t be able to put it down for a second.

In the 15th century, young Irish monk (and hunk) Brendan has been sent by the Catholic church to a lonely missionary outpost in Greenland, where he and his colleagues are expected to turn the native people onto Christ and away from their wicked ways. But things don’t turn out so well when the monks can’t really make a go of igloo living and start dropping like frozen flies. Brendan is the last one left alive, and he’s slipping fast. Enter Navarana, a Inuit shaman babe who sweeps in and saves Brendan’s life, even though that means one more mouth to feed in her already starving village. A village elder, wiser that both of them because he can see that opposites attract even when it comes to shamans and priests, sends them off on a mission together to find food, even though they act like they can’t stand each other. Chances are good that they’re gonna hook up, but what about the hungry villagers they left behind? Will they be able to stop quarrelling/kissing long enough to complete their mission? I’m making this book sound sillier than it is–Mette Newth is actually one of my favorite authors because she writes so beautifully and lyrically without the Harlequin cheese factor. Plus, it’s a great examination of religious beliefs and why we believe what we do. Your teacher will love it! (and so will you).