Viking Glory Complete Collection Books 1-5

Unless You Like LOTS of S-E-X and Violence, Avoid this Collection The first book in this collection, *Leif*, was the first book I'd ever read by this author. While I did have a few issues with it, I basically enjoyed it because of the very unusual heroine. I liked Leif’s sister Freya because she was sassy, fierce, and had an intelligent view of the word… so much so that I looked forward to her book. Unfortunately, I was exceedingly disappointed. I found her far too emotionally spiky, very different from how she came across in her brother’s book. She was supposed to be a tough, war-hardened shieldmaiden, but she had so many emotional ups and downs that it bordered on the ridiculous. She had extreme issues with jealousy yet seems to willfully misunderstand the hero constantly. She was also far too fearful of losing the respect of the men she has fought beside for years because of her simple choice of partner; their respect should have run deeper than that. Things went from mediocre to bad in the next book about Tyra and Bjorn. It felt like a s-e-xfest interspersed with terrible, over-the-top violence. I DNFed it quickly and decided not to review it officially. The last book in this series I read, *Strian*, was simply overflowing with gratuitous s-e-x scenes and excessive violence of all kinds. The “plot’s” pendulum swung between the two, with little room for other interesting story happenings, let alone characterization. Frankly, it was just bad. Here’s a quote from my original review of *Strian*: “I found this particular installment to be incredibly violent, and not just in acts of war—which may be justified—but in personal violence: man against man, woman against woman, and man against woman. It also seemed strange that Strian could murder several of his tribe without any sort of punishment, even though he was in the right to protect his wife. Another thing I found nonsensical was the stupidity of Strian and Gressa in getting caught in the middle of the book. They both knew the dangers. Why would it just happen like that? The answer is actually a simple one. It is what the author needed to happen, and therefore it was done. But that's not the way things are supposed to be in fiction. Rather, the plot should have turned on points that were driven by the essence of the characters she created instead of plot necessity.” Interestingly, after that one particularly critical review I gave the fourth book, the author banned me from reading her books at the book review site I initially downloaded the books from. The expectation, per Amazon, is that if authors give out books for review, they should not expect or demand reviews and cannot attempt to influence them. By cherry-picking only reviewers who like her poorly written books, she inflates the ratings of her books here on Amazon. So, if you note that her books have high-star reviews, keep in mind that she has actively squelched reviewers who do not like her books. So take the star ratings of any of her books with a grain of salt. I do not recommend this collection, this author, or any books written by her. I received free copies of most of the books in this collection, but that did not affect my review.