Holley Trent is a USA Today Bestselling author but is one that is new to me. I was looking for recs for authors of color and this book in particular was taking over my twitter timeline. I heard menage and addictive and I my antennae basically went up so I dove right in!
Tess Dahl grew up as an orphan with no family so obviously her life hadn’t exactly been a fairy tale. The book opens up with her basically being kidnapped off the streets by a man she knows, Harvey. I immediately fell in love with Tess while on the plane when the kidnapping is in progress as she was incredibly snarky and was not a pushover in any sense of the word. I love a fierce heroine so. freaking. much. And Tess is fierce, make no mistake about that.
From there Tess has so much information being thrown at her at once. It turns out that she is descended from Norsemen Royalty and is their Queen they’ve been searching for. They all have telepathic abilities, which basically come out in Tess once she is in their presence and ‘on-line’ so to speak. This is slightly overwhelming.
“Wait—can we rewind here?” Tess asked. “I think I’m holding up admirably given the circumstances, but there’s only so much disbelief I can suspend all at once. Just today, I’ve been reunited with family I didn’t know I had, told that I have some tenuous association to Vikings—did I hear that correctly, Harvey? I was doped up at the moment.”
He grunted.
“That was correct.” “Okay. I’ve also been informed I may have some undefined power, and now you’re bandying around the word queen as if it were just a nickname. As much as I like the idea of being something greater than a cocktail waitress, I’m not sure if I’m qualified to be anyone’s ruler.”
To make things even *MORE* overwhelming in this world there are destined mates. It seems like Harvey could be her mate. But then she meets Ollie, who is positive Tess is HIS destined mate. Now – I am not a fan of love triangles at all. But I am a fan of menage books where it is a menage relationship type book being worked out. If you’re concerned about a love triangle just trust that this author knows what she is doing and that all will be okay! There are definitely love triangle aspects here, I’m not sure how you can avoid them when you’re dealing with 3 people, but I really loved how everything worked out in the end with the relationships.
Another thing I love about this world is that women rule this world. Literally. Tess is the Queen, she holds the power. Harvey and Ollie help for sure and they integral to everything but Tess is the center of everything. And that is powerful to read when so much of our power dynamics in books and real life are male-centered and focused. I’ve read the next few books and they are just as good. I’ve also gotten this author’s other titles because I find her highly addictive! I think so many people would love these books if you like menage, if you like paranormal – give them a try!
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Reviewer: Melinda
Title: The Viking’s Queen’s Men
Author: Holley Trent
Release Date: October 7th, 2014
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