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Sigrun's Secret (2011)

by Marie-Louise Jensen(Favorite Author)

4.01 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0192728822 (ISBN13: 9780192728821)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

OUP Oxford

review 1: This is another really gripping, thrilling, exciting and entertaining novel by Marie-Louise Jenson as well as proving to be a truly delightful sequel to Daughter of Fire and Ice.The way she describes and immerses the reader in the treacherous and dangerous medieval world these fascinating characters live in is truly captivating and it what makes her writing so delightful to read. It's easy enough to understand for young teenage readers but presents real dangerous problems that even make that adult readers feel protective of the characters. It follows many years after the original cast of characters in Daughter of Fire and Ice have achieved their "happy ending" but sadly it proves that peace is short lived as secrets from their past reemerge to harm their children and the f... moreamily is split and with one half being sent into exile. Much of that exile is spent in the large hustle and bustle of Jorvik aka York, the new major trading centre for vikings of both good and bad nature. Being born in York and raised in Yorkshire I was particularly impressed with how real Marie-Louise made the Jorvik life appear. With the characters coming from remote Iceland I felt that helped Marie-Louise emphasis to the reader just how important a trading centre and how busy Jorvik was back in its medieval hay-day. Yet even here the divded family encounters more problems but they also encounter old family friends which help them muddle through.This sequel is packed with even more thrills and threats as well as friendship, humour, secrets, deciept and of course a good love story than the first and shows the power of family bonds going further than ever before. Definitely recommended for readers of Daughter of Fire and Ice. And if you haven't read that yet, well, do so and then read this straight after. In either story the reader is never disappointed and won't regret a single minute.
review 2: We first meet Sigrun as she is trying to break in a colt that so far, has resisted all attempts at domestication. Her father’s ship and her uncle’s have both arrived into the bay at the same time. Sigrun makes a spectacular arrival at that moment and it is here where we see her mother, Thora, have her first message from the goddess Freya. Still caught up in the first chapter we meet the returning childhood playmate, Ingvar, who Sigrun doesn’t recognise. The scene is set. Within the first chapter I was hooked and wanted to find out how this story would unfold. There are so many twists and turns to the path of Sigrun’s journey from Iceland to Jorvik. I enjoyed reading how life was for her family as farmers and how it changed living in the city. The characters we meet are well delineated and easy to identify with. How the Norse culture felt about honour, shame and revenge is central to the plot. The Norse way of life is scattered throughout – the longhouses, the domestic arrangements, how during emigration the whole family move, the fostering of children, and Valhalla. I loved the ‘assembly’, which I felt was very powerful and truly showed how Sigrun had matured. I could imagine myself alongside Sigrun experiencing this way of life. If you enjoy Norse myths and legends you will love reading this book! I thought it was a powerful tale of a teenager coming into her own power. For me, the ‘true love’ was a sub plot running underneath and winding around this.If you want to know the secrets …………………. Well, you won’t be reading them here …………………………. less

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