THE ODDNY EINARSDOTTIR SERIES

BOOK I: THE SWORD

Editorial Reviews

"Before my review, I would like to thank the author for reaching out and providing a digital copy of the book for my review. 

This is an incredible undertaking and thought-provoking read. The story is centered on Oddny and takes place over the span of her early life. The author is incredibly well versed and studied in Norse history, making this book a very informative read. 

The footnotes and diagrams were incredible additions. I feel like in finishing the book, I have a much better understanding of what viking daily life was like. This book truly is a slice of viking life novel. It's dark, and there's a lot of things that a modern reader could find appalling. But it was all part of the culture then. It's such a breath of fresh air to not read a novel (viking based or otherwise) where the MC doesn't have a hero complex. The characters are human and thus flawed. This was an incredible read! 

---Sarah

"The attention to detail throughout the book, including everyday mundane tasks, is exceptional. It allows readers to grasp the hardships of daily life with the perfect level of scene setting and character building without overwriting. The characters evoke true feelings of disgust, admiration, despair and hope."

--- Natalie

"The Sword... is a wonderful exploration of the enchantment, magic, and inherent violence of early Norse culture and family life... Author Lilypearl Colman has created a delightful character in Oddny whom all women will readily identify with even a thousand years after the novel’s setting... This was a fantastic read that I can highly recommend."

—Grant Leishman for Readers' Favorite

BOOK II: THE VOW

Editorial Reviews

"A big thank you to the author for allowing me the privilege of being an ARC reader for this book!

Okay, I was finding myself getting SO frustrated throughout this whole book. 😆 But in a good way! I love books that draw out intense emotions.

I really enjoyed the writing style and the historical and cultural tidbits shared in footnotes. Very interesting!

The complexity of these characters is really well done and I was going back and forth between liking and hating them. Some characters are easy to hate because they are just plain horrible, but others have these qualities that you don't quite agree with but can understand why they behave the way they do.

The layers to the story and the people in it really took me for a ride! There was so much that I wanted to see as black and white but had to appreciate the gray scale that had me pausing to consider my perspective and opinions could be skewed. I had to consider the time period and culture to understand the reasoning behind a lot of what was said and done.

I cried several times and even though the story is heavy, the ending was satisfying and left me hopeful. This book is very moving and I know it's one I'll be thinking of for a while."

---Anna

Elegant prose, complex characters, intriguing plot, in a fascinating world which feels entirely real. Demanding for the reader, but rewarding and well worth it.

"I was a big fan of the first book, so was keen to get hold of The Vow. It opens with immediate human drama between three women, and after that the dramatic tension rises and falls at a good pace. New, surprising plot elements are introduced at the right time, without being overwhelming. They hooked me in, so I wanted to see how they developed.

The relationship between Oddny, her husband and her son acts as a thread running through the whole thing, with the war as an unseen, background horror, which you know will intrude into the characters’ lives sooner or later. I also liked the introduction of some mystical Norse rituals type stuff, with the Sybil.

The overall plot structure is very good, and not too hard to follow. But in a more granular sense, it could be a little confusing to keep track of so many unfamiliar Norse names. It was hard to remember who’s related to who, who is a thrall, who’s a thane, who fostered who’s child, etc. It’s not too much of an issue when reading on a Kindle because you can just search the name that’s confusing you, but I’d have struggled if it was a physical book.

Saying all that, I like a book that can keep me hooked while not holding my hand, and the sheer commitment to verisimilitude in this book is amazing.

Elegant prose, like the first book. The sparing use of fragmentary sentences works well. I like that the author ignores the nonsense rules of writing you hear about (don’t say ‘suddenly’, avoid adverbs etc.). The dialogue is convincing, although I wouldn’t know if it’s true to the time period.

The violence is handled very deftly, with a blend of showing the violence in the here and now, and having it occur ‘off screen,’ which means the reader is steered into seeing different acts of violence in different ways.

Every character is nuanced, especially Oddny herself of course, and it’s good to see that her character progression is not a simple ‘subdued slave to strong independent woman’ type thing – she carries her damage with her, makes mistakes, is sometimes unreasonable. She’s highly pathetic in the literary sense.

I got the strong impression that every character was the main character in a story of their own. Saying that, I love the brutal characters in this and the first book. They are brought to life in a horribly real way. Sometimes you read a villain and you want to scream at the main character: just stand up for yourself! But Starkaðr in this book, and Oddny’s master in the first, made it very plain that I would crumble in her situation. Being able to draw a character like that is a hell of a thing. If Lily Colman ever wanted to write a more stripped-down Norse adventure with characters like that, I’d be right up for it.

A brilliant, utterly convincing book that pulls you in and refuses to let go."

---Thomas

"I would like to thank the author for sending me a digital ARC to review. I was very excited to read volume two in Oddnys story as the first book had left off in a way that I was excited to see what was next for her. The second book in the series is full of just as much attention to detail as the first and truly shows the authors commitment to the research that went into crafting this story.

These books truly are educational and loaded with facts about daily viking life. However, for me personally, book two was much slower paced than book one was.

I loved Oddny in book one, but in book two she took a turn for me - she's much more emotional in this stage of her life. Almost to a fault at times. I loved the authors development of Ragna, the freespirted, fierce sister of Vermundr. Her story really stood out to me as a woman making her way in the world where no one seems to take her seriously. She's a strong and brave character that I really loved following along with.

As with book one, The Vow is very much a slice of life story. Overall it's a solid very factually accurate story as to be expected with the author. I learned a lot of things I believed about daily viking life to be false and thank goodness for books like this to keep history straight."

---Sarah