Customer Reviews

Edin's Embrace (A Zebra Romance)

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Edin's Embrace by Nadine Crenshaw is a very sensual Viking story. Thoryn Kirkynson is a Viking jarl who has travelled from afar to raid and pillage. He invades a manor home called Fair Hope on the morning of a wedding between Edin and her childhood sweetheart. Edin is a renowed beauty and hears the horrible noises as the Norse invaders forcefully enter her home. She is desperate to hide, to save herself but knows there is no place she can run to for safety. She knows the Vikings will find her. Thoryn enters her bedroom and sees her standing there. Her beauty holds him spellbound. Edin is terrified of Thoryn yet is strangely fascinated by his powerful, fierce presence. He takes her captive bringing her back to Norway to sell her on the slave markets. Yet, Edin's beauty and gentleness soon win over Thoryn's ice encased heart. She effortlessly arouses within him a fierce desire. A desire he cannot resist even with his iron will. Consumned with lust, he claims her for his own. Not brutally as she had feared but with gentle patience. Edin's fear soon becomes replaced with forbidden desire for this Viking who has seized her. Yet danger awaits the lovers. An unknown enemy is awaiting the precise moment in which to strike. An enemy whose cunning and murderous intent is well concealed from all. Edin's Embrace is a thoroughly enjoyable, very HOT lovestory. Thoryn is your typical Viking. He is powerful, ruthless and so ready to kill. Yet he loses that fierceness and becomes a slave to the one woman he had vowed to resist. He willingly loses himself in Edin's Embrace.

Having loved Nadine Crenshaw's VIKING GOLD, I was pleased to discover this, earlier Viking romance. Written in 1989, it is every bit as good as VIKING GOLD and is as engaging as any romance written today. In fact, some of the earlier ones are the best in my opinion and should be savored. This is one of them. I highly recommend it for my fellow Viking romance lovers!

Also set in the 9th century, this involves a Saxon maiden, Edin, of noble birth living in Alfred the Great's Wessex, England. She is about to be wed when Vikings attack her manor home, Fair Hope. They are led by Thoryn Kirkynson, a tall powerful Viking jarl come for plunder. Thoryn thinks nothing of attacking Edin's home and stripping it of all its treasures, including her. He slays Edin's fiancé before her very eyes and takes her back to Norway to be his bed thrall (sex slave). Once a lady who looked forward to her marriage, she is now a slave with no hope of a future apart from her "master." Though Thoryn can be cold and brutal, he can also be gentle and he becomes enthralled with Edin. She begins to love him even as she hates the Vikings for the cruel, savage life they live.

This is an amazing look not only at the Viking culture but also the life of a beautiful, educated young woman who was born to nobility but is reduced to slavery. Her courageous spirit wins the respect of many. And she has an effect on all around her.

Crenshaw weaves a story that will keep you reading late into the night. She is a master storyteller and takes care with historical detail and descriptions of places. She doesn't spare us the pagan rituals and the worship of the Viking gods. Her characters are richly drawn and the emotions very believable. Her love scenes are frequent and so much a part of the way the story naturally develops, you can't imagine the story without them, particularly in this case given the plot. And, I love her heroines: Brave women overcoming great odds to survive in a world that is not kind to women. Her heroes are strong men worthy of being tamed.

I think Nadine Crenshaw was one of the early great romance authors and I, for one, intend to read all she put out. I have already read several now and posted my reviews of them.

Her backlist:

MOUNTAIN MISTRESS (Golden Heart Winner; 1987)
CAPTIVE MELODY (1988)
EDIN'S EMBRACE (1989)
SPELLBOUND (1990)
DESTINY AND DESIRE (1992)
CITY OF DREAMS (1992)
THE HIGHWAYMAN (1993)
VIKING GOLD (1995)
CELTIC TALES: BALOR OF THE EVIL EYE (1995)
FIELDS OF THE SUN (1997)

On the night before her wedding, Vikings attack the home of Saxon noblewoman Edin. They kill her future husband, pillage and burn down her home and take her and several servants captive. The Viking's leader, Thoryn Kirkynson, plans to sell Edin, his beautiful new "thrall" (slave), but soon desires her too much and therefore keeps her. Despite her courage and the fact that Thoryn begins to care for her, it is very difficult for the gentle and highborn Edin to deal with her new situation among the often violent Vikings. And Thoryn has a hard time accepting his feelings for the Saxon woman, especially since his father was murdered by his thrall-lover...
This is one of the best Viking-romances I've ever read. The characters and the story are interesting and realistic, the conflicts not artificial but credible, and so are their solutions. You are really taken into this culture and its people, up to the point of a man and woman finding together emotionally and sexually in a time when a woman's consent and pleasure were generally not required and few men gave even a thought to that question, and when men saw love and consideration as a weakness in themselves. So the problems these two have to deal with in themselves and each other make for an interesting and adult (in the best sense of the word) read. If you want an intelligent romance that is still full of suspense, sexy and heart-warming, this is it!

I still love to read this one over and over. The characters still come alive everytime I read it.

Like the other reviewers, I LOVED this book. I read the entire book in one sitting -- which was a mistake because I wish I would have taken my time to read it. Stereotypical romance -- my husband guessed the plot in 2 seconds even though he's never read a romance novel ever (bad pillaging Viking captures girl, girl turns Viking into nice guy)-- but the characters are HOT and the setting is great, especially if you like Vikings!

I never read another Viking romance half as good as this & like another reviewer I've read this more than once. Read the first review for story details.