Tiana Warner

**There was a title change from The Helheim Princess to The Valkyrie's Daughter.
From the time she was born, Sigrid has only ever been ordinary. Being paired at birth with a plain horse—instead of the powerful winged mare of a valkyrie—meant there would be no warrior path for her. No riding the skies, no glory among the nine worlds. Just the simple, unremarkable life of a stable hand.

Everything changes when a terrible enemy ambushes Vanaheim and Sigrid sees a vision of herself atop a mythical stallion, leading the valkyries into a harrowing battle. Finally, she can grab her future with her own two hands and become the hero of her own story…if she dares.

But her destiny is tied up with Mariam, a fallen valkyrie who’s allied herself with the very enemy Sigrid is trying to stop.

Now Sigrid has left ordinary behind as she begins a journey with the beautiful—if treacherous—valkyrie, each step bringing her closer to answers…and to awakened feelings for Mariam.

Only, the life Sigrid has escaped may have been paradise compared to the one she’s racing toward. Because her destination is the realm of the dead: the gates of Hel.

The Valkyrie’s Daughter

grace richards

this is the third tiana warner book i’ve read and i don’t think they’re for me :(

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc and finished copy from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Diversity: Sapphic MC and character, f/f romance

Recommended For...: young adult readers, fantasy, mythology, Norse mythology, romance, LGBT

Age Relevance: 14+ (violence, gore, animal death, homophobia, grief, death)

Explanation of Above: There is some violence and gore in this book, but nothing very descriptive or long. There’s also death mentioned and shown in this book, including a winged horse’s death shown. There is grief mentioned and shown in this book throughout. There is also one line where there’s a line stated about Loki birthing Sleipnir that reads a bit homophobic/transphobic since Loki is gender fluid and has birthed some of his children (it’s basically a scoff at how Loki could have done it).

Synopsis: For as long as Sigrid could remember, she’s wanted to become a mighty, fearless valkyrie. But without a winged mare, she’s a mere stable hand, left wondering who her parents were and why she’s so different. So when the Eye shows her a vision where she's leading a valkyrie charge on the legendary eight-legged horse Sleipnir, she grabs the possibility of this greater destiny with both hands, refusing to let go.

Too bad that the only one who can help her get there is Mariam, an enemy valkyrie who begrudgingly agrees to lead her to Helheim but who certainly can’t be trusted―even if she does make Sigrid more than a little flustered. As they cross the nine worlds, battling night elves, riding sea serpents, and hurtling into fire to learn the truth about Sigrid’s birthright, an unexpected but powerful bond forms.

As her feelings for Mariam deepen into something fiery and undeniable, Fate has other plans for Sigrid. What happens when the one thing you think you were meant to do might end the nine worlds?

Review: For the most part I really enjoyed this book. It gave me Eragon/early 00s YA book vibes and it’s a fun read overall. The book is action packed and there’s hardly any downtime in the book. The book is a little tropey but it’s a fun Norse Mythology read that has a lot of fun callbacks to Norse mythology. The book also has great character development and world building. The book is evenly paced and well written as well.

However, the only issue I had with the book is that this is a world based heavily on Norse mythology with winged horses and going into the afterlife and such. Gods are known, but our MC doesn’t know that Loki gave birth to Sleipnir or that he’s what we would call gender fluid? That he’s changed genders and species many times and gave birth more than once? There’s a line in the book where our MC is reading about Loki giving birth and it reads as a scoff of disbelief. That’s the only instance of slight homophobia in the book, everyone in the book was really open minded and it didn’t even come into question about our MC and her LI’s romance, but I really wish that one line was re-written to be better and that the issue of her not knowing some of her own Norse mythology was better explained as well.

Paige Green

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc and finished copy from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

 

Book: The Valkyrie’s Daughter

 

Author: Tiana Warner

 

Book Series: Standalone

 

Rating: 4/5

 

Diversity: Sapphic MC and character, f/f romance

 

Recommended For...: young adult readers, fantasy, mythology, Norse mythology, romance, LGBT

 

Publication Date: July 26, 2022

 

Genre: YA Fantasy Mythology

 

Age Relevance: 14+ (violence, gore, animal death, homophobia, grief, death)

 

Explanation of Above: There is some violence and gore in this book, but nothing very descriptive or long. There’s also death mentioned and shown in this book, including a winged horse’s death shown. There is grief mentioned and shown in this book throughout. There is also one line where there’s a line stated about Loki birthing Sleipnir that reads a bit homophobic/transphobic since Loki is gender fluid and has birthed some of his children (it’s basically a scoff at how Loki could have done it).

 

Publisher: Entangled Teen

 

Pages: 389

 

Synopsis: For as long as Sigrid could remember, she’s wanted to become a mighty, fearless valkyrie. But without a winged mare, she’s a mere stable hand, left wondering who her parents were and why she’s so different. So when the Eye shows her a vision where she's leading a valkyrie charge on the legendary eight-legged horse Sleipnir, she grabs the possibility of this greater destiny with both hands, refusing to let go.

Too bad that the only one who can help her get there is Mariam, an enemy valkyrie who begrudgingly agrees to lead her to Helheim but who certainly can’t be trusted―even if she does make Sigrid more than a little flustered. As they cross the nine worlds, battling night elves, riding sea serpents, and hurtling into fire to learn the truth about Sigrid’s birthright, an unexpected but powerful bond forms.

As her feelings for Mariam deepen into something fiery and undeniable, Fate has other plans for Sigrid. What happens when the one thing you think you were meant to do might end the nine worlds?

 

Review: For the most part I really enjoyed this book. It gave me Eragon/early 00s YA book vibes and it’s a fun read overall. The book is action packed and there’s hardly any downtime in the book. The book is a little tropey but it’s a fun Norse Mythology read that has a lot of fun callbacks to Norse mythology. The book also has great character development and world building. The book is evenly paced and well written as well.

 

However, the only issue I had with the book is that this is a world based heavily on Norse mythology with winged horses and going into the afterlife and such. Gods are known, but our MC doesn’t know that Loki gave birth to Sleipnir or that he’s what we would call gender fluid? That he’s changed genders and species many times and gave birth more than once? There’s a line in the book where our MC is reading about Loki giving birth and it reads as a scoff of disbelief. That’s the only instance of slight homophobia in the book, everyone in the book was really open minded and it didn’t even come into question about our MC and her LI’s romance, but I really wish that one line was re-written to be better and that the issue of her not knowing some of her own Norse mythology was better explained as well.

 

Verdict: It’s great! I loved it.

Actual rating: let's say 2.25

I guess the writing was just too simplistic for my taste. I'm aware that this is a young adult novel. The title change was a smart choice; otherwise there really wouldn't be any reason to read the book, as it was on its own too predictable. 

The positive:
Sapphic
A bit of Norse mythology and worldbuilding
Perfect for horse girls? 
Non-significant trans character? 

I don't really know what I liked about this book. The last 20% was the best part but simultaneously the hardest to read because I just wanted it to be over with. Sigrid finally got some character development: gained some awareness and stopped acting only on her desires and chasing her destiny. As for the other characters, they were underdeveloped. Summary that turned into a spoilerish rant: 

(view spoiler)[Sigrid is a special snowflake who is bullied by the other Valkyries and looked down upon by almost everyone except some other stable boys. As a baby, she was found among the newborn Valkyries, except with an ordinary horse unlike the others, hence why she can't be a Valkyrie. She wants to be one of them so bad. So, when they are attacked by a Valkyrie troop from Helheim, she, of course, dives into trouble and accidentally kills one of the Helheim Valkyrie's mares. Which is very frowned upon. Each mare is connected to their Valkyrie, and losing it is devastating (supposedly). But Mariam gets over the loss pretty easily and doesn't really hold any hostility towards Sigrid. The Helheim Valkyries steal a magic stone, but before they do, Sigrid sees a vision of herself riding Sleipnir, a legendary horse. She is determined to claim that fate, so she escapes with Mariam back to Helheim because the horse is in its queen's possession. Conveniently, the queen is her long-lost mother and accepts her with open arms. Sigrid doesn't suspect anything, even though it is very unequivocally stated a few times that “a dark look crossed her face” when Sigrid disagrees with taking over Vanahalla. Wonder what that could be 🤔. 

Elina obviously wanted her to use the army to seize Vanaheim’s throne. Mariam wanted her not to raise it at all. Sigrid only wanted everyone to see it for long enough to decide she was worthy of becoming a Valkyrie. So, literally raise an army of the dead just to prove a point? OK.

“Trust me, Sigrid.” Trust me. Like she hadn’t permanently lost Sigrid’s trust sixteen years ago. Yet, here she is. Elina, her mother, tells her she doesn't look like a strong leader, insert the 'girl cuts her hair to be more badass and smears mud on her face' trope.

Insulting word choice aside, what did the man mean, to claim Vanahalla? What did he think they were going to do?
Maybe she’d misunderstood.

Or, perhaps she's just stupid to not notice the obvious.

Elina hadn’t denied it. She’d lied this whole time. Who would've thought.

“If you want to succeed, you need to put yourself first.”Just like she had up until now.

How could Elina have done this? She claimed to care about Sigrid while sending her friends off to die. She’d promised Sigrid an army as a means to become a Valkyrie, but these warriors were clearly not ready to serve her. See? Only to reach her dream of becoming a Valkyrie. Elina turns out to be a power hungry bitch who doesn't give a damn about her. At least she gains a little self awareness when she realizes what's happening. They battle Elina for the eye of Hnitbjorg and Sleipnir, return to Vanaheim and Sigrid finally gets her recognition. 
 (hide spoiler)]

Gah, OK, I didn't hate it. I just felt incredibly stupid reading it. Can you notice where I started to get really annoyed?

Arc provided by publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Valkyrie’s Daughter

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