Cronic Bookaholic

3.5 stars

While this book turned out to be NOT what I expected, I enjoyed reading it.

Wulfstan Wulfricing was this huge warrior with fiery temper and power when he went berserk, but had soft heart and compassion - too compassionate, in my opinion. Leofgar was a tall, lean and beautiful bard, travelling with his master - singing and telling stories, entertaining people. Their first meeting was practically a collision - one that hadn't ended so well. Later - months later - they met again while fleeing from a very smitten Lord (for Leofgar) and curse(s) from his sin (for Wulfstan).

The story was slow pace, told alternately from Wulfstan, Leofgar, and - a little bit - Saewyn POVs. I guess I fell for the stereotype when I thought Wulfstan would be this strong, manly, very aggressive giant of a man - I couldn't be more wrong: the berserker was a bottom sub. And Leofgar was a total opposite; he may be leaner in stature and had too beautiful a face for man, but he was strong, brave, and when it came to Wulfstan - quite dominating. *winks*

This expression during Leofgar chat with his godfather later on was a good description of the pair:
Can a man have the heart of one thing and the outer appearance of another, without becoming that which he appears to be?
My issue with the story was how easy it was for Wulfstan to deal with the dark wiccecraft without much explanation, when he seemed fear it so he ran from home to get away from it. That he had different inclination from other men of the world made him had talent in runecraft and wiccecraft and could hear spirits of God, saints, etc etc was just too... SIMPLE. I wanted more! I wish there were more (Cenred could come back from the death so Wulfstan could actually, intentionally KILL his malicious backstabbing best friend, like stabbing the demon to a bloody pulp! Yep, I had no love for Cenred!)

Another thing, it amused me no end that a lord who just had his keep being raided to the ground by Vikings chose to gallivanting all over the country to pursue his recalcitrant scop!! I would've thought he prefer to stay and rebuild his "kingdom", but who am I - a peasant - to comment, eh?

Lastly, this was as un-smutty a story as it could get. A minimum and not explicit sex scenes. I loved it though! I like that Wulfstan and his kick-ass musician circling around each other, solving each other's puzzle before they eventually come together. Until death did them part. :)