The Runes of Destiny – Christina Courtenay

Separated by time. Brought together by fate. Indulging her fascination for the Viking language and losing herself in an archaeological dig is just what Linnea Berger needs after her recent trauma. Uncovering an exquisite brooch, she blacks out reading the runic inscription, only to come to, surrounded by men in Viking costume, who seem to take re-enactment very seriously. Lost and confused, Linnea finds herself in the power of Hrafn, a Viking warrior who claims her as his thrall and takes her on a treacherous journey across the seas to sell her for profit. Setting sail, she confronts the unthinkable: she has travelled back to the ninth century. Linnea is determined to find a way back to her own time, but there's a connection forming with Hrafn. Can she resist the call of the runes and accept her destiny lies here...

Welcome back everyone, this will be my last review of the year and I’m so glad it’s ending on this one!

In a kind of Outlander feel, Linnea travels back to Viking times and finds herself stuck there. As the story went on, I thought this would be similar to Jennifer Macaire’s books where once you’ve travelled back in time, that’s it. You’re stuck.

As Linnea’s relationship with Hrafn continues to develop I thought for sure that that’d be it. If given a choice of being able to return to her own time she’d stay with Hrafn. Yet in some twists I didn’t see coming Christina creates a unique twist to time travel that both Outlander and Jennifer Macaire don’t include.

Not only does this help build the story and create even MORE drama. It creates an ending that’s so different to many other time travel stories. The only downside to this is that I really wish I had’ve seen the promised visit as an epilogue. I got to the last chapter and I was like “yeap, this is the end of the story but the epilogue will close it all off sweetly with this little bit I want to see.”

But then you reach the end of the chapter and that’s it. You’ve finished.

No super sweet ending to round out everything else that’s happened to Linnea and Hrafn over the previous year.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this review as I take a break until the new year, I’m planning to make some changes to how this all looks so I hope you’ll come back then to check it out. It might take me a little while to transition existing reviews into the new look (because I don’t think I can get it done before the new year begins!) but all new reviews moving forwards will look a little different.

Continue to read further down to find out about the author and any extra giveaways available and I look forward to you coming back to a fresh look in the new year.

Author Bio

Christina Courtenay writes historical romance, time slip and time travel stories, and lives in Herefordshire (near the Welsh border) in the UK. Although born in England, she has a Swedish mother and was brought up in Sweden – hence her abiding interest in the Vikings. Christina is a former chairman of the UK’s Romantic Novelists’ Association and has won several awards, including the RoNA for Best Historical Romantic Novel twice with Highland Storms (2012) and The Gilded Fan (2014). The Runes of Destiny (time travel published by Headline 10^th December 2020) is her latest novel. Christina is a keen amateur genealogist and loves history and archaeology (the armchair variety).