Hearts Aflame (Viking Haardrad Family Book 2)

This is about the 4th I’ve read this book and it’s still as great. Kristen & Royce are such a great couple. Although she’s a captive enemy, Royce has been attracted to her from the moment she appeared to him as a woman. I like how it was chemistry for them right from the beginning. One of the reasons I like this book so much is that there were many tender/sweet moments between them even though Kristen fights with him regarding the chains she has to wear around her ankles. It really softens the times when they are at odds. But since she’s a bit mercurial with her emotions, snapping out of her bad mood rather easily, the times they fight isn’t too heavy. I like how they both can’t seem to resist each other and stop thinking about each other.The plot is very interesting also. It captured my attention right from the beginning and even now, have not released it. The plot of her and her people being captured as slave, the Saxon king’s visit, him having a betroth, among others were all intriguing and had me glued to this book.I can see me reading this several more times in the future and recommend it.

Summary: Kristen Haardrad is the daughter of Brenna and Garrick, the fierce couple from Fires of Winter. Growing up under the protective watch of her father, Kristen longs for freedom and adventure. She also needs to escape the attention of a suitor whom she has no desire to encourage. She manages to sneak aboard one of the clan's longboats dressed as a man, and remains undiscovered long enough to keep her brother and the other men from being able to return her to her home.The crew hadn't intended to be part of a battle on this trip, but they make a serious miscalculation on a choosing one of their stops and the crew comes under siege. Kristen's brother is missing after the fight, but Kristen (still disguised as a man) and the surviving crew members are taken captive by Royce of Wyndhurt. While locked up outside, Kristen and the crew manage to keep her identity secret for quite a while. But eventually, her ruse is discovered.Once Royce sees Kristen as a woman, his attraction to her is immediate. But Kristen is the enemy, and he doesn't trust her. He allows her to be a slave in the house rather than being locked up outside with the men, but this was just as much for his benefit as it was for hers. He wants to keep an eye on her, and he enjoys putting her in her place and flaunting his power over her. But like it or not, he also feels the need to protect her from the many men who would see a lovely slave as free sexual amusement.The tension between these two stubborn, vengeful people eventually erupts into an unrelenting passion that is beyond a physical attraction. But Royce has many enemies and Kristen's family is coming to rescue her, so eventually it becomes obvious that their battles with each other were the least of their problems. Any mistake could rip their lives and love apart.Review: The first book in this series is one of my favorite historical romances, and that is a tough act to follow. I thought it was a really interesting twist that this second book took place with the next generation rather than featuring contemporaries of the main characters from the first book. But other than the beginning and the very end of this book, I often forgot that the two books were related. That was slightly disappointing - not because this book was lacking, but just because it's so hard to give up favorite characters.This isn't the first book with a prisoner-love interest storyline, but this one was one of the few romances I've read where a woman was treated like a real prisoner. Kristen was in shackles and chains even when she was inside the house. She was also whipped at one point, and she took it like a man. I liked that she was tough, and there were many moments when I was proud of her for her courage and resilience. I liked Royce also, and that was a surprise because he was so bitter and unhappy. He never lost his stubborn pride, but it was almost as though his inability to break Kristen's spirit brought back some of his humanity.I liked this book, but it isn't one that I would read multiple times like I've read Fires of Winter. For a Viking romance, there is very little Viking content in this book. Yes, Kristen is from a family of Vikings and the book begins in Norway, but the rest of the book (settings and characters) are not part of the Viking community. I probably would have given this a slightly higher rating as a straight-up historical romance. But when a book is part of a Viking series, I want it to feel like a Viking book.

I love most of Ms. Lindsay's books. PRISONER OF MY DESIRE was the first romance novel I ever read and it completely turned me on to romance novels. I have been reading romance for almost twenty years now, and I continue to go back and re-read Ms. Lindsay's older books. HEARTS AFLAME has to be one of my all time favorites. Kristen, our viking heroine, is fiesty, hot tempered and goes after what she wants. What she wants is a love like her parents (FIRES OF WINTER) share. So she stows away on her brother's ship, which she thinks is going trading. Unbeknownst to her, they are going raiding and they all end up being captured and enslaved. Their captor, Royce of Wyndhurst, hates vikings because of a previous raid that killed most of his family and his fiancee. He puts them to work building his defenses and separates Kristen to use as a hostage to ensure the good behavior of the rest. He hadn't counted on his attraction to her, or hers to him. She's been taught by her mother to put her own desires above what is "acceptable" to society so she sets out to tempt him. The rest, as they say, is history...What I loved about this book was the interaction between the two. He isn't brutal (the way Garrick was)--he doesn't hit her and he doesn't brutally rape her (yes a couple of time he coerses her but even then he doesn't hurt her). He is hard headed, stubborn, impatient and used to having his own way (he was a nobleman in the 9th century, after all) but all that, I think, makes him strong enough to be the perfect match for her. She can't walk all over him or push him around and she knows it...probably one of the things she finds so attractive about him. Even though he thinks of her as his slave, he still does things that make her happy--taking her riding, swimming, etc., which he doesn't have to do. He is perfect.Out of all the books I've read over the years (and I've read thousands), this one still makes the top ten and I give all the credit to Royce. Yes, I liked Kristen as the heroine, but for me, if the hero isn't a hero (in every sense of the word), the book loses something. Royce is a hero for the ages (along with Devil Cynster from Stephanie Laurens' DEVIL'S BRIDE, Clayton Westmoreland from Judith McNaught's WHITNEY, MY LOVE, Anthony Malory from Johanna Lindsey's TENDER REBEL, and Dominic le Sabre from Elizabeth Lowell's UNTAMED--all of which I would recommend). For those who like medival and regency romances, a must read.

I remember reading this years ago, and I’d forgotten what an excellent writer Johanna Lindsey was. Her descriptions completely transport you to the setting, and her characterisation of not just the main leads, but everyone involved in the story allows you to picture them instantly; but then she was a proper published author as opposed to the Kindle (often) formulaic writers nowadays.Fabulous story, nice to have a good old fashioned arse of a man (non of this declaring undying love by page 25 and the next 300 pages are just waffle - as seems to be the norm at the moment) and she is strong and independent without being annoying.HOWEVER, there are some scenes where consent is an issue shall we say, and even though I have read it before I was taken aback. It’s showing it’s age in that respect, and I can understand some of the criticism.But worth a read, if you can overlook my last point.

Hearts aflame is a fantastic read. Its great to see that Brenna and Garrick’s daughter’s romance is as passionate and full of adventure as theirs was in Fires of Winter. Ms Lindsay will be missed.

Johanna Lindsey inspired me to write. I read this book when I was 13 and after all these years I still love it as much as I did then. My teenage daughter is carrying on the love.

Kirsten is being pestered by suitors at home so she slips onto her brothers ship an gets taken on an adventure. They land and when fighting starts she joins in and eventually becomes a captive

Found the storyline similar to how her mother and father met.Did not find anything new or fresh with the story, since I love reading Viking stories, but read so manybooks similar to this, that I could not wait to reach the end.