Book #10 of 2023
I will not stop talking about how much I have enjoyed this series so far Uhtred is a piece of crap sometimes, but he knows it and doesn’t care. I sometimes love his character and sometimes hate it. In this book, Uhtred continues to try and fight for his land. He still struggles between being a Saxon or a Dane. Three of the four kingdoms have fallen to the Danish Vikings. King Alfred and his small family are exiled to a small marsh land. There are not many soldiers supporting Alfred, but the few he has have to come up with a plan to keep the last bit of their kingdom alive. Will Uhtred be able to stay loyal to Alfred? We are also introduced to two new intriguing characters – Iseult and Svein the White Horse. Iseult is a sorceress who steals the heart of Uhtred and is hated by Alfred’s wife Aelswith. She is very important in this book and I really loved how her character developed. And then we have the “villain” and the nemesis of ALfred – Svein. He is a Danish Viking warrior who is raising havok along the Northern lands and is finally met with Uhtred and Alfred’s army. What insues is amazing and I felt that I was a shield maiden along with these warriors. Mr. Bernanrd Cornwell does an incredible job making the reader feel like they are there in all of the action. I was shocked several times at what happend!

This is the second book in the series and it may be better than the first one! One of my reading goals is to finish the series this year. I have 11 more books to go!

If you enjoyed the Last Kingdom series on Netflix and like historical fiction, I highly recommend this book series. So far, the Netflix series has been closely following the book series – to its credit. I’m so happy that they did, but even knowing how the Netflix series ends, I still felt the tension that grows within the book and was surprised several times with who survived, got injured, and who died.

This book is 433 pages long.
It has a Goodreads rating of 4.3