THE VIKING'S CAPTIVE PRINCESS By Michelle Styles

After being attacked, Ivar Gunnarson (LOVE that name) and his Viking fleet land at Ranriken Bay (the border of Norway and Sweden) to request assistance from the jaarl (lord) there. Well, request is putting it nicely. Demand is more like it because everyone is scared of the raiding happy Vikings. Ivar has a reputation for being big, bad, and fierce. He is not a man to mess with.

The jaarl decides that his daughter will… well… entertain the Viking leader. This doesn't sit too well with the daughter. She is crazy in love with a lumberjack and threatens to kill herself. Her innocent half-sister Princess Thyre, doomed to marry a rather disgusting man, secretly takes her place in the Viking's bed. That one night rocks both Ivar's and Thyre's very different worlds. Although he can't see his partner (too dark), Ivar, not being a dumb man, suspects he got the saucy half-sister, the woman he has been lusting after all evening. He marks his mysterious bedmate (gives her a Viking hickey).

Thyre and her half-sister trade off before Ivar wakes up. His tigress is now a puddy cat and Ivar knows he's been tricked (told ya he wasn't dumb). He thinks the entire village is laughing at him (dissing his bad boy rep). He is so not pleased that when the half-sister asks for her morning gift (a thank you for the night before), he tells her he'll give it to her later… in public. You can imagine what happens then…

The Viking's Captive Princess, although published by Harlequin Historical, has the romance as more of a subplot than the main attraction. There are too many other fascinating things going on to focus heavily on Thyre and Ivar's relationship. There's the unique setting, the richness of the customs, the tight, tight political intrigue, and… and… and... This is book three in Michelle Styles' Viking series and I can guarantee there will be more (because if I don't hear more about a certain secondary character, I'll go totally Viking in the bookstore).

You can read more about Michelle Styles and her Viking series here
http://www.michellestyles.co.uk/

Ivar Gunnarson... sorry, just had to say it one more time