Book Title : Under A Viking Moon
Author : Tami Dee
Publisher : Desert Breeze Publishing Inc
Genre : Time travel, paranormal romance
Publication Date :
ISBN : 978 1 936000 265
Pages : 166 pages
Series : Mists of Time Viking Series
Category : Sensual
Type : e-book

Reviewer : Lindsay Townsend

4.5 Wings

Set in present day California and Iceland in 900 AD, Under A Viking Moon begins with a vivid and shocking act of murder and treachery. Through a misguided love, Katla betrays her betrothed Leif and so sets off a deadly series of events that will impact on the present day. According to her family, Katla has a child by her lover but, unable to live with what she has done, later commits suicide.

Katla (Kat) Jonsdottir is a direct descendant of that Katla. According to Kat’s grandmother, it is up to the modern Kat to make amends for her namesake’s misguided passion and actions. She must wait of the return of “him”, go with him wherever he goes and save Katla’s infant son “or all will be lost”.

She is given a key to find a vital clue, but her grandmother, slipping in and out of lucidity and dementia, has told her no more. Somehow Kat must discover which safe or deposit box will be opened by the key – and quickly, because she is having visions of an ancient, bloodied Norse warrior.

There is also the mystery of two pendants, both marked with the same rune, which are said to create powerful magic. Kat knows her family had such a pendant and that Leif had the other: what will happen if they are reunited again?

A week later she saves a man from drowning, a man dressed in Viking costume – or so she thinks. It quickly turns out that this huge, handsome Norseman is Katla’s betrothed Leif, who has somehow travelled a thousand years in time to the present day, and who thinks she is his treacherous betrothed. (The two women look alike.)

Leif is naturally confused, even though he has been told that the pendant he always wears represents the future. His efforts to adjust to his sudden time shift are amusing – the Norseman going clubbing is priceless – as well as exciting and intriguing. The differences between his attitudes and present day beliefs are well brought out and add to the stakes and power of the novel.

This is an intriguing story, grippingly told, with a high stakes romance woven through it and a compelling hero. Leif is an honorable, intelligent, generous, caring man and very fair-minded. Kat, the heroine, is appealing, loyal and brave, willing to take on modern criminals in her quest to save others. Throughout the novel, Kat and Leif also save and rescue each other – and they need to, especially when the secret of the key Kat holds is uncovered and later, through the united power of her newly-recovered pendant and Leif’s they are returned to his past. There, Katla’s resemblance to her namesake becomes deadly and the only way Leif can save her from his vengeful family is by claiming her as his slave. The brutality of that age is vividly shown, and also the hard choices families had to make in those difficult times.

A deadly enemy is also waiting for them both in Leif’s time, one who will stop at nothing, including murder. There is also the other Katla’s infant son, Arild, who could be a danger to them. If Leif kills an innocent child, Kat will never forgive him. If he finds the child and does nothing, will Arild grow to manhood hating Leif’s clan and determined to have his revenge on them?

The twists and turns of this novel are very satisfying and exciting and the romance is passionate and always believable while being also full of twists and turns. The ending is everything I hoped for and more.
I look forward to reading more of this exciting series from Tami Dee.