How do you combine Navy SEALs, Vikings, terrorists, and a harem concubine into one story? Well, time travel of course, and Sandra Hill is known for her ability to combine the past and present into funny and a bit madcap adventures. With Hot and Heavy, the fifth book in the Viking Series II, the reader gets a bit of a change this time around since the time traveling Viking just happens to be a woman.

Eleventh century Norsewoman Madrene Olgadottir or Maddie has just escaped from her ninth harem in two years somewhere in the Arab mountains. Sold into slavery by an enemy of her Norse family, Maddie is a strong, no-nonsense woman who has survived her concubine existence untouched by feigning magical spells threatening to shrink each sultan’s or caliph’s manparts. Now over thirty, Maddie’s only desire in life is to return to her homeland, raise an army, and recapture her beloved family home.

Navy SEAL Lieutenant Ian MacLean heads the Force Squad of the 8th Platoon in SEAL Team Thirteen. Required to complete a will before embarking on a dangerous mission, Ian can’t think of anyone in his life who would really benefit from his worldly goods. Now upon reflection, he realizes that his numerous one night stands over the years were a real waste of time and no longer hold any appeal. His SEAL teammates kid him mercilessly about losing his lust, but all Ian knows is that at the age of 34, he is just “too old for that crap”. His life revolves around his career and he is considered an honorable, trusted leader, who, unfortunately, has a penchant for motivational sayings.

Ian’s SEAL team is headed to northern Iraq for Operation Rodent with the capture of terrorist leader Jamal ben Hassan as their objective. Jamal claims responsibility for a recent suicide bombing that killed ten people and is said to have his longtime mistress with him.

Desperately trying to find her way to Baghdad and unaware she is now in the 21st century, Maddie takes shelter in a cave from an intense storm only to find her refuge invaded by some man-beast with an appendage coming out of his mouth. Terrified, she knocks it unconscious and after closer examination decides it must be one of those troll-soldiers she had only heard about from the skalds of old. Of course, that troll is none other than Ian in his full battle gear who has come to investigate the cave after his team landed successfully in Iraq. Ian doesn’t know what to make of this smelly wild woman standing over him uttering some sort of Arabic but jumps to the conclusion that she must be Jamal’s mistress. Since Maddie is speaking about thieving Scotsman, haggis, and sennights and Ian is thinking in terms of terrorists, weeks, and Russians, the misunderstandings only multiply.

Maddie is the best part of this book – she is one outspoken and lovable heroine. Although she has suffered a lot in her life (she bears whip scars on her back), absolutely nothing scares her except the thought of a man ruling over her again. Ian is flabbergasted as she talks about sex without blinking an eye and swims naked in the ocean – that is until he sternly corrects her on the matter. Ian appears to be a straight-laced, sensible hero, but that does not mean Maddie is irrational by comparison – she is just out of her element. Although both leads have their charming moments, it was difficult for me to envision these two falling in love since the only thing they actually have in common is their lust. Additionally, the role the U.S. government plays in their forced cohabitation is just plain weak and made me wonder if any part of the book was meant to be realistic.

My first Hill book was Truly Madly Viking (the second in this series) and I laughed uproariously at her time travel antics. However, with each of her succeeding Viking books, the laughter has lessened since I feel like I am reading the same jokes again and again. Hill’s trademark play on words caused by the differing speech patterns over the years are present with CIA interpreted as see-eye-aye or Lieutenant as lewd-tenant but the catchy phrases held only mild amusement for me compared to previous books.

The vapid SEAL action scenes throughout the book were a puzzle to me and left me wondering if they were intended as a parody. Their pre-mission planning sounded more like a publicity video and I could not imagine these words coming from the mouths of highly trained soldiers on the verge of an extremely dangerous mission. Where was the gritty reality such a situation commanded? And to top it off, this is set against a clearly stated 9/11 backdrop so how could I not attempt to take it seriously? Although humor can lighten dark subjects, I will admit that I am not ready to laugh around that grave situation – yet.

As is characteristic for Hill, secondary characters abound, so much so that it was difficult to keep them straight. The SEAL team alone presented the reader with eight new characters, all complete with nicknames and backgrounds, within the first ten pages of the book. And these guys did not have normal backgrounds – Esquire underwear model, priest, race car driver, linguist/college professor, and a genius who received his doctorate at the age of eighteen, for example – making me wonder if some sort of massive groundwork was underway here for future books. Making matters even more complicated, all of the leads from the four previous books in this series appear and, although I have read two of those books, I was still highly confused. Needless to say, Hot and Heavy does not stand alone easily.

For me, effective comedy needs to touch on reality every now even in the realm of time travel. Maybe if I had laughed a little more, I wouldn’t have noticed all the discrepancies with life in the real world.