To Wed a Viking Warrior is the third book in a trilogy. While the leads from the first two books are mentioned and make a few appearances, this story stands on its own quite well. The heroine, Elene, is the youngest of three daughters of a Mercian aeldorman. Her older sisters have married Vikings who settled on nearby lands, and Elene’s father wants her married to someone that will meet the approval of the Mercian king so as to cement the family’s hold on its lands. Because of the politics in play, Elene’s father is vulnerable to machinations of his steward, who leads him to a candidate that Elene loathes – and who has issues, as one will see in the book.

As the novel opens, Elene is fleeing. She is discovered by a neighboring lord, Hafual. Hafual is also a Viking, but has been in the employ of the Mercian king. After having been widowed, Hafual simply wants to raise his young son and frankly, otherwise be left alone. He takes pity on Elene, though, and when he hears of her plight, he promises rescue.

At a banquet that evening, Elene’s father does something even worse than anticipated. He doesn’t just attempt to force a betrothal on her; he insists she be married at once. Elene and Hafual convincingly claim that they have been trysting in secret and have pledged to one another. And so, surprise wedding!

It’s quite a set-up and I’ll admit I had my doubts as I read the opening chapters. However, as the book moved along, I found myself getting drawn into it. Part of it was because I could empathize with the characters. Elene’s father may seem tyrannical in some ways, but the book makes it clear that he both loves his daughter but also needs to secure the family’s future. And in that time, setting up a political marriage was pretty commonplace.

I also liked that Elene and Hafual actually talked to one another and seemed to want to learn more about each other. There’s chemistry between them, but they also seemed curious about one another. For instance, it’s well-known that Elene had been involved with someone before Hafual. Unlike some alphahole heroes I’ve seen, he doesn’t shame her for it. However, he does get curious about what went on, whether she still has feelings for this guy, etc.. We also figure out early on that Hafual’s marriage wasn’t entirely happy, and some of the discussion of how he failed his first wife gets very emotional.

Speaking of emotional, anyone reading this should be aware of some very big triggers. Throughout the story, we hear about post partum depression/psychosis, and references to past death and injury of children. These scenes are going to be very disturbing for some readers, so I wanted to make that caution. In some ways, these issues are handled with sensitivity as it’s obvious that Elene cared about the mother who went through these things and is sad for what happened. However, there are also times in which this character’s illness is described in ways that make her sound like a monster. It’s probably a plot point that would have made me pass on this book if I’d known it was there before I got into the story.

However, aside from that and a somewhat overly wordy setup to the story, I did end up enjoying Elene and Hafual’s story. If you can get past a clunky opening chapter and handle the triggery plot point mentioned above, then I would give this a qualified recommendation. There’s some sweet romance and interesting history woven into this story, but also some issues of which readers should be aware.