Nabilah's Reviews > The Viking's Runaway Concubine

Surprise, surprise. I didn't think that Harlequin would publish something like this (this book borders on erotica, with BDSM at its heart).

This book is very much a character-driven story; you won't see any action here. It is a bit of a mess. My biggest problem is with Ulfric treatment towards Einthe, especially the first few years of their lives together. He never did bother to get to know her. She pretended to be mute those first few years, but there were other ways to communicate. It's just that I feel that he was only using her for his sexual gratification. This is a romance novel, so where is the romance? There is the fact that he presumes Einthe likes the sexual games that they're playing based solely on her arousal. A person can orgasm during rape. It's a natural biological response. That doesn't mean the person likes it or it's consensual.

This book just rubbed me the wrong way. I picked it up because a GR friend mentioned this is a dark romance. Furthermore, Harlequin published this book, so I was curious about how dark it can get. The reason I finished the book? I was curious how the characters achieve their HEA with the whole master/slave thing going on. Maybe I'm just not the intended reader of this book. Oh, and the cover is not that great (a clean-shaven baby-faced Viking??!! The hero's moniker is 'Ulfric the Grim' and that model is very far from grim, in my opinion). In the end, the book just didn't do it for me. 3 very reluctantly given stars.