Leanne Olson

by Tiana Warner

Releasing July 26, 2022 from Entangled Publishing

The Valkyrie’s Daughter is an imaginative, fun fantasy story loosely inspired by Norse mythology, with a side of sapphic romance.

Sigrid is a stablehand with a regular horse who longs to be a valkyrie, a female warrior with a winged mare.  When she’s caught up in an ambush, she sees a vision of her own destiny: riding past the gates of Hel to retrieve a powerful amulet. To get there, she has to befriend Mariam, an enemy valkyrie.

Although this one is classed by the publisher as Teen/Young Adult, it read quite young to me.  I’d put it on the lower age range of YA or maybe even Middle Grade.  At first, I found it hard to get into for this reason — it was a bit too straightforward and simply written to draw me in — but once I put myself in the mind of myself as a horse-crazy girl at age 13, I enjoyed The Valkyrie’s Daughter SO very much.

The romance between Sigrid and Mariam is very sweet and well-earned, and I loved the friendships and character growth in this one. The different mythical worlds are fun to experience, and Warner propels the reader between well-plotted action scenes.  Warner obviously loves horses and knows a lot about their personalities and care.

At times, the moral of the story and the lessons Sigrid learns are spelled out a bit too obviously, which is part of what makes this book feel young to me.  But I enjoyed the time I spent in Sigrid’s world and look forward to a sequel.

Thank you to Entangled Publishing and NetGalley for my review copy of this book.