God Of Fire [CD-ROM]

Dara has to be dreaming. She is with Loki and he is making her feel all kinds of wonderful. Loki tells her that she is to be married to a real warrior and to remember the name Ragnar. He also marks her with a dragon on her ankle. Dara is engaged to a man that she doesn't love, nor does he incite any passion in her. Later that day, she decides to break off her engagement and lays down on the river on her land. She decides to take a nap in the nude, after all, no one will come by.

Meanwhile, the council is meeting. The Jarl, Erik Valkraad, tells the rest of the Vikings that he has had a vision. He tells them that Loki came to him in this vision. He was told that the chosen one would find a female by the River Thund. She would be a woman of gold, golden skin, golden hair and golden eyes. All of the Vikings would have to do this woman's bidding. She would wed the chosen one, but he can't force her to his bed. And if any of the warriors want to make it to Valhalla, she will have to bear a male child, which would be named Balder, within one year. And nobody can tell her about this. Well, naturally, all of the men volunteer for this job. But Erik tells them that the chosen one is his son and heir, Ragnar. Oh no. Ragnar has been married twice and has slept his way through all the women in the village without a child. No one can understand why he was chosen.

Dara wakes up and seems to be lost. Nothing looks familiar. She runs into a mountain of man with a mountain man's scraggly beard. This turns out to be Ragnar. He takes her back to his village and sneaks her into his room. He doesn't want to share her with anyone else. He has told her that he won't rape her, that she must come willingly to him. He also informs her that they will be married the next day. Dara is not exactly happy with this, but doesn't know what to do about it. She checks her ankle, and there is the dragon that Loki put on her during her dream. This must be real and she really can't believe it. She has gone to sleep in the year 2001 and woke up in the year 820! She decides to play along with Ragnar until she can figure out what to do.

Ragnar is your totally typical Alpha hero. He is big and gorgeous. He is the heir apparent and acts that way. He surprises himself when he begins to care very much for Dara. He is also surprised that he doesn't want to have sex with anybody but his wife, even when women throw themselves at him. Dara is flung from one time, with everything going for her, into a time that she doesn't really want to be in. She has trouble dealing with the thralls, or slaves. She finds the whole idea disgusting to her, but has to learn to live with it. Of course, her husband is the best thing about this time. The secondary characters are all very believable as well. I especially liked Joran, Ragnar's mother. She figured out right away that Dara was from a different time and accepted her. Joran helped make Dara's transition into 820 a little easier.

This is a wonderful read. The Viking time is very realistic, right down to the fighting during the wedding feast. Even though this book is romantica, it definitely leaves you with the "warm fuzzy" feeling at the end. This is definitely a book that I can recommend to anyone that enjoys romantica and Viking lore.