Jolie Mathis

This is not your typical Viking romance. The heroine’s family is not killed in a slaughter. The heroine is not captured kicking and screaming from her warm home and forced to endure a harsh, frozen land; while of course falling in love with her captor. The Sea King is unique, intriguing and first rate.

Princess Isabel, under the constant watch of her half-brother Ranulf, slips out of the castle for some much needed freedom. She’s racing along on her horse while daydreaming when the horse becomes spooked. Isabel is tossed into the river. Kol Thorleksson, a handsome Viking rescues Isabel from certain drowning. When Isabel awakens from her unconscious state, she learns that the mysterious Viking has been beaten and imprisoned. She tries desperately to plead Kol’s innocence but no one believes her. Later that night Isobel is able to free him from her brother’s dungeon.

Two years later there is a bleak reckoning for Kol & Isabel. He’s back for revenge for his mistreatment and immediately lays siege to the castle. Ranulf escapes, leaving his two sisters to fend for themselves. Kol is shocked to find that the young girl who helped aid in his escape is actually a princess and his enemy’s sister. Kol does expect something of a warm welcome, despite the fact that he has just seized her home. Instead, he finds that Isobel has changed; now she treats him only with fearful contempt and anger. The reason soon becomes clear. Isabel firmly believes that Kol is the father of her two-year-old son, a result of rape. During the past two years, Isabel has been ostracized by her own people because many believe that she set the Viking warrior free. As a mother all Isabel can do is fiercely protect her son, who is the only joy in her life and try to protect her own heart as well. As the proud returning Viking conqueror, all Kol can do is unearth the truth and claim the women he has never forgotten. The writing, the characters, the story … everything is fantastic.… (meer)