Title: Celtic Viking
Author: Lexi Timms
Publisher: 
Published Date:20 April 2015
Page Count: 194
ASIN: B00VVK8S5W
Price: Free
Reviewer: Gwendoline SK Terry (2 January 2020)

Blurb
In a world plagued with darkness, she would be his salvation.

No one gave Erik a choice as to whether he would fight or not. Duty to the crown belonged to him, his father’s legacy remaining beyond the grave.

Taken by the beauty of the countryside surrounding her, Linzi would do anything to protect her father’s land. Britain is under attack and Scotland is next. At a time she should be focused on suitors, the men of her country have gone to war and she’s left to stand alone.

Love will become available, but will passion at the touch of the enemy unravel her strong hold first?

Review
“Celtic Viking” was a free eBook available to download on Amazon. I downloaded it … and got what I paid for.

By the title alone, I assumed perhaps the main character was half-Celt half-Dane/Norse. I was NOT expecting the author to mistakenly interchange Celts and Vikings (and even Saxons) throughout the entire story. Unfortunately, though the biggest inaccuracy, it was not the only inaccuracy, this book is rife with them. The author obviously didn’t research their book as well as they should’ve.

The main male character, Erik, is as un-Viking as a Viking could be. I understand modernizing your character (to a certain extent) to fit with the morals of the 21st-century reader, but there MUST be some realism in historical fiction. He basically spends 75% of his portion of the book whining and condemning his men for fighting and killing. He is a Viking, come on.

Linzi was bleurgh; I really don’t have an opinion of her. I didn’t like her big brother, he was overly protective and annoying. I had to flip past the conversation between Martha and Linzi about the tattoo, it bothered me too much.

Unfortunately, the author also obviously didn’t hire an editor. I understand, when you independently publish a book mistakes are made, I get that (god knows I made more than a few myself when I indie-published my first book!), so I personally can forgive a couple of grammar or spelling mistakes that went amiss if the story is well-written, but the historical inaccuracies were outrageous. I was bothered so much by the referring of Danes as Celts; in the first instance I was stuck re-reading the lines for a few minutes, trying to digest what I’d read when Erik the Viking referred to him and his Danish men as ‘Celts’, and I cringed every time I saw that mistake repeated thereafter.

The cover of the book is lovely although not fitting to the time period (the woman looks like she’s wearing a prom dress and with that red rose across her shoulder it certainly does not give the impression of a historical book set in 872AD – perhaps more like a fantasy book?). For all my complaints, I honestly do think the story is alright, I just don’t understand why the author didn’t go the extra step and hire an editor or even a few beta readers to look over the book before publishing. I went through the author’s profile on Amazon and saw that this was the fifth or so book she’d published? Well, technically it was the third book since the first was one story published in three parts.

Speaking of books published in multiple parts, though it does state in the description on the Amazon page, “Celtic Viking” is the first of a three-part series, it really shouldn’t be. The story itself ends 64% of the way through the eBook. Publishing three short parts that could easily be published as just one book irritates me. I don’t intend to buy the other two books so this really doesn’t affect me, but this is a marketing ploy I wish would end.