A Writer's Review of “God's Daughter” by Heather Day Gilbert

{My Review}

One look at this stunning cover, and the knowledge that it was written in first person perspective was all it took for me to buy this book when it was marked down to a few dollars on Amazon soon after it was released. And yes, it did take me a while to read, but that was because I was literally the most tired pregnant person to ever walk the earth and had nothing to do with the story or writing.
 

I really don't think I've ever read any kind of book--fiction or non--about Vikings before. And I have to hand it to the author; she definitely knew what she was writing about. I could tell she did her research, and that she has a definite passion for this particular ancient people-group... and especially this woman named Gudrid, who had a real place in history.

As a reader, I really liked reading Gudrid's character. As the first and only Christian in her group of people--and one who had, beforehand, been trained in the Vikings own magical sort of religion, she really had a difficult time making sense of a lot of things... like men. By the time she was in her early twenties she had already been widowed multiple times and was still torn between her growing love for her newest husband and the other men-friends who have been attracted to her. The author deals with these situations very tastefully and obviously, from what she says on her website, has a passion to write characters stuck in a place that she knew real women readers were dealing with.    

God's Daughter by Heather Day Gilbert currently has a rating of 4.36 out of 5 stars (from 74 ratings) on Goodreads. I bought a copy of this book for myself and wanted to write a review. 

This book came out November 1, 2013.

{More About the Book}

One Viking woman. One God. One legendary journey to North America.

In the tenth century, when pagan holy women rule the Viking lands, Gudrid turns her back on her training as a seeress to embrace Christianity. Clinging to her faith, she joins her husband, Finn, on a voyage to North America.

But even as Gudrid faces down murderous crewmen, raging sickness, and hostile natives, she realizes her greatest enemy is herself--and the secrets she hides might just tear her marriage apart.

Almost five centuries before Columbus, Viking women sailed to North America with their husbands. God's Daughter, Book One in the Vikings of the New World Saga, offers an expansive yet intimate look into the world of Gudrid Thorbjarnardottir--daughter-in-law of Eirik the Red, and the first documented European woman to have a child in North America.

{About the Author}

Heather Day Gilbert writes character-driven novels that go beyond the vows, capturing the triumphs and heartaches unique to married couples. A graduate of Bob Jones University, she's been married to her sweet Yankee husband of seventeen years.

After ten years of homeschooling and six years of writing, she really doesn't have many hobbies. Born and raised in the West Virginia mountains, she believes that bittersweet, generational stories are in her blood.Heather's contemporary Appalachian mystery, Miranda Warning, releases West Virginia Day, June 20, 2014. Her debut Viking historical fiction novel, God's Daughter, is an Amazon bestseller.