Review: Éire’s Captive Moon by Sandi Layne

With Éire’s Captive Moon, Sandi Layne has created an unforgettable tale of love, loss, intrigue, bravery, and suspense. From the first pages, you’ll be held captive by Ms. Layne’s incredible storytelling and her ability to paint a picture with words that pulls you so deeply into her world you forget your surroundings.

Charis is snatched away from her home and everything she ever knew or loved. She’s been captured to be the medicine woman, slave, and bed partner to the viking, Agnarr, who was so impressed by her healing skills he had to have her. Charis is a strong willed woman and isn’t about to accept her fate without a hell of a fight. Taken across the seas, far from her home, she plans her revenge and escape throughout the long, cold winter.

It’s not as easy as she thought to hate her captors, and two men will be vying for her affections before all is said and done.

I’m not going to delve too deeply into the story here. What I want to focus on is Sandi Layne’s beautiful writing. Her descriptions are spot on without going overboard. You will feel the chill in the air, hear the snow crunching underfoot, smell and taste the meat being cooked over an open fire. There are characters that tug at the heartstrings and others that incite a sense of outrage, betrayal, and contempt. Charis’ emotions leap from the page, and I often found myself conflicted.

The things I didn’t like about this book were all personal preferences—such as wishing certain events went a different way. The writing was delicious, and the story was fascinating and felt completely authentic. It’s obvious Ms. Layne put a great deal of time into Éire’s Captive Moon.

The one thing that must be said is I consumed this book. I read it over a two day period and was annoyed when I had to put it aside to do other things—unusual for me since I don’t normally have that much reading time. I was enraptured, and I think you will be, too.

Spoilerish comment ahead! (No plot reveals)

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Although I didn’t expect this to be the case, after reading the story, I’m Team Agnarr all the way.

Originally I marked Éire’s Captive Moon as 4.5 stars, but after thinking about the story again and how much I enjoyed it, I have to up it to a full 5 stars—something I don’t give out very often.