I love tales playing with stories but importantly I do like to look for a great angle in some way. Characters, plot or world - not perhaps that’s new but at least a fresh approach. Sadly Shield Maiden by Sharon Emmerichs was a read with the intention of a new way of looking at Beowulf that left me feeling very much I’d seen it before.

Fryda is the daughter of a powerful chief and niece to Beowulf now an old but still charismatic leader. Fryda as a child suffered a major arm injury in an accident yet still wants to fight as a shield maiden. But her father constantly refuses and rarely had time for her. Her friends come from the servants and slaves of the community. But intrigue is around and somewhere a dragon is stirring….

Overall I was very disappointed with this story. Emmerichs clearly has done research but it all felt rather shallow as a world. The characters talk to each other in a very modern style and all sounded the same which considering the way the world is being highlighted very a strange choice. The first quarter is incredibly slow and the plot does feel very much something I’ve read before. The villains, the plot reveals and the love interest all signal themselves. its all done professionally but rarely gets to soar as a story. Not one I can recommend.

This was a pretty interesting take on retelling Beowulf. It focuses on his niece instead and brings in a lot of new elements to the story. Fryda is a fascinating main character for the most part and it's a fairly interesting and well-paced plot however this just didn't wow me.

An interesting take on the Beowulf legend, by looking at his niece instead.

As a child, Fryda has a terrible accident and is left disabled. Believing she cannot now join her father’s elite warrior band of Shield Maidens, she attempts to settle into life as the lady of the house. However when her Uncle Beowulf comes to visit and a plot is revealed, Fryda discovers her life may not yet be as she believed.

I really enjoyed the variety of characters and seeing Fryda’s interactions with them. Each had an individual storyline which wove beautifully to create a picture of life within their home. I did find Fryda a bit naive to the realities of her friends’ (slaves and servants) lives, at times, however she is a young character who has been sheltered from many aspects of clan life.

The pacing was good and kept me engaged while also providing a thorough look into Fryda’s life. The book takes place over a relatively short chronological time, however a lot happens within the storyline.

The dragon aspect did feel somewhat less important to the story than other parts, and it wrapped up fairly quickly, however it provided the impetus for Fryda to accept who she is and what she is capable of.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Shield Maiden and will keep an eye out for other books by the author in the future.

Shield Maiden started out as a brilliant fantasy saga, a retelling of the Beowulf saga from the perspective of a woman. Fryda is the beloved niece of the legendary hero, however, her father refuses to let her train as a warrior. As a child she snuck out to prove her skills only for a terrible earthquake to end her dreams in more ways than one. Not only was she unable to complete her hunt, she ended up trapped in the earth and horrifically injured. When she was eventually found the bones in her hand were broken so badly that she permanently lost the use of that hand, and was disfigured for the rest of her life.

Her father saw her injury as further proof that Fryda was not meant to be a warrior, forbidding her from training as a warrior. But Fryda isn’t someone who is willing to give up so easily. She survived that horrific injury and with the help of her friends, the blacksmith Bryce and a servant Hild, she trains in secret. She is determined to let nothing get in her way of becoming a shield maiden one day, and with Bryce’s help she learns to adapt her injured hand so that she can fight with it.

For the first half of Shield Maiden it was a fantastic read, with great disability representation and Fryda is a fierce figure to be reckoned with. When her home comes under attack she is right in the middle of the fight to save the day, and the battle scenes are well written. Emmerichs has captured the essence of the legend of Beowulf perfectly at this point of the novel. Mixed alongside the treachery and battles was magic as a dragon slowly began to awaken from a sleeping spell, her fate entwined with Fryda’s.

And then I’m not quite sure what happened. The novel took a swift sharp turn and became all about Fryda’s bigoted brother, Wiglaf, who seems determined to not just destroy Fryda’s happiness, but also run their home into the ground. There are more than a few holes in the story at this point, such as characters missing huge clues that point to the real perpetrator of a crime yet somehow only Fryda notices them. The narrative also starts to get shaky when it jumps to Wiglaf’s perspective and he ‘sort of’ admits that he may have done something bad but no he’s ‘not going to think about that right now’. Umm, what? Even the battle scenes at the end of the book seemed to be of a lesser standard than those earlier, and the description of the dragon scenes left much to be desired.

I couldn’t shake the feeling throughout the book that Fryda was written out of context for the time period. She has very modern ideas about slavery and servants, and quite often she tried to come across as understanding when quite frankly she was clueless to what her friends lives were like. At one point she tells her friend/lover Theow, a slave, that “slavery isn’t what you are, it’s something awful that happened to you”. While she is perfectly correct, that is a very modern perspective and one that someone in her position, a young noble woman, would not even know to consider.

What bothered me the most was the realisation that Fryda was written not as a disabled character who was inspirational due to her deeds, but because she was disabled and managed to do everything she accomplished. Her disability is constantly being pointed out, she is referred to as crippled by other characters and attention is drawn to her disfigured hand at every opportunity so that the reader never ever forgets that it’s there. It’s done almost subtly, hidden in the narration as her friend’s loving gaze as they notice how Fryda always tucks that hand away from view. There are two problems with that. One, if her friends had no issue with her disability as they continuously claim throughout the book then they wouldn’t keep looking at her hand in every single scene with her especially if they were so aware that Fryda was self-conscious about it. Secondly, it’s just a writing technique to draw the reader’s attention to Fryda’s disability which as I was saying, is the entire problem.

This became even more noticeable to me when reading the book directly after Shield Maiden, a book which also had a disabled protagonist and yet the author didn’t feel the need to keep reminding the reader that they were disabled. The only time the character’s disability came up was when it was a part of her life, such as removing her prosthetic limb to rest or bathe. It isn’t just enough to include a disabled character and call it representation. When such a huge effort is made to constantly remind the reader that a character is disabled it begins to make me question the author’s intent for including a disabled character. I felt this even more when it was heavily suggested that a badly injured character, now disabled, deserved their just desserts. Becoming disabled is not a punishment no matter what the person has done.

Sadly this was not for me.
Fryda was written way too naively and "modern" for it to fit into a historical setting. Theow was just lame and Wiglaf way too overwritten.
The plot had holes and the pacing was too slow for my liking as well.
It had a good concept, but the execution was a letdown.

If you like YA fantasy with diversity, slower pacing and don't mind if the plot isn't super tight, then this might be for you.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Today is my stop on the tour for Shield Maiden by Sharon Emmerichs. I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review. Thank you so much to the lovely Cassie, Ad Astra Fiction & Head of Zeus for having me on the tour!

Based on the poem Beowulf, Shield Maiden follows a determined and powerful heroine Fryda as she battles for her people on her journey to becoming a shield maiden.

I loved our main character Fryda! She was caring, fierce and resourceful! The friendships she formed were so special and full of love. I really enjoyed reading from her POV and I would’ve loved if the whole story was from her point of view rather than splitting it across the characters. She was so engaging and I really enjoyed her voice throughout. The excerpts from the dragon were a clever way to break up the chapters and I liked how it showcased the connection between the dragon and Fryda. Plus, the disability and chronic pain representation was written so thoughtfully throughout the story!

The setting and worldbuilding was very interesting! I loved the detail that the author included and the passion that the author has for this time period and poem really shined through. The writing is beautiful and I am definitely interested to see what the author writes next!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. This was a creative and absorbing tale! Definitely recommend this one!

Based upon the legend of Beowulf, this story has epic battles, friendships & betrayals, a bit of romance and a fierce, young woman determined to become a fierce warrior.

Fryda always wanted to become a shield maiden. An accident leaving her physically disabled attempts to snuff out her dreams but she is determined that she will become a fierce warrior, against her father and brother’s wishes. A great feast is held in honour of Beowulf’s long reign but a discovery threatens the entire clan. Beneath the land Fryda calls home, a dragon slumbers, but she’s not going to stay asleep for much longer…

I love stories with fierce warrior female characters and stories inspired by Old English and Scandinavian mythology. This YA story has a lot of great elements which I adored. I love Fryda as a main protagonist- she soldiers on despite dealing with a disability that has made her “unsuitable” for a marriage. She’s a natural born leader but her cold father and alcoholic twin brother are dismissive and don’t recognise her strengths. I enjoyed the multiple POVs, particularly the dragon’s perspective as I felt it tied in neatly to the style of the original Beowulf poem.

Beowulf himself plays an important role in this story and it was really interesting to see him at a later point in his life. I enjoyed the world building and there’s plenty of action throughout to keep the reader on their toes.

The best aspect for me is how disability is portrayed in a positive light by the author. Fryda initially is ashamed of her disability but over time learns to embrace her physical injuries and scars, not allowing them to prevent her from training to be a shield maiden. Theow, the slave and Fryda’s love interest, has his own traumatic past and scars. His and Fryda’s budding relationship is an interesting sub-plot that adds rather than takes away, from the main plot. Bryce, the blacksmith who lives on the edge of their camp, is another standout character- his fierce loyalty to Fryda and Theow and his own back story was such a pivotal aspect of this story.

An action-packed book perfect for YA and adult readers alike. Shield Maiden is out now. Thanks to Head of Zeus and NetGalley for the arc. 4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This had a wonderfully intriguing premise, but in the end the story just did not come together for me. It was also written in a more of a young adult style than I expected, which I don’t tend to enjoy. I could see a YA fan enjoying this historical take on the genre though.

I am could round up on this to 3/5 because it had good bones, but I really found this a challenge to find things I liked about it.

It starts with Fryda, who we first see going on an ill-advised morning hunt to prove to her present-but-absent father she's worthy of being a Shield Maiden. Obviously this doesn't go well because if it did that'd be the story done. I still thought 'Yes! We're going to get a strong, KA female character through the rest of the story" and we mostly did but we also got a child in some respects. Maybe that could be because she was so sheltered, and naive which the author kindly reminded us multiple times in the book (at least four times if we're counting).

Theow could have been replaced with a really loyal dog, and excluding the whole love affair between the two, it really wouldn't have made much difference to the story.

I just felt bad for Fyrdraca. Like start to finish, I just felt bad and the battle scene did not leave me feeling less bad. And while I know Wiglaf was meant to be villian of the story, he felt so over the top. I struggled to get behind his blumbering, drunk/addict, womaniser persona coupled with a vindictive, dangerous and manipulative person. It felt like too much shoved into one character.

I have to talk about the writing itself. Has anyone else noticed just an overwhelming sea of similes? "like a beacon on the horizon", "as if a thousand tiny wings fluttered under her skin", "like skinning an apple with a battleaxe", "like a fragment of fire on a candle wick"
Ok....did we need those? Did they really add much? Did I find them very distracting and get to a point when I rolled my eyes whenever another popped up?

Similarly, the sound effects were unnecessary and felt almost childish. I don't need to read 'WHUMP' to know someone fell or a dragon was beating its wings. I've seen people fall. I've seen fantasy films, I know what wings sound like. This felt like an MG or properly child's book describing the sounds a giant makes. (Partly because it kinda was except instead of a giant it was dragon.) I will also add to this the sentences, ""Whoop," she said, suddenly dizzy and disoriented." and "Down...down. With single-minded focus Theow climbed..." Just say she was dizy! Just say he was climbing down! Why did you need the rest?

I absolutely have to add this, "petrified tree stump dominated the room, smooth and polished to serve as an anvil." and "The smooth, polished surface of the petrified tree stump that served as his anvil..." Clearly this was a thought so good it had to be paraphrased and included twice. (Side note: It did not.)

Finally, while I am not a Geatish girl in 987ce, I still don't think any of the characters would have said 'Bollocks'.

I wanted to like this book. I really wanted to like this book. But the writing has issues and had vast room for improvement. It got to the point several times where I had no idea what this came under, because the writing was MG, the language at times adult and the characters felt very YA but rudimentary.

This was a fascinating retelling of Beowulf with some very interesting characters and plot points. I really loved Freyda and Theow. It was also very well written and paced well. However, there were many switching points of view in this, basically, any character who had any weight and it was a little confusing and hard to follow and often took me out of the story. I would have liked it better if it was more streamlined in terms of POVs.

Overall this was a sweet read with an interesting premise and I did enjoy reading it but wish there was a little more to offer.

Shield Maiden by Sharon Emmerichs

Huge thanks to Cassie at Head for my copy of the book and spot on the tour.

Shield Maiden is based upon the legend of Beowulf and his presence is within this book as our main character Fryda’s uncle. I don’t know much about Beowulf but understand from a little bit of research online that some of the tales are secreted into this story and quite seemlessly aswell.

The book is action packed from the outset and begins with how Fryda ends up with a disfigured hand after to trying to prove herself to be a Shield Maiden.

Fryda however is not going to allow her disability to stifle her dream and so she continues to train with the determination and will of a true champion.

I really enjoyed the world building and the random chapters from the dragons perspective which I felt broke the story up in a good way.

I loved Fryda’s compassion and loyalty and although her love of Theow was forbidden I loved watching all the difficulties of that love play out.

I had really high hopes for this book, I love viking history and what girl doesn't want to be a shield maiden, and although I did enjoy the story and characters, the writing seemed quite young and I felt that although the main character desperately wanted to be seen as a strong shield maiden, the writing continued to patronise her and baby her, I still enjoyed reading it but felt it could have been so much more

3.5 stars

I’m a sucker for a weapon wielding female warrior tale, a historical story that puts women at the forefront. However, while this book definitely has its strong points, there were just a few elements that didn’t work for me.

I’ll start with the positive and that’s the main character Fryda. At the start of this story Fryda, in a bid to prove herself strong enough to be Shield Maiden and impress her cold father, goes out hunting alone and becomes injured in an earthquake. This earthquake in fact is to do with a dragon cursed beneath her and we later learn that some of that dragon’s power channels into Fryda. But I’m getting ahead of myself, during the earthquake Fryda’s hand becomes trapped and badly injured and for the rest of this book Fryda has limited use in this hand.
The beauty in this book lies in how disability is portrayed. Fryda experiences shame and she spends a lot of the book hiding her hand, set crooked when it healed, out of fear of how people treat her. However as the book goes on Fryda learns to accept herself for how she is, the book doesn’t cure Fryda, she’s a strong character who lives with her ailment alongside people who doubt her. Alongside this you also have Theow the slave who as a child was burned and has scars to show for it. Both these characters deal with ptsd and body issues from their scars and yet they nourish and reassure each other and it’s beautiful in that sense.

That said, the love story between Fryda and Theow is sweet enough but almost too sweet. These are both 2 characters with their own pain and trauma who help strengthen each other. Theow is a slave, Fryda the regents daughter, and on paper this should be a positive relationship with clear lines on consent, support and unity against the odds. The problem is though that Theow is just that, nice, too nice in fact, he’d die for Fryda, he risks himself constantly for Fryda, all he thinks about essentially is Fryda, he doesn’t feel like he exists on the page beyond her shadow.
In terms of other supporting characters, again they are likeable enough, they’re just not developed enough, Bryce lives on the edge of the camp like he lives on the edge of this book, Hild has potential also but she’s just there.

The plot is a little slow and yet also, somehow overwritten. You’ve got the issue of the attacks on Weohstan’s family, the betrayal, the battle, the scheming and the questions of inheritance. But then you’ve got this quite unnecessary dragon plot with Beowulf, a plot which is only fuelled by vague (and confusing) very brief chapters from the pov of the dragon Fyrdraca which don’t give you enough to either know or fear/hate this apparent threat the book is heading towards. Both plots, alongside an additional romance which takes up as much time if not more, is a little frustrating.
The villains in the scheming story are painfully obvious to the point everyone around them has got to be stupid to miss it. Like I said, the dragon isn’t built up enough to be feared and these sections are confusing in their tone. Had one story been committed to and dealt with properly I think this would have been more enjoyable.
Wiglaf is a ridiculous character, his jealousy, rage and cruelty is dastardly in its proportion for a character that freely walks unchallenged around characters who can’t see it. His narrative is bizarre, he wants to protect Fryda, his twin sister, he feels left out when she doesn’t need him, and yet you get whiplash after whiplash spending time with his thoughts. Maybe he’s meant to be complex but it just reads contradictory and inconsistent.

The writing style too is a little confusing, is this YA? Based on the amount of romance and the way the characters aged in their 20’s talk like teenagers. At one point the word “ar*ehole” is used, another time “c*nt” is used, all while set within a Nordic myth setting. It’s a little out of place.

At face level this isn’t a bad book in fact it is enjoyable. It’s just a little disjointed, a little underdeveloped and a little predictable. That said, it does still have good disability representation and a strong feminist character with some quality action scenes.

Thank you NetGalley for the copy in exchange for an honest review

Fryda is the daughter of a chief and wants nothing more than to become a shield maiden. However an accident when she was young has left Fryda disabled and even though she trains she will not be considered. When her uncle, the famous warrior Beowulf, visits their home in Geatland then everything changes. Old enmities come to the surface and Fryda force raises a terrifying beast from its sleep.
I really loved this book as it takes a different slant on both history and the sagas. Fryda is an independent woman who doesn't let her handicap stop her but traditional roles may. I also really liked the way that myth is woven into the story, both through Beowulf and through the dragon.

I actually really enjoyed this female first retelling of Beowulf’s fight with the dragon.

The book is told from the perspective of all of the characters involved and we see glimpses into their mindset, this did get a little confusing at times with each jump in perspective, as there are quite a few characters to keep track of. I loved Fryda, the main character, and her relationship with Theow. I enjoyed the exploration of what family means. She has so much strength despite being incredibly naive at times, she has a broken hand that she cannot use as the bones were not set right but this does not stop her from learning to fight. The way the author deals with and describes the effects of trauma really brought these characters to life.

Beowulf is one of the first written English epic poems and was originally told in the oral tradition before being written down. Stories change over time and I loved the way that the author of Shield Maiden played with that idea, changing who the villains were and who were the heroes. Showing that even the heroes the poets sing of cannot always live up to their reputation.

I do have an issue with the ending but at least it is a happy one, if it had remained true to the ending of the source material I think I would have thrown the book across the room.

The Wiglaf of this book deserves nothing!

3.5 upped to 4
There's a lot to love in this book: Fryda, the world building, the second half of the book.
I struggled with the first part as I found it very slow and nothing seemed to happen.
I enjoyed it and liked the end.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

I wanted to love this so badly but the plot was too erratic for my liking. It was an easy read but just fell way too short of expectations.

Thank you to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for the advance reader copy.

The Norse Fantasy has plenty of antecedents, arguable the first ever piece of fantasy fiction is Beowulf after all. And this is a well worn area of fiction, from attempts at straight historical pieces to more fantastic takes - after all How To Train Your Dragon is basically a Norse fantasy. Shield Maiden, as the name suggests, is a stab at a feminist bit of Norse fantasy, and hangs its coat lightly on Beowulf - who is here as a much much older character (pooh poohing without denying his previous exploits). It is borderline YA, though there is a smattering of sex, and is firmly in its heroine Fryda's head. Daughter of the local clan leader, Fryda has a disability (a damaged arm) but all the spunk and gumption you might need, particularly if you're embroiled in a chosen on narrative you aren't aware of.

I enjoyed Sheild Maiden a lot, mainly because its pretty clear about the story it wants to tell and how it wants to tell it. The stuff of sagas is in here, the foolish father, the duplicitous brother, the stirring deeds of braver and there's a massive dragon as well. And it gets to talk about the Vikings slavery and other historical misdeeds, this is very much a warts and all adventure. Once it pivots in the last third to its more fantastical subject matter, it does a good job of showing quite how much the stakes have been raised. Shield Maiden, much like its title, doesn't have much in the way of airs and graces and subtlety, but is is a lot of fun.

Shield Maiden is a read that goes a little bit outside of my comfort zone, being a kind of YA romance mixed with a coming-of-age historical fantasy, which I enjoyed greatly, especially with how Beowulf was implied in the plot.

We are going to be following Fryda, a captivating princess, whose dream of becoming a shieldmaiden was truncated at 13 years old, after an accident that left her with a useless hand. Despite her best efforts to train and improve, this will be a scourge on such an ableist society as the one we are seeing in this book; even being the daughter of the king and niece of the legendary Beowulf, she's seen as an invalid for the rest.
In the other part of the romance, we have Theow, a slave which was kidnapped when he was a mere kid. A brave man, who cares about Fryda's well-being, but whose condition makes this kind of relationship difficult.

Outside of this main point of the plot, we have a really interesting story around the politics and the fight for getting power in the Viking community; one that introduces some of the most interesting characters in Shield Maiden, such as can be Bryce and Wingraf. Bryce acts as a second father for Fryda, and at the same time, has his own secrets that he wants to protect. Wingraf is an excellently written character, Fryda's brother, and a despicable person who will be the catalyst of the change.

Worldbuilding is interesting, taking the legend of Beowulf as the inspiration, and blending it into a Viking setting, despite only using the last fragment, the one where Beowulf fights the dragon; and honestly, I think some of the best scenes of the novel appear as a result of taking this fragment.

In summary, I found Shield Maiden a great book, probably with a bit too much of romance for my taste, but really enjoyable and perfect for those who want an epic story in a Viking setting.