Becky Bookworm Book Review: Dreams of a Dark Warrior by Kresley Cole

Dreams of a Dark Warrior by Kresley Cole

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Warning: this book contains A LOT of adult material.

Although the story depicts a world I'm not familair with featuring various types of mythical beings under the name Lore etc I did find it easy to slip into and the overall story arc does keep you gripped into this paranormal tale of seperated lovers. It was handy having the definitions and explanations for various names and terms at the start.

However that is far as my praise goes as there quite a few things that I simply found wrong and didn't agree with - primarily with relation to Norse Mythology.
Firstly the Valkyrie character of Regin (a slightly nordic name although her sister valkyrie had the unnordic name of Lucia) is depicted is having claws that protrude from her fingers not just when she's angry but also when she's in a lustful mood and I cringed with disgust at the idea of those said claws 'curling' when she's in such a mood. I did like the idea she plays with Lightening as a weapon or electricity depending on how you looked at it - but you ever saw one example of this in the entire book. I understand creative licence an all and I know there is little documentations on the specifics of Valkyries but if you create them with too much imagination they drift away from the core of their characters as female warriors. I feel Kresley has done this.
Secondly her lover is described and called several times as a Viking in the book which makes sense with his berserker powers BUT both he and his Valkyrie lover refer to ODIN AS WODEN! WRONG WRONG WRONG! Any true northman and valkyrie would call Odin - Odin! Only the Anglo-Saxons called Odin, Woden due to the Saxon heritage. I don't understand how Kresley Cole could ever get Woden and Odin mixed up especially when the symbol of two ravens in flight is used heavily throughout the book and the fact that she is using a character from the NORSE PANTHEON not Anglo-Saxon pagan beliefs.

Over all if you like paranormal romance, paranormal adventure and seeing how many times a writer can give the private parts of a woman and man different names then you might enjoy this book but if like me you know at least the good basics about norse mythology then don't read this as you will be bitterly disappointed. I almost regret buying it as I seem to know more about Norse Mythology than the author.

View all my reviews