Return of the Elf Lord (Kingdom of the Elf Lords Book 1) by Heidi Vanlandingham – Review by Santana Hicks

Return of the Elf Lord by Heidi Vanlandingham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Bernard was a soldier in World War II, losing his wife and kids at Pearl Harbour sent him spiralling. He focused all his time and devotion into the war. When he passed away, Freyja gave him a second chance and brought him into her court. All he could think about was what he had lost. In his depression he comes up with the idea to travel back in time and alter what happened to try to save his family. Like they say in all time travel related things, even the smallest change can alter all of history and boy did it ever. Bernard, with the help of Freyja, other gods and goddesses, Alva, elf lords, and witches, try to fix what Bernard started.

The theory was very appealing to me but I lost some interest when the book started delving into the politics and what not of World War II. Also Bernard seemed to be on repeat. I found he said the same things over and over, making him kind of dull in my eyes. Luckily his story picked up later on and my interest came back.

Meanwhile, I was interested in Alva’s story and still am. She is a Huldra which is a creature who feeds off of the life-force of men. They have bark on their backs and tails. Never being comfortable draining men to their deaths, she fled the life of the Huldra and took up a job as Freyja’s assistant. Her mother, who is Queen of the Huldra gets sick and Alva has to return home. She then decides to find out more about the history of the Huldra as she can survive without killing her prey, so why can’t the others? Her story seemed incomplete and had a lot of loose ties that were still there at the end of the book. I really hope later on in the series, the author delves deeper into Alva’s back story.

I have always been into mythology, Norse being my favourite so when I read the synopsis of this book and I saw some mention of Norse Mythology, I knew I had to read it! It helped to already have some knowledge of Norse Mythology. Luckily the author included a glossary for those not familiar with the Names and terms.

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