Title: Her Immortal Viking
Author: Adele Downs
Genre: Fantasy Romance
Publisher: Bent Oak Press
Blurb:
Her Immortal Viking: Winner of the HOLT Medallion.
A Viking warrior unjustly cast into eternal servitude by a vengeful god is transported to the modern world to complete a task. When he falls in love with a mortal, he must find a way to clear his name and bridge the divide of a thousand years to stay with her.
About The Book:
One lonely night, desperate for relief from overwork and mountainous debt, Penny looks skyward, hoping that someone “up there” will ease her difficult life. She’s juggling a waitress job with a full-time class schedule, struggling to fix the old trailer she’s inherited, and steadily going broke. In desperation, she sings songs of praise, chants like a yogi, and rubs her belly like Buddha until the crystal charm at her navel shimmers.
In the West, beyond the seas, from the place between Heaven and Earth, an immortal Viking hears Penny’s cries. Once a celebrated warrior, Gunnar has been wrongly accused of crimes against the gods, and is cast into eternal servitude as punishment. While Penny sleeps, he comes to Earth to help her, and after seeing her, falls in love. But Penny wakes, and mortals are forbidden to see…or touch…or kiss the immortals of Alfheim. When the wrath of the gods rains on Penny and Gunnar, they must find a way to bridge life with the afterlife, and cross the divide of a thousand years to claim their love.
Excerpt:
Penny said, “Volumes have been written about Freyr and the lesser gods.” Had Freyr sent this Light Elf to her? Crazy at it sounded, that might explain the presence of the most incredibly handsome man she’d ever seen or would likely see again. His face and body were truly extraordinary, and she found herself resisting the urge to trace the line of his jaw and the bulge of his bicep.
The man’s eyebrows lifted. “They teach about Freyr here?”
Penny nodded. “In colleges, yes. Your god has quite the reputation.”
She also recalled that Light Elves who served Freyr were celestial creatures whose sole purpose was to lend a hand to mortals in need. They completed unfinished tasks while people slept, always in secret, and never taking credit for the work they’d done.
Only she had awakened, and the secret was out.
If myth had become reality, this ethereal being had heard her pleas and had come to earth to help her. As impossible as that might seem, Penny was desperate to believe it. For once in her life, she deserved to have something good happen.
Penny shifted onto her side and let her gaze drift over the stunning face before her. “Fairer to look upon than the sun.”
“What do you mean?” He shifted, too, watching her.
“That’s what they say about Light Elves in my textbooks. That you’re more beautiful than sunrise or sunset. In modern terms, we’d describe your looks in less poetic terms, but the meaning would be as true.”
He stared down at her and his expression turned wistful. “You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. Mortal or immortal.” He smoothed her hair and rubbed a thick tendril between his thumb and forefinger. “I am Gunnar.” He pronounced the name Goo-nar.
As he continued to stroke her hair, Penny noticed a symbol branded on the back of his powerful hand. She held the hand steady and examined the thick scar, recognizing Freyr’s sacred insignia. She ran her thumb over the emblem of the sun surrounded by a circle. “The pain must have been excruciating.” Without thinking, she lifted the old wound to her mouth and laid kisses along its perimeter before pressing a kiss to the icon inside.
Vibrations tingled over her lips when they touched the ancient symbol and her body prickled with the contact. The brand grew warm and then hot against her mouth, though it did not burn. She ran her tongue over the scar to erase the heat, and then licked the center, finishing with a tiny swirl.
Gunnar’s gasp of surprise was the last thing she expected when she lifted her head. He released her hair and drew away.
Penny swallowed. “I’m sorry. I have no idea what got into me. Have I offended you?” She’d always been attractive to men—though not always comfortable around them—but her behavior with Gunnar was bold, even for her.
She sat up. “Am I under some kind of spell?” She searched his face for clues about what to do next.
Gunnar shook his head. “I used my powers to heal you, but your free will remains intact.”
Penny recognized the desire that shined in Gunnar’s eyes, despite his wariness, yet something else shone there, too. Something rarely seen on earth these days. She couldn’t identify the emotion, at first, but after a moment, saw it clearly.
Gratitude.
Penny waited for Gunnar to speak again without letting go of his disfigured hand.
He stared down at their joined hands and said, “Kindness isn’t something I’m used to finding. Perhaps you’d be less inclined toward compassion if you knew what I’d done to deserve this brand of servitude.”
She reached out and draped an arm around his neck to bring him closer. Their gazes locked and held. Gunnar’s eyes were like pools of ice-blue water that pulled her in and down.
Her breathing slowed while the beat of her heart rushed blood through her ears. “I am Penelope. And if you’re from Alfheim, I know who and what you are. I just don’t understand why you’re here.” How could she deserve his rare, benevolent gifts? She was just an ordinary woman from an ordinary town, barely scraping by.
His warm breath grazed her cheek in shallow rushes, lifting goose bumps across her skin. His wide, firm mouth smelled of sweet ground parsley and fresh-picked mint. “Sometimes we get what we need simply because we ask. That’s the beauty and power of the unexpected.”
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About the Author:
Adele Downs is the award-winning author of more than 25 romance novels, novellas and short stories, and a former journalist with hundreds of articles to her credit. When not writing in her home office in Delaware, she can be found reading a book on the beach, taking photographs, or riding in her convertible.
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