You did it! We figured this one out! It is a truth universally acknowledged (by me for certain) that the Bitchery pretty much knows everything, and really, it's true. Scroll down to see the solution for this HaBO - and many thanks!
This HaBO comes from Gloriamarie, a longtime reader of the site. She’s looking for a romance set in Iceland.
After I was given an e-reader about four years ago and I went overboard filling it with free and really cheap content, much of which I regretted because too many people who self-publish apparently flunked every single English language class they ever took in school and also refuse to employ an editor.
I digress. One day technical support for that e-reader required me to reset it to the original factory settings and everything on it was erased. Not all of the content was purchased from the seller of the e-reader so not all of the content was backed up on the vendor’s website. As a result, I don’t know where I found this book. Which is my long-winded excuse, I mean, reason why I can’t find it in only four years’ worth of purchases.
Here’s what I remember. It took place in Iceland and that’s what sold me on it as I had never read a romance set in Iceland, a country which fascinates me what with all those volcanoes in the ocean. Our Heroine visits a hotel where the eccentric staff are inhospitable to her for reasons and she insists on staying for reasons. The hotel seems to have a perpetual Christmas or possibly Yule theme.
Our Hero’s broad, manly chest is adorned by a series of hand knit sweaters. I knit so I made note of this detail. Our Hero also has long flowing blonde locks and oh I do so love to run my fingers through a man’s long, flowing locks. Let’s get over this fashion for military short crops.
Turns out the inhospitable staff are under a glamor to appear humanish and are actually elves and trolls. Turns out Our Hero is Thor. This book might be part of series about the Norse Gods and this hotel. There is skiing and at least one sleigh ride because Iceland.
I don’t recall being all that impressed with this book but for some reason it is stuck in my head and I need to re-read it so I hope someone can identify it. Thank you.
I need some pictures of Chris Hemsworth in hand-knit cable sweaters, now. Thank you. Do you recognize this book?
Ice Gods Christmas by Helen Scott Taylor?
http://www.amazon.com/Gods-Christmas-Paranormal-Romance-Novella-ebook/dp/B009ZYX7DE#customerReviews
OMG WHY HAVE I NOT READ THIS?? Give it to me NOW.
The only Iceland set book I could think of also has an Annika for the protagonist…is it a rule?
http://meljeanbrook.com/books/the-iron-seas/riveted/
For the good of the Internet and us all, I think we ALL need some pics of Chris Hemsworth in cable knit sweaters. 😀
Sounds like there might have been an earlier version of Ice Gods Christmas called The Crystal Crib in an anthology titled A Midwinter Fantasy. Characters have different names, but the plot seems remarkably similar.
Sorry to disappoint. Icelandic sweaters are not (traditionally) cable knits. Instead Chris Hemsworth needs to be wearing something like these:
Sweaters!
or
More sweaters!
The really traditional sweaters only use undyed wool, that’s why all the neutrals.
/end pedantry
Thank you, PamG, I think you may have identified it as Ice Gods Christmas which I actually have stored on the website where I bought my e-reader. See how cleverly I avoid naming a brand name? It should be delivered to my e-reader even as I type. OK, I have it. Reading. What the heck kind of a word is “unmissable?” Yup. Santa’s Magical Wonderland. I believe this is the book. Wow. That was quick.
Sadly, I was unable to google any pix of men with long blonde hair wearing Icelandic sweaters. Let’s hear it for long hair on men!!
I hope one of those is the winner because I am dying to try these out now
I’ll be re-reading Ice Gods Christmas and let you know if this is it. Surely It should read Ice God’s Christmas or Ice Gods’ Christmas?
I went from, ohhh look at the pretty sweater, to dear God $220! I’m sure it’s priced appropriately, but it’s also priced completely outside of my clothes budget. I couldn’t wear something that expensive without covering myself in plastic like my Sicilian Grandmother’s couch.
OTOH, Maria, we knitters know we can knit it cheaper and probably make it a better quality garment too!!
…Let’s get over this fashion for military short crops…
Definitely!
And especially on book covers when the hero is described as having hair brushing his shoulders but the picture is of a short cut (new book “Wild Heat” by Lucy Monroe has this problem).
By the way, I’m totally in favor of Chris Hemsworth in Icelandic sweaters or cable-knit sweaters or no sweater at all.
Well, I found this guy at an Etsy store. Not blond, but might give you some idea.
If you decide to get serious about knitting with Icelandic wool yarn, it is beautiful, durable, warm and water-resistant, but it is a bit scratchy. Mind you, I am basing this on inherited sweaters and shawls, so maybe they have found ways to make it softer by now.
Darn it, link didn’t work, sorry! How about this:
https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/IcelandicKnitsbyAnna?ref=l2-shopheader-name
I’m glad someone agrees with me about long hair on men. I love it.
I’ve read Ice Gods (God’s, Gods’??) Christmas this afternoon as I promised and while I think I might have read it before, this is not the book I was thinking about.
In the book I’m trying to find, there is much more action at the hotel, there is definitely inhospitable staff and sweaters. Lots of sweaters. Still pretty sure it is in Iceland, although not so certain about Thor.
This Ice Gods (missing apostrophe) is an ok story. Kinda short on important plot details. Whole story hinges on bad feeling between Odin and Vali. Odin is Our Hero’s father. Our Hero is Tyr, whose mother is a fire elemental. Vali is the father of Our Heroine, Annika. Vali is an air elemental and Annika’s mother was a human. Odin did away with her in some manner. Did she die? Did he seclude her some place? We never find out and that detail is just left hanging.
Premise is that Vali’s father, Loki, killed Odin’s son and Tyr’s brother. No name is mentioned which I think is silly because if a person knows anything of Norse legend, the reader knows we are talking about Baldur. Because Loki killed Odin’s unnamed son, Odin has sworn revenge upon all of Loki’s family, yea even unto the tenth generation. Even precious widdle baby Annika which never did him any harm but for some reason is frozen in stasis for twenty years. Just because Odin could, I guess. Doesn’t seem to be meaningful to the story one way or the other. Then for some reason, I suppose to actually start the story, Odin brings the still widdle baby Annika out of stasis, just as widdle a baby as she was the moment she was born and Odin prepares to crush her Magic Knot, which would kill her. Tyr grabs it and in so doing, bonds himself accidently to the baby. All that could have happened without the stasis.
That’s the backstory which comes out. Except then it turns out that Loki didn’t kill the still unnamed son. Can you tell that lack of name irks me? Turns out Odin killed his own son and pinned the rap on Loki. Remember how I said the story is kinda short on important plot details? Well, this is one of them. My first thought was, “Odin, why did you kill your son?” I still don’t know. If Vali knows, and he is the one with the big reveal, he didn’t say why. We are left hanging. This is the issue that sets off the whole shebang and we have no idea why. I feel quite cheated.
I don’t understand why the word “Christmas” is in the title since the Norse pantheon are the epitome of the definition of “heathen.” No insult intended, merely my pedantry rearing its head.
On the second page appears the letters arranged to read, I can’t call it a word, “unmissable.” There is another place where ice gods is clearly used possessively and again no apostrophe. The author has apparently chosen to eschew apostrophes. Did she have a bad experience with one as a child?
When we get to the sexy times, we read of Annika’s “enervating wash of pleasure” which leads me to conclude the author has no idea what “enervating” means because in context, the author intends quite the opposite.
I was wondering when this story was written because there was no discussion of birth control at all. Not even a hint of a mention of a condom. Although it was rather refreshing to not go through the who deflowering, his uncertainty, her first instant of pain. they just got busy.
Quite clear to me why I didn’t remember this story.
Now, if I could just find the one with the inhospitable staff and the sweaters
Storyphile, I have to take umbrage, umbrage, I say at your statement that Icelandic wool is scratchy. Have you met Lopi by Reynolds? Also Icelandic wool is not meant to be worn next to the skin.
Something else that makes wool scratchy is washing it in harsh detergents such as Woolite. Yes, yes, I know, but there is nothing gentle about it. If you want to handwash your delicates in something that is truly gentle, use Orvus.
The other thing that makes wool scratchy is the way it is spun. Commercially spun wool is spun all topsy turvy whereas we hand spinners know enough to spin the locks so that the scales are all lying in the same direction. Commercially spun wool will have the scales both open and closed. When the locks are spun so that all the scales are in a closed position, it will be much more comfortable to wear.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2461732/Chris-Hemsworth-admits-wife-Elsa-Pataky-remember-exactly-got-married.html A short scroll down the page gets you Chris Hemsworth in a (cable) sweater. Plus a bunch of other pictures. No thanks are necessary.
I’m not much for blonds, but those were some very nice pics of Chris Hemsworth.
I need to find these books.
I am in Iceland right now and I am barely able to restrain myself from sending pictures of random attractive men in traditional sweaters, because there are lots of them here, but I am going to resist because it would be creepy.
But if you are into long haired men and/or traditional sweaters – or even if you aren’t – this country has so much to offer. Iceland is fantastic.
Also they sell wool in the supermarkets here.
And there are hot springs everywhere.
And I heart it.
My compliments to the Bitchery for providing a stimulating and varied discussion of:
– Men’s hairstyles
– The properties of Icelandic wool
– Questionable usage of the apostrophe
– Heroines named “Annika”
– Chris Hemsworth
@KKW: I am totally down with pictures random men in sweaters from Iceland. For science!
@Gloriamarie Amalfitano If we can add punctuation to the title, I’d like to see it as: Ice! Gods! Christmas! Because I’m feeling super enthusiastic about this book.
Dear SpinthePickle, do you remain enthusiastic even after I read it yesterday and offered less than enthusiastic comments?
Besides, it is not the book I am looking for.
Dear kkw. ********please******* send pix of long haired men in sweaters for purposes of, as, SB Sarah says, science.
Y’all, I have failed you, as I have elected to spend my last hours in Iceland in a geothermal outdoor swimming pool. I am so, so sorry. It’s been just terrible for me to be looking at all the six packs, instead of the sweaters.
Also I think I’ve screwed my baggage allowance with all the icelandic wool. Which is unspun, currently, and I have no idea what to do with it, but thanks to this thread I have high hopes I can make it less scratchy. It is a bit scratchy, but I wasn’t planning on wearing it next to my skin. Unless I can. Anyone know anything about plötulopi? It was so cheap and pretty I might have filled my backpack with it.
Plötulopi!!!!!!!!!!!! Really!!!!!!! What wonderful stuff, you lucky lucky woman. Everything I’ve ever read about it says it knits up into something soft. All wool is going to feel scratchy if you are comparing it to acrylics. Whatever you do, do NOT have it dry cleaned or use Woolite. Please please please buy some Orvus. You can buy it from Amazon if you have to.
Here are websites with some info about plötulopi: http://www.istex.is/pages/enska/prjonaband-2005/plotulopi-enska/
http://www.ravelry.com/yarns/library/istex-plotulopi—unspun-icelandic
http://icelandicknitter.com/en/2014/12/30/knitting-tips-working-with-unspun-plotulopi/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q27C27DUpc4
Hope these help
I’m really late to this party, but I know I read an ebook a few years ago about some other god who ran a B&B on the US east coast… I think. And this is taking me a long time to write this comment, because Thor.
Though I’m also looking through all my old ebooks from when I had a Sony reader and lamenting that when Kobo bought their customer list, I got all of twelve whole books transferred over. Uh, thanks? None of them a god one.
Though I love my ereader, I have to admit that it’s easier to scan my shelves than to try to think up ebooks from 5 to 10 years ago.
Dear Phyllis, Maybe that’s the one. Because it certainly wasn’t Ice Gods (missing apostrophe) Christmas. I am thinking I have conflated two stories, no doubt because there are gods in both.
I oh so know what you mean about scanning bookshelves instead of an e-reader. OTOH, running out of room in the apartment is a bad thing, too. LOL