nb: We are still having issues with connections to our image library, so if some of the covers don’t load, I have linked to their info pages so you can find images on retailers.
Romance author Sandra Hill passed away on 26 March, surrounded by loved ones, per her obituary. She was 86 years old, and is survived by her four sons, her sister, and four grandchildren. May her memory be a blessing.
Because y’all, Sandra Hill was a gift to romance, and I shall not have it any other way. Amanda and I talk a lot about how romance in the late 90s and the 00s was often zany. Outlandish, absurd plots? Yes. Unexpected characters? Oh yes.
VERY VIRILE VIKINGS? You bet your sweet bippy we have very virile vikings.
Sandra Hill was a treasure, dependable for a truly off the walls reading experience with campy, fun, and often endearing characters.
Please note that every word of this is very high praise. I’m genuinely sad to have lost one of the writers who I think made romance as great as it is.
The finest element to Sandra Hill’s writing was that you could kind of tell she was having a great time. You know how when you watch a show or a movie, and there’s a special kind of chemistry between the actors, a vibe that there’s a little something extra in their performance, because you can visibly tell they’re really enjoying themselves? That’s a Sandra Hill romance: the books are so unhinged they are barn doors, and she did not seem to be taking herself too seriously.
I mean, consider The Very Virile Viking.
Look, when don’t I consider The Very Virile Viking? I talk about this book all the time! I remember where I was when I read it (on a family cruise, where I had packed a suitcase that was just books because ereading wasn’t a thing). I remember a particular scene so clearly, I can picture where I was when I read it.
To wit: Magnus Ericsson, he of the very virile viking-ness, has traveled forward in time to 2014, along with a whole assortment of kids. Ten of them, to be precise. He is very virile, after all (sort of. It’s a plot point).
And at one point he gathers all the kids together and is like, “So clearly we are in the future, yeah?” And the kids basically reply, “Yep, pretty much!”
I don’t know why this scene stuck with me. Probably because it’s demonstrating real and caring parental attention to this collection of children, and also because it’s so on the nose it’s hilarious.
He’s a viking. (A very virile one!) And he and all his kids start out in 999, and end up in 2014 Hollywood. Because of course they do. This is a Sandra Hill book.
I mean, this is the author of the book we dubbed “The Pull My Finger Viking.” Better known as The Bewitched Viking.
Perhaps her publisher is who gave us the Pull My Finger Viking, but we know it was Sandra Hill’s work that inspired a cover this wonderful, this absurd. Truly majestic.
In addition to virile vikings, you know what else Sandra Hill gave us?
Immortal Viking Vampire Angel Navy SEALs.
AKA “The VVangels.”
Just…just gaze upon that sentence
Immortal. Viking. Vampire. Navy SEALs. And is the cover copy for book one, Kiss of Pride, as incredible as the above? Ha. Of course it is.
Is he really a Viking with a vampire’s bite?
An angel with the body of a thunder god?
A lone wolf with love on his mind?
D: All of the above?!
Yes, indeed, the answer is D. (The answer is always D, especially when the viking vampire angels are involved.)
Then there’s book 7 in the Deadly Angels (that’s their proper series name. Immortal Viking Vampire Angel Navy SEALs takes way too long to say): The Angel Wore Fangs.
This book is TUMBLR FAMOUS. Look at the range of Sandra Hill. TUMBLR famous.
Why, you ask?
Well. Let me tell you.
Once guilty of the deadly sin of gluttony, thousand-year-old Viking vampire angel Cnut Sigurdsson is now a lean, mean, vampire-devil fighting machine. His new side-job? No biggie: just ridding the world of a threat called ISIS while keeping the evil Lucipires (demon vampires) at bay.
I need to stop and catch my breath. A thousand year old Viking Vampire Angel named Cnut is going to fight ISIS. And demon vampires but also ISIS.
Let us continue:
So when chef Andrea Stewart hires him to rescue her sister from a cult recruiting terrorists at a Montana dude ranch, vangel turns cowboy. Yeehaw!
The too-tempting mortal insists on accompanying him, surprising Cnut with her bravery at every turn. But with terrorists stalking the ranch in demonoid form, Cnut teletransports Andrea and himself out of danger—accidentally into the tenth-century Norselands. Suddenly, they have to find their way back to the future to save her family and the world . . . and to satisfy their insatiable attraction.
Cnut and Chef Andrea end up in the 10th century. WAIT. Did they take over the Very Virile Viking’s home? I imagine it was spacious; he had 10 kids and he didn’t need a home in the tenth century anymore, now, did he?
The delight that I found in Sandra Hill titles is not measurable. Her books remain one of my favorite examples of what happens when truly unlimited imagination and fluency in romance meets high-grade silliness and camp.
Sandra Hill’s contributions to the genre are truly unique. They are masterpieces of the elements of romance fiction that we celebrate unreservedly. SHE EVEN HAS HER OWN TV TROPES PAGE. Y’all, no greater honor is possible.
I have said many times that I do take some things very seriously – the comment space here, for example – but I do not take myself seriously at all. And I read Sandra Hill’s books with the suspicion that she didn’t take herself seriously, either. Which is probably one of my very favorite traits in a person.
Thank you, Sandra Hill, for making romance what it is. The genre would not have been the same, and certainly not as a fun and zany, without you.
What a loss to the romance community. It feels like we’ve lost a number of the Grand Dames of romance – particularly of historical romance – in recent years, and it’s truly the end of an era for the genre.
I can’t say I’ve read much of her work, although “The Last Viking” has stuck in my mind for many years as a slightly absurd and delightful read. I’ve enjoyed reading SBTB commentary on her work over the years. We truly need that fun, campy, slightly absurd blend of fun in romance – give us feelings, but some of us are over the angst because *gestures broadly* everything. Real life is angst. I want books that will make me laugh sometimes.
I am sad hearing the news of Sandra Hill’s passing. I wasn’t sure if I read her romances, then I saw the book covers. Oh yeah! These books made me happy when the real world seemed so gloomy. I would commute on rail to my first full time job. College was a blur of reading literary/important/classic works. I had started back into romance with the beloved Scottish romances. When I saw the Sandra Hill Vikings books, wowza, where have they been hiding these? Just sitting on the train, not caring who was looking at the cover of my book. So much fun. Those books transported me elsewhere. I would love to hear the cover shoot meeting at Avon Books. “He’s wearing a leather jacket – post will add feathered wings. Don’t worry no one will be looking at that. All eyes will be on that belt buckle.” Campy is a wonderful asset.
This is a lovely sentence, and really sums up the delight Sandra Hill’s work can bring: “truly unlimited imagination and fluency in romance meets high-grade silliness and camp”. I read some of her Viking romances early in my romance reading, and they are still a standout in how to write seeming fluff in a way that gets the reader invested.
I LOVED her Viking books, they were so far out there they were turning cartwheels somewhere around Jupiter. Put-Brain-in-neutral-and-just-ejoy-the-ride books.
RIP Ms Hill, and God bless. You did, and your works will continue to do, many hearts good.
i’m so saddened to hear this! She was one of my favorite authors and an auto buy! I loved her books.
I am saddened by this news.I was her editor at Avon Books, and she was a delight to work with. A true original!
Hi Lucia! Are you the editor that brought us The Very Virile Viking, the Pull my Finger Viking, and the Immortal Vampire Viking Navy SEALs?!?!
If so, THANK YOU. Sandra was such an original and I’m so glad her books were part of my era of reading romance.
I am also saddened by this news as I was/am a big fan. The only 2 problems I had with her were 1) she killed off the hero/heroine of one book to give a plot to a subsequent book (she did apologize after hearing from readers) and 2) in one of her Cajun books she talked about “peeling” okra! No you don’t peel okra! Anyway, many of her books are on my keeper shelves since the covers are so glorious–John DeSalvo, Frank Sepe, Steven Andreas Schwarze are the ones I can think of right now but all those muscles are a favorite for me. I also wrote to her when the cover of “Truly, Madly Viking” cut off John DeSalvo’s head, expressing my sadness, and she told me it was the publisher’s decision. I think this was the first time I saw a headless cover though they became pretty common. So, although it was her covers that made me pick up one of her books way back when, it was her writing that kept me picking up all the rest of them. She will definitely be missed (and, if you haven’t read any of her books, you might enjoy them)!
I was saddened to learn of her passing. She sent fun jewelry with a lot of her book giveaways.
Aww man, RIP to her!
Oh, that is DeSalvo’s chest on Truly, Madly, Viking! We had a copy on our college dorm romance bookshelf — we weren’t hip enough to recognize the model from just his chest, we thought it was yet another Fabio. I’m happy to learn otherwise, that fuchsia acid trip is one of my favorites.
Unfortunately, I am going to be the wet blanket who points out that Sandra Hill also wrote one of the most jarringly racist romance novels I’ve ever read, Frankly, My Dear, a Gone with the Wind homage where a supermodel travels back in time and finds love with a plantation owner. Yes, he has slaves. The supermodel helps the slaves do aerobics. While singing “Achy-Breaky Heart.” The slaves are very happy about all of this. The book is still in print and very highly rated by a lot of readers.
I do love the unhinged strain in romance but I also want us to keep a clear eye when bringing an author’s backlist up for new readers. There’s things in there a lot of people would want a heads-up about.
@Olivia: HOLY COW I did not know about that book. I’m a gif of eyes blinking, mouth agape. WOW. Thank you for the info.
Also, I truly love that you eventually identified DeSalvo without his head.