The Warlord’s Wife by Sandra Lake is a deliciously Old-Skooly historical romance set in 12th century Sweden. The hero was occasionally an alphahole, but like a lot of Old Skool heroes, it made his redemption all the more satisfying.

The book opens with widow Lida being beaten and dragged in front of her father-in-law. Lida is very pregnant, which is a problem because she was only married a short time. Her mother-in-law accuses her of infidelity and entering the marriage sullied and carrying another man’s child. The reality is that Lida and her future husband did the do before the wedding day and the baby is his. Doesn’t matter though: he’s dead and not around to defend her, so she’s banished back home in shame.

Fast forward eight years. Jarl Magnus, a powerful warlord, is in Finland looking for a wife to bear him sons. That’s basically his only requirement of the marriage. Like Goldilocks, he doesn’t find any of the Finnish beauties presented to him to be just right, so he’s planning on leaving empty handed. Then on the way to his ship he passes a farm, sees Lida, and decides that yes, she’s his magical son-bearing vessel. When he finds out that she’s already had one healthy child, her daughter Katia, he figures all the better–it proves she’s fertile.

At first Lida doesn’t want to marry Magnus, but he offers to pay her aging parents a shit ton of money, and legitimize her daughter and give Katia his name. The fact that Katia was declared a bastard and lives under that stigma will seriously impact her odds for a good marriage, so Lida  agrees. Then we get on a boat and sail to Sweden and enter Old Skool marriage of convenience land.

Magnus wants to smex Lida, but he’s totally unprepared for having any Feels. Like an Old Skool hero, he responds to the Feels by acting like a complete asshat. At one point he throws a cloak that Lida’s late husband gave her into the ocean because he’s jealous that she still feels an emotional attachment to it (as opposed to the superior cloak he gave her). For the first third of the book he’s a total douche canoe who happens to be very handsome and good in bed. On the plus side, unlike most Old Skool heroes, Magnus doesn’t rely just on his magical thrusting to satisfy Lida sexually, and he is genuinely concerned for her pleasure.

At first I thought this book wasn’t going to work for me, but then Magnus emerged from his emotional constipation tent. He finds that he loves Katia – a lot – and there are some really adorable scenes between the two of them. He displays her artwork like a proud papa. He orders another Viking to play horsies with her to which the other Viking dryly replies “Excellent, I always wanted to be a mama horse.” He gives her a dog, but not a sweet puppy, a well trained hound who will rip the face off of anyone who tries to hurt her. He decides she has to be trained to be a shield maiden because she might need to kill a dude someday (Magnus is practical like that). It is adorbs.

Then there’s the crazy dramatic plot. There’s an agent in Magnus’s household who is plotting to get rid of Lida so her own daughter can marry Magnus. Lida’s shitty ex-family-in-law might be causing shenanigans. Winter is coming.

Once Lida and Magnus realize they have feelings for each other, their relationship still has bumps but the novel becomes much, much more satisfying. Magnus becomes a giant sweetie rather than an alphahole. Lida learns to stand up for herself. I also really loved the medieval Sweden setting. Anything set in an icy northern castle is totally my shit.

If you don’t mind a hero in serious need of redemption or some over-the-top villains and you dig medieval historicals, this book is right up your alley. It’s like The Wolf and the Dove minus all the rape and enslavement.

I’m really enjoying the balancing of Old Skool themes in modern historicals, and I can’t wait to read the rest of the Sons of the North series.