I’ve started reading my way through my book haul and I thought it would be fun to start with one of the novels. Daughter of the Wolf is set in Northumbria, before the Norman conquest. The book centers around Elfrun, daughter of Radmer of Donmouth. When Radmer is sent to Rome on behalf of his king, the safekeeping of Donmouth falls on the shoulders of Elfrun. What Elfrun doesn’t know, however, are the intentions of the many people around her.

To me, Daughter of the Wolf, is a coming-of-age story. Elfrun starts off as a relatively carefree girl who wants to be Lord of Donmouth. But by the end of the book, she’s started growing into her role as the Lord of Donmouth and is better placed to assume responsibilities. The book is mostly about the transition period, so if you’re looking for exciting battles, this is not the place to be. In fact, I feel like there’s a lot more to Elfrun’s story and I hope a sequel comes out soon.

Because there isn’t a lot of dramatic fighting, the book rests on its characters. Elfrun was a great protagonist – always striving to do the right thing, even if she doesn’t know what’s that, but one of the most fascinating characters in the book had to be Saethryth, the daughter of the steward. I initially found Saethryth to be an unpleasant character, and I still think she is, but as I read on, I realised that she had her reasons for acting the way she did. She’s simply trying to survive in her world and she chose a different path from Elfrun. I normally don’t grow to respect characters that I have a bad initial first impression, so the fact that I found myself gradually softening towards Saethryth made her one of the most memorable characters in the book.

Now back to Elfrun; she’s a lot more straightforward as a character, compared to Saethryth, and a lot simpler to like. The only thing that I wasn’t thrilled was the romance section of her story. She does get entangled with two characters, but it feels to me like she sees them an equal number of times (which is not a lot). So it’s weird that she gets this deep connection with one but not the other. Then again, I am generally not a fan of romance so that may be influencing my opinion towards this part of the story.

There are many other characters besides Elfrun and Saethryth, including Thancrad (the son of a recently-returned Lord from exile), Athulf (Elfrun’s cousin), and Ingeld (Elfrun’s father and the Lord Abbot of Donmouth), as well as the inhabitants of Donmouth. All of them have their own plans and we’re given glimpses into each of their point of views. I didn’t feel confused reading it, although I did lose track of some minor characters towards the end.

If you’re a fan of Anglo-Saxon England and character-driven novels, you should definitely pick it up. I enjoyed this book and I appreciated the historical note at the end of the book, where the author talked about the setting and how she decided to carry out several aspects of world buildings, as well as one anachronism that she used. It was fascinating and if you’re interested in history, it’s something that you should read.