Sandra Hill - The Norse King's Daughter

Princess Drifa can certainly see why Sidroc Guntersson is a living legend -- on battlefield and in bedchamber both. But the King of Stoneheim’s willful daughter pitches a royal fit when she learns of the true reason for the virile Viking’s passionate attentions. A third-born son with no hope of inheriting the family jarldom, scheming Sidroc must marry and is interested in Drifa only for her father’s land and money. The barbarian is lucky she just cracks him on his fool head with a pottery pitcher!
Five years later, Drifa needs Sidroc’s protection -- in Byzantium, no less! -- though revenge holds more appeal for this man she left for dead. ’Tis a pity two such perfect enemies match each other so well, passion for passion. So much so that the bold Viking berserker is soon thinking marriage again . . . only this time it will be on his terms!

Comment: I know, I know, I said I wouldn't read more books by this author in the near future because they're becoming too much the same, but I already had this one purchased so I decided to get it over with.

This is the story of Drifa and Sidroc. Drifa refused to marry Sidroc years ago because she found out he only wanted a woman to be the mother of his child and she wanted to marry for love. Now, years later she's traveling to Byzantium to do research on flowers - her passion - but while there she sees herself in trouble and Sidroc is there as a warrior and he helps her. During all the adventures, they finally fall in love, proving their fast relationship from the past did have reason to flourish in the present.

I have to confess this story was much better than the one I've read before. This story has two funny but also capable of seriousness main characters and most important than that, it had a better plot with some interesting subjects, like the family liaisons that can limit or help out lives and the life in an harem back in those days. Of course, everything told in a lighter mode and without much deepness but it still provided interesting thoughts.
The plot was an easy one, both to read and to follow but this is to be expected. The reader has to think these books serve more to entertain than to make us think, but while in the mod for it, I also have to admit the author delivers, plus it has many funny moments and it's always a good time to laugh with the character's antics.
I finished the book with thoughts of harems and how awful it must be to a woman in those lands to be almost a slave because she doesn't have any rights or independence. In this aspect, the book portrayed a very serious situation which I'd have liked to see more developed, but I knew it wouldn't be. The family ties was another thing I liked here, specially because in previous books it was always too perfect or too nonexistent.

In the end I liked the time I spent reading but I don't regret not having any more to read. It's a type of book that can become boring after so many the-same-thing.