3.5 A good start to the series, offering promise, even with a confusing genre shift midway.

I was not prepared for the romance in the first 150-200 pages of this book. It was written well, and the reveal was surprising if a bit jarring.
After the catalyst which causes Hakan to leave his native Jutland (as stated in the blurb) I found it dragged a bit and some of the elements I found quite difficult to believe. Especially sections pertaining to ice and frost exposure but I pushed on.

Once Hakan arrives in the new land, more issues for me arose but I try to remain open. I almost gave up around 300-350 pages but I had come so far and really wanted to see where this was going. Plus it's Brun's debut and it's well done, and I'm a sucker for a good series that develops. At 370 pages plus something changed, the introduction of this dangerous and mysterious foe really captured my interest and I was hooked. This was when the fantasy element was awakened. Like others have stated, it would have been great to get a taste of this earlier on in the novel

I got a good sense of what most of the characters were about , a decent sense of environment, and felt like the world around them was coherent. I do agree with others that the tone of this book was inconsistent because of the shift in genre half way through and while it was difficult to get through, I'm glad I didn't stop.

This first installment holds so much promise and I look forward to the next one.