I’m so excited to be welcoming Christina Courtenay back to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for her latest novel, Legacy Of The Runes.

A bond that even time cannot break

Storm Berger has never forgiven himself for his younger sister Madison’s disappearance. Suspecting she’s travelled back to the ninth century in the footsteps of other family members, Storm can only make sure she’s safe by going after her.

Raised unconventionally as her father’s only child, Freydis has never been content to simply accept her fate. So, when she’s promised in marriage to a tyrant, she’s determined to find a way out of the arrangement. Help comes in the form of a mysterious and attractive stranger stranded on her island’s shores: Storm.

The only way Freydis can truly be free is for Storm to marry her himself. But that would mean entwining lives that, until now, have been separated by centuries. . .

Christina has shared an extract with us today. We hope you enjoy it. 

*****beginning of extract*****

The heroine Freydis’s betrothed, Ingolf, has come for a visit to look her over and she hates him on sight:

Freydis made sure she behaved impeccably during Ingolf’s visit, and to her huge relief, he left the following day. He only spoke to her one more time, to say farewell. ‘I will see you at the Yuletide celebrations over on Mávey. I’ll be there too.’

‘Yes.’ She nodded, even though this was the first she’d heard of it. She hadn’t known they would be going there this year, but it didn’t matter.

‘Until then, farewell.’ He gripped her face with both hands and placed a proprietorial kiss on her mouth, then turned to stride down the path towards the ship that was waiting in the cove.

She suppressed a shudder and made a beeline for the bathing hut. There was water and lye soap there, and she used it to scrub her mouth thoroughly. It was the only place she could do it in private, and she couldn’t let anyone see what she was doing. Ingolf’s kiss hadn’t been slobbery or unpleasant, merely impersonal and harsh, yet the imprint of it lingered. It was his way of branding her, she supposed. Her skin still crawled at the thought of it. Never again. She would not let him anywhere near her.

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