The Witches Heart by Geneiveve Gornichec

They say a witch used to live in these woods a long, long time ago . . . They say she loved a man with scarred lips and a sharp tongue, a man who gave her back her heart and more.

Norse mythology was given the Wicked treatment in this amazing book. It takes two characters Gullveig and Angrboda who are only mentioned in a handful of times in history, combines them into one character who is fully three dimensional, sympathetic and brings new light to a mythology that doesn't get (in my opinion) nearly enough love.

The one thing that is known about Angrboda is that she is the mother of monsters. The ones that are responsible for so much death and destruction during Ragnarok. Hel: Goddess of the Underworld, Fenrir: The wolf and Jormungandr: The Midgaurd snake. Angrboda knows that her children have a part to play but she does everything that she can to protect her children.

One of my favorite parts of this book was the authors take on Loki. Seeing him through Angrboda's eyes, from mistrust to love to betrayal you really see what he's been put through and why he makes some of the decisions that he does. You also get a few of his most interesting stories from Norse Mythology including the birth of Sleipnir.

I highly recommend this to anyone who is a fan of Norse Mythology or who enjoys fantasy. It's delightfully written and I really enjoyed reading it.