By Jenny Bullough, Manager of Digital Content for Harlequin and Carina Press, Carina Press acquisitions team member, and book-loving mom

I had the best time shopping for Christmas gifts for my 7 year old daughter this year. She’s finally reading chapter books – devouring them, in fact, at an incredible rate – so I decided it was time to gift her with some of the books I loved at her age. My original copies had already been passed down to my younger sisters, so I got to shop for brand-new books for my little bookworm!

I can’t remember the last time I had so much fun shopping for books. (Actually I can’t remember the last time I shopped for print books!) Each shelf brought back a flood of memories, of afternoons whiled away immersed in a book, of worlds visited, characters loved, stories read and reread and reread again. Little House on the Prairie. Tuck Everlasting. The Railway Children. Harriet the Spy. These books and others firmly entrenched my lifelong love of reading. I can’t wait to see those worlds open up for my daughter, and revisit them through her eyes! And I can’t wait to find out which books will become her beloved favorites to be read and reread.

Which made me wonder if there are other classics out there that I somehow missed. What are the favorite books that you remember from youth and childhood? What are the “must-read” classics that you’re passing on to your kids or younger relations? And what are the “new classics” that your kids are devouring?

So, my second Carina release was this week and after pirates, I changed tack and went for Vikings.

I blame Deb. Because it’s all her fault, this one. There we were, knee deep in edits for my pirate book and she said ‘Have you ever thought about doing an historical? I think you’ve got the voice for it.’ She said this two days before I left for Norway, and between that comment and the sheer awesomeness of Norway, a book was born.

So a week after she’d said that, I was walking around Geirangerfjord and a character came to me. One who fit the landscape, which is stark and beautiful, silent and seemingly built for secrets. My character was as silent as the fjords, and had a secret too, and that was where the book started. By the waterfall in Geiranger.

Right here in fact:

Then, on our way out the fjord, my husband spotted this:

After that it snowballed and I ended up with a book…

A few fun facts about The Viking’s Sacrifice and how it came to be.

Whilst in Norway I bought the bronze Mjollnir that Einar wears in the book – it’s a copy of an original 9th century design.

Einar was originally named Hrolf – no, I don’t know why, the name just seemed to fit – until a beta reader commented that ‘When I try to pronounce it, it sounds like my cat sicking up a furball’. Cue name change.

Our guide for a trip to a glacier, the irrepressible Olaf, was the one who told me ‘Viking men had as many wives as they could afford. Or stand.’

And this is what we ended up with.

Viking raiders destroyed Wilda’s home. She witnessed the murder of her mother and would have been killed herself if it weren’t for the Viking boy Einar, who saved her from his ruthless brother. The blood and murder left Wilda cold and shorn of feeling.

Eight years later, the heathens return for Wilda. As a captive in the Viking village, she finds protection and silent comfort in the man who once gallantly saved her.

Einar has been cursed to silence by his brother. With the dark net of his brother’s power cast over their village, silence is a small price to pay for his family’s safety. But Einar is immediately drawn to Wilda, and the need to protect her from his brother awakens his Viking courage. Can Einar break his brother’s curse in time to save the village and the woman he loves?

The Viking’s Sacrifice is available now from Carina Press.

Julia Knight was born and lives in Sussex, UK. You can find her on twitter and facebook, or find out about all her books at her website.