Rating: 4.5 🌈
The first in a series about a the people who are a found family in a drag club , The Viking and the Drag Queen by V. L. Locey is a wonderful read.
It has several things I look forward to seeing in a romance from this author. Starting with a hockey player with issues. In this case a huge Danish hockey player named after a god, Tyr Hemmingsen.
His issues stem from dark childhood, parental expectations that leave deep emotional damage, and their early deaths. Now he’s left with the childhood vows his father made him make about a future that’s here, and his own wants that’s he’s buried his entire life. Yes, this is a deeply conflicted, wounded man in need of a change.
Love those!
Next is a character I adore. Drag queens. This one is perfection.
It’s the change Tyr needs that comes in the tiny form of one Gigi Patel LeBay, a Drag Queen who performs to packed crowds at the Campo Royale. Singing songs from the 40’s, sassy and glorious, she lights up the stage and overturns Tyr’s life.
She’s also Elijah McBride, a young man who’s parents all but disowned him for being not just gay but a man who dresses up. He’s had a lot of pain in a short period of time.
Naturally, Locey has great secondary characters who act as support for both men. It’s wonderful to see and having such a enjoyable family around each man when they struggle with the relationship and Tyr’s fears.
I wish we’d been more a part of Tyr’s thoughts and processes as he determined what finally became priority for him. Still that scene was heartwarming and so adorable.
I also wonder if this is the last we’ve seen of Ben…hmmmm. I even want more Morty! Surely we can find someone for Morty? Go, Warthogs!
Anyway, I adore Tyr and Eli, love the house of Patel, need more which is coming in The Batchelor and The Cherry. For the list of novels planned, see below. I’ll be there for each and every one!
I’m highly recommending this!
Campo Royale series:
✓ The Viking and the Drag Queen #1
◦ The Batchelor and the Cherry #2 – coming April 20, 2022
◦ The Barkeep and the Bookseller #3 – coming August 5, 2022
◦ The Financier and the Sweetheart #4 – coming 2023
◦ The Chanteuse and the Soldier #5 – coming 2023
Tyr Hemmingsen had his life mapped out at a young age. The only son of the late Danish hockey great, Elias Hemmingsen, Tyr has always done his best to follow the plans his father had laid out for him. Finish school, make it into the pros, become team captain, find a biddable young lady to marry, and win a championship so the Hemmingsen name lived on eternally on the side of a massive silver cup. Like the good son he is, Tyr has done as his father wished, no matter how it peeled away layers of his true self. Then, all the neatly placed supports that hold up his so-called life come crashing down during a night on the town. Tyr might be known as the “War God of Wilmington” on the ice, but there’s no battling the effect Gigi Patel LeBay has on him.
Elijah McBride lives for the spotlight. As Gigi, he bewitches and bedazzles the crowds at the Campo Royale Club. His vibrant stage persona is the face he presents to the world. Underneath the rouge, eyeliner, and lipstick is a young man who still feels the sting of his parents’ disapproval and rejection of the son who wears wigs and dates other men. With his drag family and older brother in his corner, he’s finally found peace in his life. Until the fateful night a massive hockey player shows up at the club. There’s a world of hurt in Tyr’s soft brown eyes, and Eli finds himself falling for the big man, despite all the barriers he’s built around his tender heart.
The Viking and the Drag Queen is an opposites attract gay romance with heavy checking, lipstick worship, an out and proud queen, a closeted athlete, family lost and found, twink/jock, a new beginning, and a well-cinched happy ending.
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 