Empires are rarely born in triumph. More often empires rise from ruin — the smoke, broken walls, the lives abruptly unmade and forced into new shapes. But history and human nature also suggest otherwise. I’ve been exploring a remarkable group of historical voices lately and discovered what lies beneath quiet surfaces. When the world is remade around us, do we shape it in return… or are we shaped beyond recognition?
This week I turn to Ascent by Cathie Dunn, a historical romance novel that carries the reader into the fractured world of the late ninth century. The coasts of Francia is exposed to the advances of Northmen; the fragile authority of the West Franks trembles under the weight of invasion.
The story opens with the Viking raid on Bayeux. It is here that Poppa’s world is torn apart and, with it, any illusion of safety. From this moment Dunn deliberately traces not only the path of conquest, but the complex shaping of identity, allegiances, and (of course) survival.
Poppa, rendered with depth, is neither a passive figure nor an anachronistic heroine. Instead she evolves — child, wife, mother — each role placing her under another kind of pressure. Her union with Hrólfr, the Norse warlord remembered in history as Rollo, is not softened into easy romance. It is political and uncertain. Trust is not given but rather slowly built, across tension and reluctant understanding.
Hrólfr himself emerges as something more complex than a historical figure. He is brutal when required, yet capable of strategy and adaptation becoming both conqueror and founder. His acceptance of land and his alignment with Frankish power mark not just personal ambition, but the early formation of what will become known as Normandy, a space where cultures do not collide but merge.
What gives the novel its strength is its attention to transition. Dunn does not present the Norse and Christian worlds as opposites, but as forces in uneasy negotiation. Belief, identity, and loyalty are molded by necessity as much as conviction. As such, the story line is not simplified, rather offers something closer to a believable form of truth.
The world itself is richly textured. From the tension beneath ritual to the ever-present threat of violence there is a constant awareness that stability is fragile. Even moments of peace feel temporary, held together by forces that may soon unravel.
It is this interplay between upheaval and endurance that appealed to me. In When Secrets Bloom I explore a different time, yet a similar undercurrent: how lives are shaped in the aftermath of disruption, how what is endured becomes the foundation upon which everything else is built.
Ascent is not merely the story of a dynasty’s rise. It is the story of those who lived within its making; those who adapted, endured, and carried forward the weight of change. Through Poppa, especially, Dunn reminds us that history is not only weaved by those who conquer, but by those who survive it – and in equal measure.
And so the question remains, before reading Ascent: when the world is remade around us, do we shape it in return… or are we shaped beyond recognition?
BUY LINKS: Amazon US / Amazon UK
Cathie Dunn is an Amazon-bestselling author of historical fiction, dual-timeline, mystery and romance novels. “In addition, she is also a historical fiction book promoter with The Coffee Pot Book Club, a novel-writing tutor, and a keen reviewer on her blog, Ruins & Reading. She is a member of the Historical Novel Society, the Richard III Society, the Alliance of Independent Authors, and the Romantic Novelists’ Association.”
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