She Bought It for Her Son. Then She Read the Whole Series Herself.

 

Five-star Amazon reviews of The Viking's Apprentice from parents and readers who couldn't put it down, including adults who read the whole series before their kids.


What happens when adults pick up a reluctant reader's book and can't put it down.

There’s a review on Amazon that I keep coming back to.

It was left by a parent. She’d bought two books in the series for her eight-year-old son, a reluctant reader, she explained, the kind who needs prompting, who’d never taken to Harry Potter but loved Vikings and adventure. She thought the books might work for him. She bought them. And then, as she put it herself: “Well forget my son… I loved it.”

Her son did read them too, as it turned out. He found them easy to get into, the writing style and the pacing did what they were designed to do, pulling in a child who needed the story to earn his attention before he’d commit to it. But the thing that stays with me is that sentence. Forget my son. I loved it.

Because she’s not the only one.

The Parents Who Pre-Read the Whole Series

Another reviewer, Charity, picked up the first book to read it before passing it to her children. A sensible thing to do. You want to know what your child is getting into. But she was hooked from the first mention of Campbell’s Cove, the fictional Scottish setting where the story begins, and before long she had ordered the rest of the series to pre-read in full. Her words: “Thoroughly enjoyed it and have ordered the rest of the series to ‘pre read’ in full before passing the adventure on to the kids.”

I love that phrase. Passing the adventure on. As if it’s something precious. Something worth handling carefully.

This happens more than you might think. Parents buy the books for their reluctant readers and end up reading them first, then reading them again with their children, then recommending them to other parents. The books travel through families. They sit on the kitchen table and get picked up by the wrong person entirely.

The Reviewer Who Doesn’t Read This Kind of Book

Then there’s Rebbie.

Rebbie runs a book review platform. She came across the series when she was setting up her Twitter account and decided to give it a try. She was honest about her expectations: “I wasn’t expecting much from this book. It’s really not my thing and not a genre I tend to read.”

She found the opening a little strange. Vikings, then a school at the end of term, then a boy heading to his grandfather’s house for the summer. She wasn’t sure what she was reading. And then, as she put it: “the book really gets going.”

By halfway through, she couldn’t put it down. She gave it nine out of ten. She ended her review with something that meant a great deal to me: “Kevin’s next book is in the works now and I for one cannot wait to read it.”

A children’s book reviewer who doesn’t read children’s books. Hooked anyway.

What This Tells You About the Book

I’m not sharing these reviews to show off. I’m sharing them because I think they tell you something important if you’re a parent trying to find the right book for a child who won’t read.

A book that only works if you’re eight, or only works if you already love fantasy, or only works if someone makes you read it, that’s a book doing the minimum. A book that pulls in a grown adult who doesn’t read children’s fiction, who wasn’t expecting much, who picked it up almost by accident and then couldn’t leave it alone, that’s a different kind of book.

It means the story works. Not just for its target audience. For anyone who gives it a chance.

And if a story works for adults who weren’t expecting to love it, it will work for children who think they don’t like reading. Because the problem was never that they don’t like stories. It’s that the stories they’ve been offered haven’t been right.

One Last Thing

If you buy The Viking’s Apprentice for a reluctant reader and find yourself reading it first, that’s fine. That’s normal. You’re in good company.

Just make sure you pass the adventure on.

The Viking’s Apprentice series is available on Amazon. If your child is ready to find out what happens at Campbell’s Cove, you can find the books here:

The Viking’s Apprentice on Amazon

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Are The Viking’s Apprentice books only for children?

They’re written for children aged 8–12, but the reviews speak for themselves. Adults who pick them up regularly find they can’t put them down. The story doesn’t talk down to its readers — it just moves fast, keeps its promises, and gives you characters worth caring about.

Q: My child doesn’t think they like reading. Will this actually work?

Most reluctant readers aren’t anti-reading. They’re anti-boredom. They haven’t found the book that moves fast enough, feels real enough, or respects their time enough. That’s what these books were designed to do. The short chapters, the pacing, the characters who feel ordinary — it all exists to get a child who doesn’t trust books to trust this one.

Q: How many books are in the series?

There are currently 4 books in TheViking’s Apprentice series, and 1 prequel. Books 5 and 6 are being released on July 27th 2026. Once a reluctant reader finishes the first one, the next is waiting.

Q: Are the books available as an audiobook?

Yes they are. The Viking's Apprentice is available on Audible, narrated by Danielle Cohen. You can find it here: The Viking's Apprentice on Audible



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