Ingrid Tirsdatter is no stranger to difficult missions. As a first-year shieldmaiden, she’s fought off Viking warriors, defeated the not-quite-dead, and ridden into battle atop a fire-breathing dragon. But nothing in her training prepared her for her current assignment. In order to stop a madman from destroying her home, Ingrid’s jumped one thousand years into the future, moved into an elite Southern California sorority, and done everything in her power to not get distracted by Axel Andersson—her absurdly attractive, and extraordinarily egotistical, battle partner. So far, she’s managed to keep her mission reasonably on track. But when a mysterious stranger shows up with an offer to lead Ingrid to her target, her well-orchestrated plan begins to unravel. It turns out that Ingrid isn’t the only one engaged in subterfuge. If she fails to hunt down the elements that have set her enemy on his dark path, there’s no telling what will become of the future . . . or the past. Ingrid and her team are in a race against time. And if they can’t outrun their target, both of the worlds she’s come to love will be nothing more than a memory.

Eighteen-year-old Ingrid Tirsdatter is a shieldmaiden—a Viking warrior tasked with protecting her clan while upholding their virtues of honor, valor, and total domination. She’s one-hundred-percent focused on climbing the shieldmaiden ranks, and not at all focused on Axel Andersson—the overly confident and unnaturally good-looking warrior who saved her life exactly one time . . . and hasn’t let her forget it. When an unparalleled enemy threatens Ingrid’s clan, she vows to do everything in her power to protect her home. But saving Valkyris will require her to travel one thousand years into the future, join an elite Southern California sorority, capture a magic-wielding psychopath . . . and not fall for the one warrior in all the realms who could be her undoing. Ingrid’s new assignment is a nightmare in the making, but she’s determined to do her clan proud. After all, she’s a shieldmaiden. And shieldmaidens never back down. This is a full length, young adult fantasy for readers who love action, adventure, subterfuge and romance.

Shieldmaiden Ingrid Tirsdatter is in the final leg of her very first mission. After chasing a dark mage one thousand years into the future, she and her team have spent the past two months trying to stop him from doing the unthinkable—enacting a magical spell that’s certain to destroy their world. But when a collection of crystals goes missing, it’s clear their enemy is making his final play. And when Axel starts acting peculiar, Ingrid realizes that more than just their home is on the line. If she and her team can’t stop the dark mage, her past—and her future—may disappear forever.

Women of Discriminating Taste examines the role of historically white sororities in the shaping of white womanhood in the twentieth century. As national women’s organizations, sororities have long held power on college campuses and in American life. Yet the groups also have always been conservative in nature and inherently discriminatory, selecting new members on the basis of social class, religion, race, or physical attractiveness. In the early twentieth century, sororities filled a niche on campuses as they purported to prepare college women for “ladyhood.” Sorority training led members to comport themselves as hyperfeminine, heterosocially inclined, traditionally minded women following a model largely premised on the mythical image of the southern lady. Although many sororities were founded at non-southern schools and also maintained membership strongholds in many non-southern states, the groups adhered to a decidedly southern aesthetic—a modernized version of Lost Cause ideology—in their social training to deploy a conservative agenda. Margaret L. Freeman researched sorority archives, sorority-related materials in student organizations, as well as dean of women’s, student affairs, and president’s office records collections for historical data that show how white southerners repeatedly called upon the image of the southern lady to support southern racial hierarchies. Her research also demonstrates how this image could be easily exported for similar uses in other areas of the United States that shared white southerners’ concerns over changing social demographics and racial discord. By revealing national sororities as significant players in the grassroots conservative movement of the twentieth century, Freeman illuminates the history of contemporary sororities’ difficult campus relationships and their continuing legacy of discriminatory behavior and conservative rhetoric.

This second edition includes new chapters that address issues such as the role of Christian values in black Greek-letter organizations and the persistence of hazing. Offering an overview of the historical, cultural, political, and social circumstances that have shaped these groups, African American Fraternities and Sororities explores the profound contributions that black Greek-letter organizations and their members have made to America.