Reading

No spoilers. This is a great read. It’s a great story. It moves fast. It twists. It turns. Then it twists again. And then there is just one more twist. The narrative jumps between characters and its really effective. The body count starts to increase. The tension ratchets up. It builds and builds until the end.

I liked the way the narrative jumped around and moved about, and I got really invested in the different stories. I really believed in the characters. There was depth and reality to the more prominent characters.

I thought the place itself was really well drawn, believable and real. And as it got nearer the end, the pace picked up and rollicked forward to the climax. The final action scenes are well drawn and easy to follow and understand (lets face it sometimes action pieces aren’t, nothing worse than having to interrupt the narrative to read it again).

Ideally if I’d had time I would have consumed it in one session. Its readable and believable. It has some depth and some prescient ideas. But reading it was a bit like eating a fabulous dessert. You nibble at the edges, testing the different sides. You like it. You eat your way towards the middle and then before you know it your dipping your spoon into some luscious melt in your mouth delight that you hadn’t expected. When its done, you think, wow that was great.

Although I would temper that by saying that the material here has a dark side and a point to make and that is not lost in the various narratives or in the pace, tone and context of the story. It did make me think about its themes.

But you should read it, and then treat yourself to a second dessert.

I was given a free copy of this to review.

I really enjoyed this book. The narrative is well paced and whilst it’s part of a wider series, it stands on its own as a story. The tension builds nicely in the first part, with more emotional resolution in the second. I liked the main character, and you get a real sense of the physicality of the lifestyle in the early parts of the book.

The scene setting is really good, just real enough that you can picture it in your head, but not too overdone. The writing is sparse in some ways but it fits the mood of the book. Its well drawn, engaging and absorbing. At its centre is an idea that has its roots in a reality that we rarely hear about, there were small women only settlements for various reasons. I warmed to the central characters, and the dilemmas she faced. It felt real and plausible as a basis for a story.

I liked that that it was real about what a proper defence would have to look like, and that the character arc followed a generous and well thought-out narrative. I especially liked that the expectation around how relationships might work out changed as the story went on, it was intricate and delicate the way that this was done and it didn’t feel forced, like a whodunit, but with clues around how expectations might change. I thoroughly enjoyed it, highly recommended.

I was given a free copy of this book to review.

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Review: Empire’s Daughter