The description of this book, "a blend of Dark Age Britain’s history, its Celtic roots and the Arthurian legend," led me to believe it might interest me. I've picked it up and read a bit numerous times since receiving it a year ago, and read well over half the book, but it has long stretches where nothing happens. The book is also full of spelling and grammar errors, and words that are invented or used improperly, as well as historical inaccuracies. The premise of the book (almost a prequel to Arthurian legends) is good, and I like the inclusion of a pronunciation guide and map at the beginning, but it wasn't enough to make up for the poor writing and plodding plot. ( )

To start, I received this book as part of a Member Giveaway, and I received it with much anticipation (I’m a historical re-creationist, specializing in the Dark Ages). However, upon reading it, I had to reclassify it in my head to being a fantasy novel, rather than historical fiction (I’ve got it tagged as historical fantasy).

Without going into details about the storyline (many of my fellow reviewers have already done that most thoroughly – scroll down to flouncyninja's review among others for a review of the actual storyline), while I enjoyed the basic story itself and found it to be a quick and easy read, there were some things that bothered me. While the author may be a student of Celtic history and Authurian Legends, her study and knowledge of the simple day-to-day aspects of life in the dark ages left me disappointed. Foremost in this was the glaring errors in the diets of people in the early dark ages in medieval Scotland, specifically, she has her characters eating turkey legs and peeling and eating potatoes – two foods that wouldn’t be present in Europe for another 1200 years. Also, the descriptions of our heroine’s clothing more closely resembles your classic 1800’s romance heroine (at least when I visualized it in my mind based on the description in the book). I also question the use of gunpowder (as a plot device near the end of the novel) , as it (meaning the gunpowder) wasn’t recorded in Europe until the mid 1200’s, a full 800 years after the events in the novel.

Having stated the above, once I re-jigged my brain to reading the book as fantasy and ignoring the glaring historical inaccuracies (at least for me, as a historical re-creationist), I enjoyed it immensely, and will be on the lookout for the other 3 books in the series. ( )

The Romans have left Britain. Home-grown lords and Saxon invaders are fighting and conniving for power. The violence deprives a young girl of parents and home. But perhaps she and her village were not merely in the way when war came. Some unknown power-seeker seems to be specifically—and urgently—trying to find something her family may have possessed.

Our heroine, Mary Sue … (Oh, sorry. My mistake,. There is a strong resemblance). Our “ethereal” heroine, Claerwen, is gifted (or plagued) with visions from undefined gods. Although rarely clear guides to action, she acts on them nevertheless motivating most of the plot.

Sometimes the gods intervene even more directly then just sending visions. Indeed, the plot is littered with gods falling from machines; hardly any major plot development lacks one. This, and the adherence to all the usual clichés of fantasy and historic romance, makes the plot rather predictable. Claerwen suffers unjustly, meets a gorgeous and mysterious man (a prince, of course), they recognize each other as soul mates, their love … Well, you’ve read it before. I got so bored and frustrated with the oh-so-perfect Claerwen and the obvious plot that I put this book down about half way through and left it a long time before finally reading to the (foreseen) end.

However, I’m sure many readers will find it a satisfying read. The prose, clunky in places, has a few very memorable and telling passages. The hero, Marcus, has some depth and subtly considering his casting as what is usually the cardboard prince. And some of the secondary characters are interesting, if rather less than three-dimensional. A good bit of attention seems to have been paid to the setting and to making the historical details believable. This book just goes over very well-ploughed ground and never strays from well-used furrows. For readers who love historical romance and romantic fantasy, and want their reading to stay comfortably in the familiar with assurance that love and righteousness will be triumphant, this incarnation is reasonably well executed. ( )

I won this book through Member Giveaways.

I feel that flouncyninja's review is fair and accurate, and agree with it.

Specifically, I felt as though I was slogging through most of this book. It turns out it was a romance novel, rather than an adventurous historical fiction.

The character of Clarwen was not only a Mary Sue, but the literal embodiment of Deus ex machina. She's stunningly beautiful, with iridescent blue-green eyes and long lashes, and she's perfect - perfectly devoted to her man, perfectly able to completely fend for herself while travelling through the wilderness, etc. At critical moments (but never "when she seeks it" of course) she is led by the gods to see or do certain things that conveniently advance the plot.

I had been given the impression that this novel was thoroughly researched, and as historically accurate as possible. How then were they able to drink tea? It didn't show up in Britain for more than a thousand years after this story was set. Granted, most people won't know that, but it made me question the accuracy of the entire novel.

I rolled my eyes at the repeated instances of nursing people back from the brink of death. Life-threatening illness and injury shouldn't feel routine.

Is your lover missing? Maybe you should look for a previously unnoticed pile of rags in the corner.

I knew who the mysterious warrior was from the moment he was introduced.

The last hundred pages were indeed the most interesting, but not enough to save this book. I really wanted to like it, but it was just so mediocre. ( )

I have always loved Arthurian legends of Britian, and since this book awas a Library Thing author gift, I really enjoyed it. After doing some personal reserch on Britain of 500 CE, I was impressed by the authors use of historical facts and her ability to paint the images of that time to the reader.

I have just reserved the next book of the series, "In The Shadow of Dragons" from the library, and look forward to reading it.

I am delighted to recommend this series to historical and Arthurian readers.