I think I will review this whole series once I read them each, I really enjoyed them so much! ( )

Although this was, in fact, the third book I have read by Rachel Rossano, its the first time I began by reading one of her series from the beginning. The other books were a standalone novella, and an Anthology of short stories which complement her Novels of Rhynan series.

Both the aforementioned, and the Theodoric Saga which this is part of are meant to be Medieval Fantasy series 'masquerading as Historical' as the endnote says. I must confess though, I did not like this one as much as her other books.
I understand it was her first novel, written several years before the Kindle Edition was published in 2011, hence her writing style was not as developed. It was rather too short to allow for a lot of character and plot development, and as a ersult seemed to to jump around rather a lot and seemed inconsistent in places. For all that though, its not bad for a first story. Better than a lot of things I would have written at that age.

The only other issue I have is that it didn't really feel Medieval to me. I like to be 'transported' back in time, and get a real feel for the past, or the ficional version of it when I read Historical Fiction or Fantasy. If there are details at odds with the setting, then I like them to fit in with the story as part of the World building.
The problem was there was no real sense of period in this one, as there is in Mrs Rossano's later novels. Many of the details are quite conspiciously modern, as is a lot of the langauge, and it did prove somewhat jarring. This is forgiveable however, for the reasons Highlighted above. It was her first book, and probably was not based on as much Historical Research.

Of course, I will read more by this author, and I hear the series gets better as it goes along. Its a a good introduction to the author's work and to the characters involved in the series. ( )