(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).
(This review may contain spoilers).
I’ve read a lot of good books – and especially recently – but I don’t have too many that I want to re-read again for the first time as soon as I reach the end.
When I originally entered to win a copy of this book, I didn’t actually read the blurb. I saw the cover and the title and entered on that alone. It wasn’t until I read the blurb that I knew what this was going to be about.
This book did a really good job of pulling me in straight away. I personally found that the characters were interesting, each with their own quirks and strengths and weaknesses. One of the strongest points of this book is the allowance of consequences – when the main character gets tired, he makes mistakes. He’s skilled, but not unbeatable.
I don’t often think this about books, but I honestly feel that this one in particular would make a really good film, provided the storyline and characters were stuck to. There are some scenes in this that would be really good shown visually. And it would be pretty cool to hear the songs sung. (I had a tune for the caravan song in my head, though it’s obviously not the right one…)
I felt that the descriptions in this book came across really well. I was able to picture the events happening fairly easily in my mind. There were also some things that did make me smile. The main character’s personality came across really well. I felt for him with the glimpses shown of his past and I’ve always liked the true hero character type.
I do think that there were some convenient things in the plot. It was a bit difficult to know how one character in particular could prepare for all of these different eventualities. That didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the story, but I would have liked a bit more explanation of it.
I think Kest was probably my favourite character in this, apart from Falcio. I would have liked to see a bit more of him.
This book, according to the blurb on the back, is the first in a series. I would definitely be interested in reading the next books in the future.
Ink of Blood 