Not what I hoped for.

I saw the cover and was really intrigued by the idea of the fairy tale look and set up that the synopsis was describing, but the writing just felt off and strange from page one. There's a major passive voice issue that isn't doing the novel any favors. I'm not sure if the choice was intentional- to mimic the medieval atmosphere the book was going for- but it didn't do anything for me. The Saxon dialogue was also super weird... and yes, while I get that the key takeaway are "rape, pillage, and plunder," I really don't think it was done well on the page, and it certainly isn't something I want to read more of. The cover is really pretty and striking, but I just found the contents of the book to be lacking.