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A review by and_abelard_reads
A Painted Winter (Pictish Conspiracy #1) by H. Barnard
3.0
I received a free review copy through Booksirens and am voluntarily sharing my honest opinion.
This book has a fantastic concept but certain elements of the execution just weren't my cup of tea. Possibly due to the fact that it's the first in the series, I felt like there was a lot of set-up with relatively little pay-off. At least one of the 'hook' endings for the various plot strands was more of a cliff-hanger, but did generate a little character development.
I feel like the scenery (politically, religiously and semi-geographically) of a fictionalised Late Roman/Pictish Britain both North and South of the Wall was set beautifully (and with excellent explanations and sources in the authors notes), but I would have liked either a little more detail or a little more action. I found it a little too easy to become unmoored from the slow weave of plot threads in the time skips.
Overall a thoughtful and compelling piece of historical fiction, with a dash of mysticism and fantasy, not afraid to challenge our conceptions of history. I'll be on the lookout for Book 2.
This book has a fantastic concept but certain elements of the execution just weren't my cup of tea. Possibly due to the fact that it's the first in the series, I felt like there was a lot of set-up with relatively little pay-off. At least one of the 'hook' endings for the various plot strands was more of a cliff-hanger, but did generate a little character development.
I feel like the scenery (politically, religiously and semi-geographically) of a fictionalised Late Roman/Pictish Britain both North and South of the Wall was set beautifully (and with excellent explanations and sources in the authors notes), but I would have liked either a little more detail or a little more action. I found it a little too easy to become unmoored from the slow weave of plot threads in the time skips.
Overall a thoughtful and compelling piece of historical fiction, with a dash of mysticism and fantasy, not afraid to challenge our conceptions of history. I'll be on the lookout for Book 2.