Book Review - Rebel’s Knot (Quest for Three Kingdoms) By Cryssa Bazos #HistoricalFiction BlogTour #CoffeePotBookClub @CryssaBazos @maryanneyarde

 

Rebel’s Knot

(Quest for Three Kingdoms)

By Cryssa Bazos

Ireland 1652: In the desperate, final days of the English invasion of Ireland . . .

 

A fey young woman, Áine Callaghan, is the sole survivor of an attack by English marauders. When Irish soldier Niall O'Coneill discovers his own kin slaughtered in the same massacre, he vows to hunt down the men responsible. He takes Áine under his protection and together they reach the safety of an encampment held by the Irish forces in Tipperary. 

 

Hardly a safe haven, the camp is rife with danger and intrigue. Áine is a stranger with the old stories stirring on her tongue and rumours follow her everywhere. The English cut off support to the brigade, and a traitor undermines the Irish cause, turning Niall from hunter to hunted. 

 

When someone from Áine's past arrives, her secrets boil to the surface—and she must slay her demons once and for all.

 

As the web of violence and treachery grows, Áine and Niall find solace in each other's arms—but can their love survive long-buried secrets and the darkness of vengeance?

I am quite a fan of the Irish accent, and even though that has nothing to do with the story whatsoever, it was the idea of reading a book, and imagining I could hear the characters as they spoke that made me initially want to read this book. Plus, the blurb sounded intriguing.

Áine and Niall meet under less than desirable circumstances. Áine is the only person to have escaped an English attack on the estate that she worked at, and it just so happened that the estate was owned by Niall’s aunt and uncle, and that his sister had been staying there. When he stops by the estate to see his sister, all he finds is a roughly made cairn, his cousin’s head on a spike, and Áine in the house, looking for supplies.

Taking Áine away from the estate, Niall’s thirst for vengeance grows when he learns that Captain Garret, an English soldier who had been captured and released by the Irish the previous year, had arrived to pillage the house. On top of that, he forces an English soldier to tell him what happened to the womenfolk, and he is informed that they were sent abroad, to serve as indentured servants. Unfortunately, directing his anger towards Garret means nothing if Niall does not survive to kill him, and when Niall returns to camp, with Áine, it seems his need for revenge is outweighed by the fact that the English are gaining ground, not losing it, and the power the resistance has is starting to dwindle.

My goodness, this book! It is one of those that baits you in with the promise of an Irish accent, and then hooks you, tearing you away from reality and dragging you into a world unknown, but one you are eager to learn about. I really loved Niall, for although he can be quick to temper (it is always justified though) he is fiercely loyal to those he loves, and if someone does anything to harm someone Niall loves, they had better watch their back. My heart felt for Áine, for throughout the course of this book we slowly learn her backstory, and it is not full of faeries and walks in the woods, but it is a tragic past, and one that she would rather remained hidden. And yet, things always seem to come back around, and she cannot keep such secrets from Niall forever.

This is the kind of book that has multiple scenes that make you say ‘this is it. This is where a main character dies, and there is simply no way they are going to survive this’, but by some twist of fate, death does not befall them, and you breathe a sigh of relief, until the next scene comes along and you find yourself holding your breath again. Something in particular that made me hold my breath was Fionn, Niall’s wolfhound. I looked up wolfhounds (they are gorgeous!) and he is not a secondary character in this book, in my opinion. Instead, he is one of the main characters, following Niall wherever he goes, unless he is favouring Áine that day. What worried me, was that Fionn is the kind of dog that seems to wander wherever he likes, and returns when called, but when he continuously runs off by himself, I found myself wondering if there was going to be a scene when he was called and didn’t appear.

Unfortunately, my husband and I have agreed that we do not have room to house an Irish wolfhound, so I will just have to reread this book and love Fionn through the pages!

I loved the relationship that Niall has with his fellow soldiers, and Cormac was another of my favourite characters. He delights in telling stories, like Áine, although Áine’s stories are somewhat more captivating, and Cormac’s tend to be rather violent. There is one scene, in particular, where Cormac is loudly telling a story so an English guard didn’t realise there was any other sound happening. Cormac seemed to greatly enjoy that the guard was not allowed to open the door and shut him up, or leave, but was instead forced to listen to Cormac’s voice. This is just one of the reasons I loved his character!

Being the kind of person that I am, I did not look up how to pronounce any of the names in this book until after I had finished reading it. Niall was easy enough, but Áine? I spent the entire time calling her ‘Anne’ in my head, only to find out it’s pronounced ‘Anya’? And only now that I’m writing this do I realise the author has told us how to pronounce the names at the start of the book. That’s what I get for skipping the opening pages to start reading the book!

When I love a book as much as I did this one, I do tend to ramble quite a bit in my reviews. Thus, this review is stretching rather long! To sum it up – I love this book, Irish accents are great, I want a wolfhound. Oh, and buy this book! You won’t regret it.

Side note for the author: I did not drop this novel in the bath!!!

I received a copy of this novel from The Coffee Pot Book Club, but you can find your copy HERE!!

 

Cryssa Bazos 

Cryssa Bazos is an award-winning historical fiction author and a seventeenth century enthusiast. Her debut novel, Traitor's Knot is the Medalist winner of the 2017 New Apple Award for Historical Fiction, a finalist for the 2018 EPIC eBook Awards for Historical Romance. Her second novel, Severed Knot, is a B.R.A.G Medallion Honoree and a finalist for the 2019 Chaucer Award. A forthcoming third book in the standalone series, Rebel's Knot, was published November 2021.

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