Review 28 of my Goodreads Challenge Fire and Sword

Happy Sunday to you!

Book reviews? They seem to have been neglected of late and yes, I'm still behind with my reading challenge. I spend plenty of time reading non-fiction research books but my time spent on fiction has been woefully limited, of late.

That said, over the last few weeks, I have slowly been squeezing in some personal recreational reading. The fact that I have taken days to read a book is nothing to do with their quality, but more to do with my organisation of personal time. At the end of a day, exhaustion has sneaked in and left me unable to manage more than a handful of pages, even when I've been desperate to read on.

I now have a few books to mention that I've recently enjoyed and here's the first of them. 

Fire and Sword by Louise Turner  

This was a thoroughly engrossing read. At first I wasn’t sure if John Sempill had the strength of the hero, though it wasn’t long before I enjoyed the fact that his strength of character had to have been more important at a time when most things were measured by a man’s aggressive involvement in physical retribution- ie the physical slaying of opposite clan factions. 

In such a time of political upheaval, survival must have taken many forms and I really appreciated the author’s portrayal of how the relatively young John Sempill stuck by own decisions and his principles - even when they seemed to be contrary to most of those in his locale environment. An old head on a young shoulder was a burden, but it comes across very well in this portrayal. The other characters are also well drawn and the historical setting so well done it makes me impatient to learn much more of this historical era.

I've recently read other novels set during this era of Scottish history that used to be relatively neglected. I'm delighted to find that more effort has been expended over the last couple of decades to shed much more light on what happened during these troubled late 15th century times. 

If you enjoy Scottish historical fiction, I have no qualms in recommending Fire and Sword. I look forward to reading more of Ms Turner's work. 

Slainthe!