want a real life adventure? come to Australia we have spiders bigger than your hand.

Im rating this book 3.5 Stars. The reason behind this is because for most of the book i thought it was only okay - good. but the last 20% was pretty awesome, i was tempted to go with 4 stars, but i just dont think only 20% no matter how good deserves a whole extra star. So there we have it. 3.5.

now onto the actual good bit ^_^

What i liked:

• The world was incredibly well done, and i dont have much problems picturing it in my mind, especially Udalyn, which sounded incredibly and somewhere i'd love to visit!

• The Battles where AWESOME and so extreme! very well described as well.

• The different fractions of Lenayin while confusing most of the time and hard to keep track of did add alot to the story and was deff necessary. without all these different fractions/clans/races the story wouldnt of been half as good. I also enjoyed how they also managed to tie up into either Verethane or Goeren-yai. both formidable soldiers, but i must admit the Goeren-yai were my fave's.

[...]...

'Long, braided hair hung free on the shoulders of the three Goeren-yai, who marched with the slow, arrogant swagger of Goeren-yai manhood, a hand clasped to the hilt of each sword and threat in every step. The three Verenthane soldiers walked in line behind their comrades, with no less intimidating a posture for all their lack of swagger'...[..]

• The characters, were all pretty great, too many to name really so here a few of my faves, though i wont list why for each one.

Kessligh, Peg, Sasha, Teriyan, Lynette, Jaryd, Damon, Sofy, Daryd and Errollyn.

The two im looking forward to seeing the most in the next book would be Errollyn and Jaryd.

Jaryd has pretty much gone bat-shit insane and is only holding it together by a thread, hes bound to be interesting no matter what and i'll be disappointed if he's not in the next book.

Im looking forward to seeing Errollyn on his home turfs and i imagine he'll bring some credit to Sasha when she visits - if she doesnt ride their with him.

Actually lets add another, Sofy. Im interested in how she'll handle her marriage and i can imagine her being on of those inspirational people who changes history. very much looking forward to that!

Im hoping to see a few others in the next book, mainly the Goeren-yai, mainly for the fact their awesome. but we'll see.

'Im betting he wont even be at full strength. After all, we're just a pagan, or pagen-loving, rabble of limp-wristed southerners led by a girl. What threat could we possibly be?'

• Oh and no romance! can you believe that! was fantastic.

and i suppose onto...

What i didnt like:

• It took me FOREVER to get into this book and the hang of this, there's just so many things to keep track of, people, what clans their from, what town their from, who they represent.... ect plus on top of that they all have similar names! who does that?! beyond cruel.

• The fact that it took so long for my to really enjoy this book, though when i did it was pretty good. I also think this may of been because this is book one and it took a while to set everything up and explain all the nitty gritty details that couldnt be left out. I'm hoping (fingers crossed) the next book will be right into it and amazing the whole way through.

• The bad guys - but thats the point, so no actual complaint here. they ever great bad guys. very hatable. though horses did die which sucked.

• The descriptions at the beginning were full on and muddled up the story, quite annoying.

• one more complaint i think, Sasha at the start of the book was so dumb and up herself, but she did grow on me as well as pulled her shit together. i didnt dislike her i just didnt overly like her. lol. im glad thats over and done with and hopefully she'll just be a cool badass chick from here on out.

Well. I believe thats all i have to say at this moment..... looking forward to the next book. oh also great Cover. mine is different to the one on here and i personally think much better.

Though there is also this one which i think is a more realistic version of how Sasha would look during battle.

which one do you like more?