Review of Medieval: Blood of the Cross by K.M. Ashman

Medieval: Blood of the Cross by K.M. Ashman is a coming of age tale of a fourteen year old Welsh boy, Garyn, set during the Ninth Crusade. A series of events sets Garyn onto the path to the Holy Land to find a holy relic in exchange for the life of his older brother, Geraint, a soldier who has left to fight on Crusade. These events are at once tragic and harrowing, but Garyn rises to the challenge at every opportunity, all in hopes of saving his brother and bringing him back home to Wales.

With a riddle to solve, learned from a man from the Holy Land, Garyn sets out to become a common soldier in his overlord's army to secure passage to the East. Once this is accomplished, Garyn overcomes many obstacles on the trip to the Holy Land and while there. Many forces are against Garyn succeeding in his quest, but with resourcefulness and help from friends Garyn manages to overcome all difficulties and succeed.

The story interweaves Garyn's plight with that of a Knight Hospitaller called Sir Khoury, the Castellan of Krak des Chevalier. As Garyn strives to get to the Holy Land, Sir Khoury is battling Sultan Baibaars, the head of the Mamluks. These two vastly different people will end up meeting and helping each other in a time of need.

The character of Garyn is very believable and likable and I found myself rooting him on during all his adventures. The supporting cast of characters are well defined and developed with Brother Martin being a particular favorite. K.M. Ashman tells a tale gritty with realism of the time period and one that pulls a reader into the Holy Land and the Crusading fervor.

This was a fast paced adventure that I thoroughly enjoyed reading. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in the Medieval time frame or the Crusades.

Author Bio:



Kevin Ashman is an author from South Wales in the United Kingdom. He is 51 years old and married to his wife of 27 years, Janet. He has four adult children, one grandson and works full time as a project manager for one of the biggest companies in the world.

In March 2011, he found himself at a loose end in the evenings and rather than get addicted to the TV, decided to tick something off his bucket list. He decided to write a book. Three months later Roman I – The Fall of Britannia was finished and after a lot of research, he turned down the chance to work with an interested agent to go down the rapidly growing self-publishing route. A risky decision but one that turned out to be very astute. Since then he has gone on to write another nine novels in a little over two years, Including the very successful Roman Trilogy, The India Sommers Mysteries and three stand-alone novels called Savage Eden, Vampire and The Last Citadel. Along the way, Kevin says he has made mistakes but learned quickly. He is very disciplined with his writing and aims for a minimum of 1,000 words a night. The marketing of any novel is difficult but by interaction and building up a significant online presence, his readership has grown to over sixty thousand readers in two years. Of course, the ability to tell a good story also helps. His current project is a medieval trilogy  and Medieval I: Blood of the Cross is riding high in the UK Kindle charts and is currently his best-selling novel this month. He gives talks at local libraries about successful Kindle publishing and has helped many authors prepare their books for electronic publishing. He is currently enjoying record sales across his ten books including the paperbacks and is very grateful he has a very loyal fan base who keep coming back for more. His aim is to write at least three novels a year to keep those fans, and indeed the new ones happy. 

Kevin’s blog site can be found at http://kevin-ashman.blogspot.co.uk/ and he also hosts a Facebook writing group called Black on White https://www.facebook.com/groups/566769810009304/ where all would-be authors are welcome. Kevin’s book page on Amazon can be found here http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B005F5M0GW though all his books can be found on all platforms including Kobo, Diesel, Sony Apple, Barnes and Noble and Smashwords. Kevin can be contacted direct through his website at KMAshman@silverbackbooks.co.uk



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