Marsha's Mondays: A Review of Medieval II--Shadows of Kings by Kevin Ashman

Marsha reviews Medieval II--Shadows of Kings

Be sure to see below for giveaway offer details!

Medieval II--Shadows of Kings by Kevin Ashman finds Garyn ap Thomas and his brother, Geraint, whom we met in book one of the series, Medieval--Blood of the Cross, back home in Wales after their harrowing adventures in the Holy Land. Garyn is intent on rebuilding the family forge and once more making his life in the village where he grew up. He has married his love, Elspeth, and their lives are coming together. Geraint has almost fully recovered from injuries sustained in Acre. While recovering he is working at the manor of the local lord, Cadwallader. Geraint is not content to remain in the village and talks of seeking his fortune elsewhere.

Fate and the conspiring of Garyn's nemesis, Father William, start a chain of events that rips apart Garyn's peaceful life and sets him on a far different path than ever imagined. A wanted man, Garyn must travel far from his village to northern Wales, where he becomes a member of a group of mercenaries, the Blaidd. Living the life of a mercenary, Garyn has one mission in his life and that is to stop Father Williams and get his normal life back.

Parallel to Garyn's story is his brother, Geraint's tale and the adventures he is encountering. Geraint, seeking adventure and fortune, has signed on as a crew member for a mysterious journey that none but the captain of the vessel and a few others know anything about. Without going in to too much detail and thus giving away too much of the story line, Geraint and the rest of the crew journey far from their homeland in a quest to find an integral part of their heritage, which is desperately needed now that King Henry III has died and his son, Prince Edward, is set to take the throne. Known for his ruthlessness, the Welsh nobles are understandably nervous of what Edward's reign will mean for their country. A group of these nobles hatch a plan to try and thwart any expansionist ideas Edward might have for Wales. This daring plan that Geraint becomes involved in brings many hardships, many deaths, and will take years for Geraint to make it back to Wales. The men after all the time and effort in their quest don't quite realize that the answer just might have been in Wales all along.

This is a stand-alone read but reading book one, Medieval--Blood of the Cross, gives one a better understanding of the motives and relationships of the characters. Although Garyn and Geraint's stories run parallel to each other throughout the book, Geraint's was the feature story line with Garyn's as the back story. Kevin Ashman writes with the knowledge of the time and with well written characters. Both Garyn and Geraint's stories kept my interest with an ending that has more questions than answers. I look forward to the next book in the series to find out the answers to these questions and learning the fates of Garyn and Geraint.

Kevin has kindly offered a free e-book copy of Medieval II-Shadows of Kings. To enter for a chance to win, please leave a comment below or on our Facebook page. Please ensure we have a means to identify and contact you in the event you are our winner!

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. 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 here, and he also hosts a Facebook writing group called Black on White, where all would-be authors are welcome. Kevin also has a book page on Amazon, which can be found here, 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