Review: Good story, but not as readable as it should be
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 04 10, 2014
This story takes members of a family on both sides during the struggle between Stephen and Matilda.  It is packed with historical detail and verisimilitude, making it a great way to feel the times from the point of view of minor nobles from the north and hence off the main stage.However, there a a few reasons why it is hard to read, and the ending is a cheat.The editing (if done) was very poor.  Clearly spell-checked, but the wrong word or a word missing and grammatical errors are distracting, at least to me.Characters are added in droves, with a LOT of jumping between them.  Even towards the end of the book new characters are being added.  If I hadn't already had a handle on some of the main the historical characters I never could have kept track of everyone.  Even with main fictional characters I sometimes had to look back (hard with a Kindle) to be sure who was who.In my mind this is also an editing problem.  Just a little bit of reminding the reader could have made the read a lot smoother.And the book just ended.  No conclusion, just teases for the next story, where the already too cute references to the Robin Hood legendary characters (knight named Robert with huge retainer John Little, near town of Edale) suggest that will be the story told.  I HATE books sold individually with no conclusion at all, even in a series.  It makes me feel like I am paying for part 1 of a book.