There Are Inkspots On My Page!

You can find this, and other reviews, on my blog. I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was quite a fun book. Well-written, easy to read, good plot. It’s quite obvious that a lot of time has been spent researching both the era (medieval Europe) and Jewish culture.

I really liked Dennah’s strength, and her determination to do what needed to be done - I can definitely identify with her stubbornness! I did find at times though, that there was a sense of inevitability - that some choices she made were because that’s what the plot needed to have happen, rather than the character. A few situations left me thinking “Really? Would anyone decide to that so easily?”

The other part I both enjoyed and struggled with at the same time was the Jewish references. Look, the book is a Jewish fantasy novel, by definition, it will have a very large amount of cultural, religious and language references. That was awesome - it’s not something I know a lot about so being able to learn something (anything) was wonderful. But more than once, I was left a bit confused by Yiddish words being used where context gave no idea to meaning, and often it seemed thrown around for the sake of reminding the reader that this is a Jewish novel.

I’m very curious to see how the story progresses, and I do recommend it to anyone wanting something a little different out of their high fantasy, but know that you won’t be finding anything ground breaking as far as underlying plot elements go - just the potential for a great series.