I saw the cover of A Beggars Apprentice and I have to be honest, it drew me with the swirling beautiful colours, a bit like a dream.
After reading this fantasy novel, the cover is well suited! It took a while for me to get into the flow of the 'story telling' side of this culture, but it lead me in and I slipped right into this world and raced through the rest of story.

I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the different isles with their history (a bit like Game of Thrones vibes), understanding how life may be on a restricted island and understanding the uncertainties of strangers and how to build trust.
I am also happy to learn that this is just book 1 in the Aftermath Series!

Thanks to Netgalley and BooksGoSocial for allowing me to read A Beggars Apprentice for free in return for an honest review.

For me I found this too slow with a convoluted plot yet nothing actually happening until very late into the book. I really did want to enjoy it because the concept sounds really interesting and similar to a "Lord of the Ring's" adventure but this just wasn't for me.

It’s beautifully written and I loved the world building, but I found the story quite dull. For me, the plot didn’t really get interesting until about 75% of the way through and it took me over a month to finish it. If I hadn’t have been given the arc through NetGalley to review, I probably would have DNFd it early on.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I found the book hard to rate. On one hand the prose, the style, the poetic touch to the writing was astonishing and I was amazed how beautiful the sentences sounded while reading the book.
I like how the author described the culture, the history and stories/songs/poems very expressively, gave life to, otherwise pretty simple, story.
I found the characters very believable, and layered. The main character was loveable and I admired his persistence.
The only problem was that, the story seemed a bit dull, not much happening. Or maybe it was just not my cup of tea or I had other expectations. I didn't feel like the story engaged me, so I can only give 3 stars to this book.
I still recommend the book to high fantasy, coming of age story fans!

I posted the review on Goodreads website too!

A wonderful and engaging Story by Robert Bain! Thanks so much to him and NetGalley for providing the Arc for me to read and review.

A story of Sorley, finding his way in the world, and discovering who his family is. It's a coming of age story that provides discoveries through the mystery of your own story. Leaving his current life to follow his fathers body back to the land where his father was raised, and where Sorely was born, he and enjoys companionship with many of this lands inhabitants, each with their "own story".

An interesting fantasy story, that isn't reliant upon dragons, or a singular evil that the protaganist must overcome. However the story takes place upon the back drop of an invasion thought to be coming.

Looking forward to the next possible book in this world.

Recommended

This novel was brilliant from start to finish. The world that Robert Bain has brought to life came across as very believable and I thought the characters in this novel were wonderfully drawn. The story itself was incredibly fast paced, and the action was non-stop.

If you enjoy quality fantasy this this book will be right up your street. I highly recommend this novel.

*I received a copy of this book from NetGalley for review consideration.

***Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a digital copy of this book to review.***