Title: Road from the West
Author: Roseanne Lortz
Publisher: Madison Street Publishing
Publish Date: September 2, 2011
Source: Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours
Why You're Reading This Book:
- You like adventure stories.
- You're in the mood for an epic historical fiction.
From Goodreads.com: "Haunted by guilt from the past and nightmares of the future, a young Norman named Tancred takes the cross and vows to be the first to free Jerusalem from the infidels. As he journeys to the Holy Land, he braves vast deserts, mortal famine, and the ever-present ambushes of the enemy Turks—but the greatest danger of all is deciding which of the Crusader lords to trust. A mysterious seer prophesies that Tancred will find great love and great sorrow on his journey, but the second seems intent on claiming him before he can find the first. Intrigues and passions grow as every battle brings the Crusaders one step closer to Jerusalem. Not all are destined to survive the perilous road from the West."
My Two Cents:
The Crusade was a Pope and Catholic sanctioned Christian takeover of Jerusalem. This book is the first in a trilogy that covers the first Crusade. Tancred, a young warrior, is told by Pope Urban if he fights in the Crusade, all of Tancred's sins will be absolved. Tancred really doesn't like playing by the rules but he wants to make his previous troubles go away.
I had never read any fictional books about the Crusade. I thought it was really interesting to see the Crusade from the perspective of the people who were fighting to boot the pagans out of the Holy City of Jerusalem. You can see from Tancred's perspective alone that people fought in the Crusades for all sorts of reasons. Some did fight because they believed they had a religious duty to remove the pagans from the Holy Land. Other fought for more selfish reasons. I guess I didn't realize that there was such a broad range of reasons for people to fight.
One of the things that I liked about this book is that although it takes place during a war, there isn't a lot of time spent on the battles themselves. The book covers more of the behind the scenes of what's going on. It talks more about what people were thinking as they marched towards the unknown. To me, this was way more interesting than a bunch of battle sequences.
Bottom line: This was a great adventure story with an interesting perspective.
Giveaway:
Thanks to the author and publisher, one lucky reader of A Bookish Affair will win a copy of Road from the West.
Rules:
- You must be 13 and over
- Open internationally
- You must be a follower of A Bookish Affair
Just fill out this really easy form here and you're entered!
Follow the Rest of the Tour:
Friday, September 2nd
Review at The Maiden's Court
Monday, September 5th
Author Guest Post & Giveaway at The Maiden's Court
Tuesday, September 6th
Review at Debbie's Book Bag
Author Guest Post & Giveaway at From the TBR Pile
Wednesday, September 7th
Review at The Calico Critic
Thursday, September 8th
Review at Unabridged Chick
Monday, September 12th
Review at Broken Teepee
Tuesday, September 13th
Wednesday, September 14th
Friday, September 16th
Review at Diary of a Book Addict
Tuesday, September 20th
Review at Bibliophilic Book Blog
Wednesday, September 21st
Thursday, September 22nd
Author Guest Post at Bibliophilic Book Blog
Monday, September 26th
Review at Just One More Paragraph
Tuesday, September 27th
Review at The Musings of a Book Junkie
Wednesday, September 28th
Thursday, September 29th
Review at Sharon's Garden of Book Reviews
Friday, September 30th
Review at By the By Books
Monday, October 3rd
Tuesday, October 4th
Author Interview at The Musings of a Book Junkie
Wednesday, October 5th
Thursday, October 6th
Review at A Few More Pages
Friday, October 7th
Review at The Owl Bookmark Blog
Monday, October 10th
Review at Historically Obsessed
Tuesday, October 11th
Wednesday, October 12th
Review at Between the Pages
Thursday, October 13th
Monday, October 17th
Wednesday, October 19th
Review at The True Book Addict
Thursday, October 20th
I have been meaning to read this one, I love reading about the Crusades, they really are fascinating. I don't like a lot of detailed battle scenes in books either so I think I will like this one. Thanks for the review!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your "two cents"! I finished Road from the West not long ago and am scheduled later on the tour. I thought it was a really good piece of historical fiction.
ReplyDelete@Anne Battle scenes just get boring!
ReplyDelete@Erin I'm interested to see where the other books in the series go!
ReplyDelete