The storyline for the first half of this book was just depressing; the second half was repetitive. This is a prequel to the Banished Saga series, featuring the childhoods and early adulthoods of the three McLeod brothers (heroes in the series). I have book one on my TBR pile, but I'm in no hurry to read it since the writing changes from third person past tense in the prequel to first person tense in book one (at least from the excerpt of book one I read at the end of the prequel). Also, nothing is really engaging me in terms of characters or plot; just a lot of depressing back stories so far. I read this book for one of the squares on the 16 Tasks for Festive Season challenge.