In my thirteen Oakham winters I'd never known such rain, nor seen this place so churned and soaked and listless in its mood and colour. I put my hand out and a dewy vapour settled on the back of it. My own chest and lungs had begun to labour from taking in too much damp and windless fug. For years on end nothing happened in Oakham out of the ordinary cycle of birth, strength, illness, death - there were no particular comings or goings, not things to surprise us. Then in September, Newman went on a pilgrimage to Rome. In November, we finished the bridge. In December, Newman came back from Rome. In January, Sarah Spenser went on a pilgrimage to see a rotten tooth. At the end of January she came back, feverish, and while away I'd been feverish, too. In early February, the bridge fell down. A week later Newman drowned. What curse was this?

Now here we were, besieged by a rural dean who, I'd come slowly to realise, was too intent on saving us wholly to care for the fate of any of us singly.

As much as I have issues with the book, there are some fine passages in this. It's just that this is not historical fiction. I've come to the conclusion that this seems to be contemporary fiction dressed up as a historical mystery (there's even a weird and completely anachronistic reference to Brexit in this). I'm strangely ok with that.

It's still no excuse for all the purple prose, tho.

"I was famished, the brief famishment I always had when I woke up. As if, each dawn, my body was petulant about rising again and threw a newborn's rage - feed me! It was a feeling that was always eased quickly with a mouthful or two of bread."

He's hungry for some breakfast. I get it. 

As mentioned earlier, the prose in this is of the purple persuasion. It's testing my patience, even tho it is quite successful in creating a gloomy atmosphere of a plague-ridded village that seems to be obsessed with cheese-making, candle-hoarding, and confessing to crimes they haven't committed.

We still have a character that wants someone to blame for the alleged death of the alleged victim - unless I have missed it, we still have no body, and the only time we "saw" the body was in the middle of a dark and wet night, and even then the person who saw it isn't sure. 

No, all we have still, is a missing man and a green shirt.

This is not going to be a favourite book. At this point, I am mostly interested in seeing what the author is trying to achieve with the symmetric chapters and the inversed timeline.

Oh, have I mentioned, yet, that this story is told backwards? 

We start on Day 4 after, I presume, the main event, and then get to visit the days that preceded Day 4. It's all very experimental.

And to be fair, that part is keeping me reading. I only wish it were executed by an author who is less prone to wordy celebrations of the inane, and who paid more attention to detail when it comes to historical facts and settings. 

Hm.

I'm just over 10% into the book and I have a lot of questions. 

It's not clear yet what the story will be but we are somewhere in England in the year 1491, and we are following a village priest, Father John  Reve, whose young assistant seems to have found a body in the river. 

So, there is a whole lot of Cadfael feel to this (I'm referring to the series, I've not yet read the books. I really should, tho.)

Apart from the very purply prose, there have been a number of things that have struck me as odd so far, but since I am really, really not at home in neither the time period not the religious life at the time (1491), I am not entirely sure what to make of the book so far. 

Things that made me go "eh?":

- The priest referring to parts of his dress as "skirts that flowed behind me like a bridal gown". (First person narrator...)

- There is woman churchwarden (Janet). Were women churchwardens in 1491?

- A dean, who seems hell-bent on finding a murderer, even tho there is no body, no suspicion of any wrong-doing, and so far no mention of any suspicious circumstances.

- A young wife comes to confession and the priest advises her that "It's mere superstition to think that God is punishing us." Erm, ... I thought original sin was one of the pillars of medieval teachings.

I have a strong feeling that this might be style over substance kind of book. I really hope it isn't.

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Night Owl Reviews     The Romance Reviews

While searching for a great evil that leaves nothing but death and destruction behind, Iden Belial finds his mate but the Nikkeson demon tears them apart and leaves some of his wickedness inside the warrior, warping and twisting him to its own ends in this thrilling Reaper tale.

The readers are immediately captivated by Iden’s tale as he tries to tell the Reapers about what happened to him and the story just gets more thrilling as readers are soon caught up in the very wicked evil of not only the demon but some of the people as well. There is lots of spine tingling chills throughout the story as we learn more about the vile demon with lots of excitement building as Iden finds his mate Kallista and has to deal with her disapproving mother all while trying to get everyone to safety. The well written scenes make it easy for the readers to imagine each and every scene which of course ensures that the readers can’t put the story down.

For even more excitement, the Shadow Lord, Kheelan Ben-Alkazar might have finally met his match when he goes up against a young woman who gives him as much sass and trouble as she can while she refuses to give in his to his arrogant demands. So fireworks fly in every direction along with the fiery passion in this fast paced and smooth flowing romance full of suspense, excitement and romance.

These dark and sexy Reapers easily capture hearts as they fight evil but I must say that Iden captured my heart a little more than the others and I found it to be quite amusing to watch Kheelan get taken down a peg or two. Dark Reaper was quite an exhilarating read and I can’t wait to experience the next WindLegend tale.