Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames – Review

Published: August 28, 2018

Publisher: Orbit Books

Series: The Band #2

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 515 (Paperback)

My Rating: 3.5/5.0

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:

Live fast, die young.

Tam Hashford is tired of working at her local pub, slinging drinks for world-famous mercenaries and listening to the bards sing of adventure and glory in the world beyond her sleepy hometown.

When the biggest mercenary band of all rolls into town, led by the infamous Bloody Rose, Tam jumps at the chance to sign on as their bard. It’s adventure she wants – and adventure she gets as the crew embark on a quest that will end in one of two ways: glory or death.

It’s time to take a walk on the wyld side.

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After Kings of the Wyld swept away fantasy readers last year (myself included) I was both hopeful and skeptical of a sequel being on the same level. I adored Kings and on so many occasions found myself absolutely rolling with laughter at the situations the band found themselves in. Early reviews of Bloody Rose were spot on as well and it seemed that it would be just as good if not better than its predecessor.

For me at least this wasn’t the case. I did like it and thought the characters were interesting and the story line was solid, perhaps even more so that of Kings but it just didn’t have that same tidal wave effect. I wasn’t swept away and perhaps it was because I wasn’t expecting a book that just felt more serious.

Bloody Rose is the daughter of Golden Gabe both of who you should remember from the first book. Rose is fronting her own band these days (Fable) and is still struggling to get out of her father’s shadow, making her understandably somewhat bitter. They’re looking for a new bard and that’s where our real main character comes into play. Tam has always admired the bands that rolled through town and longed to be a part of one, though her father was unlikely to allow such a thing after her mother, a famous bard in her own right, was killed. Long story short, she joins up with Fable as their new bard and goes on all sorts of harrowing adventures and learns a great deal about herself in the process. The plot was quite exciting, what with there being a new horde amassing, a gig for Fable that outweighs the importance of said horde, and the meddlesome rabbit-eared folk causing more trouble. The story is emotional (I cried a couple times) and full of action (pitched battles!) both of which are a big plus to me!

I can’t quite put my finger on what exactly made this book a 4 star read versus the 5 stars that Kings garnered. The character growth was well done, the story was cool (I’ve only mentioned that like 12 times now, you get the point), etc. But it just wasn’t funny. I loved the first book because it made me full on laugh out loud. Sure, this one evinced a few giggles but it was not even on the same level. The characters didn’t feel as vibrant either – like shadows of their forefathers!!! Inkwitch was my favorite with weird Roderick coming close behind simply because I’m imaging this fantastically rude goat man with big hats and vibrantly colored outfits with ruffles and sequins. The rest were kind of bland to be honest and I didn’t really care about them.

Overall, this was a good read – not great, not bad, just middle of the road good. The majority of readers seemed to love it just as much if not more that Kings of the Wyld, so I’d recommend you check it out as well because I seem to be in the minority of opinions. I’ll absolutely be reading more of Nicholas Eames’s books in the future because I think he’s a great writer that can tell a unique story.