This book was a page turner for me. I'm pretty sure if it hadn't been for work I could have finished it in one sitting. I got so invested in the characters, the political intrigue and the world itself that I spent hours at a time reading. Finnvid is my sweet angel, and Theos is a little shit but I love him anyway. Really, really satisfying m/m romance.

Sacrati
By Kate Sherwood
Oh wow this book. I shall state that is an LGBT book so if it isn’t your thing I wouldn’t pick it up. It is so ingrained into this book that it would be almost impossible to ignore it.
That said this book gripped me from the instant I started it. Right from the first page we are given a crap tonne of culture information, and rather soon in the book we are given mystery as we are left to wonder what the hell is going on. It is plain that something is happening but we have no idea what it is.
Sacrati are an elite form of warrior of the already mighty Torian race. The Torians live in a very instinctual culture, sleep, eat, fight and have sex with any one they want. That is all they seem to do and it works. All members of society have a place to sleep, plenty of food and a sense of belonging. They just have to work for it. The women take care of everything that isn’t fighting and seem to run the Torians, while at the same time making the men think they run it.
Elkati however are closer to real life. They marry one person, the rich are very rich and the poor suffer in starvation. However their military are by far substandard.
The characters Finnvid and Theos and both great. They couldn’t be more different yet they work. One is a scholar and one a warrior. Even at the beginning of the book when they hate each other out of principle, they still have a certain chemistry. One that through the entire book made me laugh or smile. Finnvid may be weak and unskilled in fighting but he never takes anything lying down. He at least tries to give as good as he gets. Both of these characters seem real, they both have issues and the both are stubborn as hell. I will admit this did lead to some slow parts in the book, otherwise I think they work brilliantly together.
Plot wise this book was also great. Usually I don’t think this type of book (Romances or standalones) can really develop a plot, but I think this one does that successfully.
Now this book wasn’t perfect. There are a few slow moving parts and then the ending seems a little rushed. In the middle of the book there is a section where they are simply travelling through snow barren wastes and a good two chapters are just about that. Nothing exiting happens for a while and this was the one part of the book where I took a break.
The plot was good, however I will admit what brought me back to this book after taking a break was the characters. I became so attached to these characters in only 400 or so pages. There are some book series where I still couldn’t care about the characters 4 books in.
I really hope we see more in this series because there was definitely plot points which could have been explored more, and there is a possibility of two more books in my opinion.
If this is your kind of book I would say pick it up.

I'm glad I didn't judge this book by it's cover, which frankly looks like some ripoff Assassins Creed shit, as it was a highly enjoyable read.

2.5 stars

Book, I am very upset with you. Your meager 407 are the longest 407 pages I've ever read. Ever. Even "1001 Nights" wasn't that long when I read it last.

I guess if it wasn't for the empty banter between the characters and the small pockets of cute nothingness or dull brooding or any other unnecessary details that can be easily done outside of the book, like little ficlets, the whole reading experience would have been much more pleasant.

Rest in peace now. I am glad I am finally free of you.

PS
It's not a bad story, just the way it's told that didn't agree with me.

4.5 rounded up. I love period pieces. I love old school battle/war stories.

I will admit that parts of it in the beginning reminded me of the Captive Prince, but I still enjoyed this book thoroughly. IDK if the idea is original or not but I did like that this book was in three parts. First part was Theos' point of view, part two - we get Finnvid's story and I actually appreciated that FAR more than alternative POV switching - which we didn't get until Part III.

Really well done. The banter between Finnvid and Theos is just fucking hilarious. The author has a really good sense of humor.

I loved this story. The author really took their time exploring everything, bringing it back to things discussed in the beginning and I didn't really feel cheated out of anything. It was really well wrapped up.

This is a long book but I was hooked from beginning to end. If I could have foregone sleeping, work, and other essential parts of life I would have eagerly devoured it in one sitting. This book gave me all of the feels.
Apparently m/m is helping me rediscover my love of fantasy novels. Ah , I feel like a teenager again.

Highly recommended.
Would definitely reread.

And this little continuation of the story is great. http://katesherwoodbooks.com/2015/12/13/a-very-sacrati-christmas-or-late-wintermas/

That's all any of us can do, I suppose. We'll pick our side, and we'll fight as well as we can.

3.5 stars

Wasn't expecting this to be as entertaining as it was.

This was a really fun book to read. As soon as I started it I couldn't put it down. The world in the book was quite interesting, with two complete opposites of societies being sort of pitted against each other.

The characters were really great as well. Theos being a gruff soldier but with a heart of gold, and then poor confused Finnvid that was super clever as soon as he stopped being confused. Several lovely minor characters as well that definitely added depth to the story. I also loved that the women were made to be strong and an important part of society, so many times I've read m/m books were women are treated like trash or completely ignored. Here they were given a vital part and were pretty awesome.

Definitely recommend this.