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.