Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Inked by Eric Smith

When you come of age, you're inked.  The tattoo on your body changes.  Those who have an affinity for flowers show the flowers of the season or the herbs to be harvested.  Farmers show fields and goldsmith's show golden lines shimmering.  You can't refuse to be inked.  If you do, you're an outcast and subject to death.  Caenum doesn't want to be inked, but where would he go if he wasn't?

The author shared a copy of this book with me so I could review it (thank you).  It has been published and you can find a copy on Amazon now.

Cae is thinking of escaping but he's foiled in his plans by his girlfriend and his grandmother.  They are keeping him close and giving him treats in honor of the big day upcoming.  He loses hope of escaping when the caravan of inking Scribes shows up early.   It gets worse when he gets in a fight with the Scribe who is going to be inking him because he suggested that Dreya is a courtesan.  Nobody calls his girlfriend that!

More trouble follows.  There's fire in the center of the city where the Scribes wagons are parked and the town folk come after Caenum.  He barely escapes them.  He also finds out that his Scribe has changed.  He has white hair instead of red and he has a new power.  Then the soldiers from the Citadel show up and things get even worse.  He goes back to get his grandmother but it's too late for her.  She does give him some information on where to find his father.  His girlfriend's parents are dead, but Dreya was hidden and she's OK.  Despite their grief, they must run.

From here, the story gets even more exciting.  There lots of action, betrayal, loss of life and fights like you've never seen before.  Cae finds that even getting what you want might not be the best thing for you.

I was very impressed by the job Mr. Smith did with this story.  His previous book I reviewed was non-fiction.  It was pretty good but I love his fantasy story.  It holds up well, never gets boring and kept me reading to see what was going to happen.  His words flow well and my eyes just kept following them across the page.  If you like fantasy and magic, you'll love this book.

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