Book Review: Road From The West (ARC)

image from goodreads.com

Title:  Road From The West

Author:  Rosanne E. Lortz

Pages: 349

Publication Date:  2011 

Version:  Paperback (received in a giveaway ARC at goodreads.com)

Genre:  Fiction

Summary Via Goodreads.com:  

"Haunted by guilt from the past and nightmares of the future, a young Norman named Tancred takes the cross and vows to be the first to free Jerusalem from the infidels. As he journeys to the Holy Land, he braves vast deserts, mortal famine, and the ever-present ambushes of the enemy Turks—but the greatest danger of all is deciding which of the Crusader lords to trust. A mysterious seer prophesies that Tancred will find great love and great sorrow on his journey, but the second seems intent on claiming him before he can find the first. Intrigues and passions grow as every battle brings the Crusaders one step closer to Jerusalem. Not all are destined to survive the perilous road from the West."

My Review:

What to say about Road From The West; I will start with saying this was not a book that I sat down with and couldn’t wait to read on in.  It wasn’t necessarily the book itself, it just turned out to not be the type of book I thought I would like.  I am glad I read it for something different in my reading palate, but I had a hard time reading it.  I found myself starting and finishing other books along with this one, just so I could get through it.  The plot in this book is a good one and I can see how it will no doubt be a good trilogy set when the other two books follow it.  I think what I found hardest about this book was the language.  It was set in the Crusade time period and the language reflects that.  The language is very reflective of the time period this book is set in, so the author did an amazing job with that, I personally just found it hard to read and wrap my mind around at times because of that.

A young Norman Knight, Tancred, basically gains a conscience in the beginning of this book.  He starts feeling guilty for killing Christians that have really done nothing to him except try to be on the land of his family.  Tancred decides to go and ask the Pope of the land to tell him what to do to make up for the sins he has done all his life of killing Christians.  The Pope tells Tancred that he must vow loyalty to him and religion and go to the Holy Land to fight for it’s freedom.  Tancred’s uncle, who is like a father to him, is NOT happy at all about this.  However after a turn of events all the knights of all the lands are fighting for the same thing, the freedom and saving of the Holy Land.  Only some of them see this as only a personal gain, where as others (like Tancred) view it as a true Christian battle that is being done for the good of the Holy Land.  The rest of the book goes on to tell about the journey Tancred and all the knights go on to get to the Holy Land battle.  Along the way they face many hurdles.  They face many decisions about what to do and why to do it, trying to find food for them and the men that follow them, and battling others that don’t want them to get to the Holy Land.

I think this book was well written and had a great plot, it just was not a type of book that I, personally, found easy to dive into.  Due to this I would give it a 3 out of 5 stars.  

This book will count toward the following challenges of mine:  100 Book Challenge and 1,000,000 Pages Read Challenge