After Whorl: Donning Double Cloaks (Celtic Fervour series #3) by Nancy Jardine
First published by Crooked Cat Publishing in March 2014.
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AD 73 Northern Roman Britain
Brennus of Garrigill—Bran—monitors Roman activity across Brigantia. Stability prevails till AD 78 when Agricola, Governor of Britannia, orders complete conquest of all barbarians. Brennus heads north, seeking the Caledon who will lead the northern tribes against Rome.
Ineda treks northwards with her master, Tribune Valerius – supplies officer for Agricola’s Britannia campaigns. At Pinnata Castra, she escapes and seeks fellow Brigantes congregating for battle in the north.
The Legions of the Roman Empire and the Caledon allies clash at Beinn na Ciche in AD 84, but where are Brennus and Ineda?
The adventures of the Garrigill Clan continue…
After Whorl: Donning Double Cloaks is the third in Nancy Jardine's Celtic Fervour series. The book follows on from
The Beltane Choice and
After Whorl: Bran Reborn, and I think this series is one that's best read in the right order! This novel takes place over quite a long period of time and the characters all travel considerable distances so the storyline felt quite different to the previous books. I liked Jardine's portrayal of changes in the way Ineda and the Roman Tribune relate to each other. I can understand the difficulty and precariousness of Ineda's situation so it was interesting to see how she dealt with this.
Brennus - or Bran - however seemed to be left out on his own so I wasn't as keen on his storyline. Jardine gave herself a lot of ground to cover which I felt left insufficient room for readers to get to know characters such as Lleia. Consequently they didn't feel as authentic to me and important scenes seemed to rush by too quickly. I don't want to spoil anything for people who haven't read Donning Double Cloaks yet, but I wanted more to be made of some of the intensely emotional moments. Instead we got to learn a lot about how the different factions of the Roman army worked and fought together. I enjoy visiting ancient sites like Vindolanda so could envisage their forts and newly laid roads across the countryside!
Donning Double Cloaks did feel like a 'middle book' to me. It's an unusual situation for me as a reader to be rooting for people who I know will eventually lose - history tells us the Romans were pretty successful overall in Britain! All the tribe names did get quite confusing, even though I could look at a map of their territories to refresh my memory. I imagine the final book of this quartet will pull all the threads together and complete this epic Celtic-Roman story.
Meet the author
Nancy Jardine writes historical fiction; time-travel historical adventure; contemporary mystery thrillers; and romantic comedy. She lives in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, where life is never quiet or boring since she regularly child minds her young grandchildren who happen to be her next-door neighbours. Her garden is often creatively managed by them, though she does all the work! Her husband is a fantastic purveyor of coffee and tea…excellent food and wine! (Restorative, of course)
A member of the Historical Novel Society; Scottish Association of Writers; Federation of Writers Scotland; Romantic Novelists’ Association and the Independent Alliance of Authors, her work has achieved finalist status in UK competitions.
Author links:
Website ~ Blog ~ Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Goodreads ~ Amazon
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