Interesting & very eloquently simple & palatable form of telling of an Irish style tale could be read to children or by young adults that older might enjoy. Oddly, it is like a massive Irish tale that has been Christianized & would have flowed better if used in more pagan type settings with all the magic. Here it is Christian miracles whereas if pagan is evil. This is a historical fantasy of Ireland long ago circa 11th/12th century. It begins with a young man & his trials, tribulations & travels from being the son of a tyrant into being taught & trained how to be a prince during a period of time where there were many small kings & kingdoms of Ireland. There were those that thought to unite all of Ireland under one king & what it would cost was heavy. Definitely with a more modern new age type spirituality. This was a warlike time of clans & petty kings which is brought up but not shown in the magnitude of gore & violence. The idea behind this is he man taken in by a minor king to be used to unite Ireland which at the time would have amounted to herding & taming a large group of cats. Boru might have almost done it had he lived longer earlier. This is the tale of his beginning quest.

I am rather unconvinced by this book. The world building left me confuse and was poorly explained, in my opinion. The characters were fine, some better than others but I didn't care much for them in the end. I must admit that the pacing was rather good and I wanted to know what would happen next. I am writing this review a few days after having finished this book and I don't remember much, wether it's good or bad so I think I will give this book a 2.5 stars.

this was a great start to the Irish Heart and Courage series, it had everything that I was looking for in this type of book. It had great characters and they felt like they belonged in the universe. Glen Klassen has a great writing style and I was glad I got a chance to read this. It left me excited to read more in this universe and Glen Klassen.

"So, he revisited some of the previous conversations by adding more details which at first he hadn’t thought would be interesting for her. But as he noticed how engrossed Greer was with what he shared, he started to expand more and more. At midnight Edwin escorted her to her suite, gave her a moderate embrace and went to his own quarters."