Reviewed by Carissa
TITLE: Hawks & Rams
AUTHOR: L. Blankenship
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 156 pages
BLURB:
Heathric Felahóf never wanted to be a thief, but his cousin’s scheme is the only option to keep the town’s children from being taken as slaves to cover the year’s taxes. So a few men slip over the border into the neighboring kingdom, steal a flock of sheep, and escape before the magically gifted Rangers learn of them. The second time, they’re not so lucky, and trouble follows the bandits home.
Adal Sperling has given up on finding a lover who truly wants him. One of the Rangers charged with protecting his people, he pursues the sheep thieves over the border and stumbles across Heathric, a gentle shepherd who only wants to take care of his family. But opposite sides of border incursions is a rough way to fall in love, and the laws of Adal’s kingdom are clear: the border must remain closed to Heathric’s people.
REVIEW:
Oddly enough, most of my issues with this book come not from the book itself, but from the blurb. Or, more exactly, how the blurb sells the book. You see, if you were to judge the content of the book based solely off the blurb you would think this is a tale of star-crossed lovers with bouts of sheep thievery thrown in. And it certainly might have those elements in it (to a small degree), but overwhelmingly it is more about brutality, struggling to survive, and why it is a good idea to push your psychotic cousin off a cliff (or something) before he gets everyone you love killed by his malice and stupidity.
Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t a bad book. Parts of it were pretty great in fact (really interesting world built up here), but…it wasn’t a romance. And the blurb really makes it sound like the ‘love’ is the central theme, not the fantasy or the strife. The characters don’t meet till 60% of the way thru the book–and even then they don’t have a lot to do with each other till almost the very end (except for an abrupt shag out in the pastures 30 seconds after meeting).
It was a bit like seeing a trailer for a movie and thinking ‘Those characters have awesome chemistry…I really want to see this!” only to find out $30 later (why the fuck is popcorn that expensive anyways??) that that 45 second clip of the characters being all intense and sexy was actually the entirety of the ‘sexy’ in the movie. What you are watching is buddy film where shit gets blown up. And I love watching shit get blown up…but I went to see the smexy not the smoldering piles of rubble. I can’t help but feel a bit disappointed, at the end.
Had I known then what I know now about the content of this book, I have a feeling I would have enjoyed it sooo much more. Because I kept waiting, and waiting, and waiting, for the Adal and Heathric to at least be in the vicinity of each other…and it took bloody ages to get there. And when it did, the story and the language barrier seemed to stop them from having any real chemistry. It was only during the last chapter of the book that I felt anything at all between these guys.
So if I had known that this was a book about a guy who is forced to make some pretty bad choices because he loves his family and doesn’t want any of them sold into slavery–and yet still struggles to do what is right–I think I would have loved it. Or had I known that world building was pretty great, and that I was going to be left wanting to know so much more about these countries and their governments/religions, I think I would have really enjoyed it. If I had been able to simply enjoy these great characters without constantly having ‘will you meet already’ on repeat in my head, this story would have been much easier to read.
Because it wasn’t a bad book at all. Just a little missold. And, if I pick it up again to reread I have the feeling that I will thoroughly enjoy it, because I now know that it isn’t really about the love, but about the characters themselves and how they are tested by this world that they live in.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS:
From your review this sounds like my kind of book whereas I’d likely give it a miss due to the romantic emphasis in the blurb. Interesting how expectations can change ones attitude to a story.