Reviewed by Becca
TITLE: Anail Dhragain: Dragon’s Breath
SERIES: The Pendhragains #1
AUTHOR: Stephan Knox
PUBLISHER: TPS Publishing
LENGTH: 758 pages
RELEASE DATE: March 31, 2018
BLURB:
Serving as a Brittunculi Legionnaire in the very occupation he hates the most, Trystian has yet to labour through some of the hardest lessons of life.
Fourteen years of his youth have been conscripted by the deceitful Legatus Legionis Gallus through impossible choices forced upon him; that time is gone, but now, so are the Romans. Free after so long, Trystian’s only desire is to go home— to the family he fears has been destroyed, even after he’d remained dutifully under the regime, and to the one with whom he left his heart.
In a time when so few dare to pray to her any longer, he hopes his devotion to his Goddess is strong enough to wake her from the slumbers of abandonment, so that she may see him through his ultimate and most brutal path yet ahead. The one that will finally return him home. It is this journey, at the most dismal point in his life, that forces him to reconcile with his past, and make peace with the choices that had been made for him long ago.
It’d started when he’d been a young man, struggling with how to contain his discontent of the Roman occupation of Briton so as not to shame his father. Nevertheless, not even the receding Roman reign had come soon enough for Trystian. But back home in Penrith, Cumbria, the ominous Roman presence wasn’t the only thing that caused Trystian a troubled mind. As a young man coming of age, he found there were some things he didn’t have in common with other young men, and an encounter with a secret Welsh noble with exotic eastern features both terrified and excited Trystian. However, life for Trystian wasn’t just his own or simple enough for him to have the time he had wished for to explore. Such feelings, stirring within him— they remained untouched as he was tutored and conditioned to be something greater for their people and the family’s future.
After all the misfortune and misery of the past, Trystian now forges towards a future he never once imagined as his fate. For the Goddess never truly abandons her children born from the blessed rites of the Calan Mai.
For Trystian Pendragon isn’t just high born, he is Sliocht na Péiste— “born of the dragon”— and his future belongs to the Goddess and to the destiny of the royal Pendragon bloodline. Survive it all, and the Goddess Morrighan just might bless him with a reunified bond he’d once made within the Anáil Dhragain.
Pre-Arthurian Historical Fantasy / Epic Adventure / UK English Editing / Graphic Content 18+
233,000 word count
REVIEW:
I do not even know where to start with this book. Just wow. I loved the history of it. I can picture in my mind the great mountains of Briton and Cumbria. The green, Green hills that surrounded them. The kilts and everything they wore. The battles they fought for years and years, each trying to take over lands and force different gods on them. But I also love the legends, the languages spoken. All of it. The dragons. It was an epic journey.
Trystian grew up being the bastard son of the great Neven Pendragon. He always felt the outsider, even though everyone claimed he was Neven’s favorite. He wanted to be a part of that name. He trained harder, longer and with more weapons. He studied and studied. Anything he could do to prove he was worthy to take that name. On the night of one feast, he caught a man raping a woman. He stepped in and the Roman was killed. The woman was saved. But it set a path that Trystian would soon have to pay. He finally earned his place with his father and took his father’s name. He was a Pendragon. Not just a bastard son. But life was just starting for him. On the way to highland games, he couldn’t keep his eyes off the rider behind him. Little did he know that would be his future husband. But it came to pass, and not long after, Romans came to collect Trystian. For killing the other Roman. In defense of himself, he killed a few more. They were going to kill him, but Neven stepped in and made so that Trystian’s punishment would be to serve in the Roman army. Fourteen brutal years later, he finally flees and returns home. Home to his father and many of his family dead. He is the new Lord of the lands. But after all this, there is one man he yearns for more than any other and no one can find him. He hopes the Goddess is listening to his prayers to bring him home to him. He needs his husband.
It never ceases to amaze me how brutal and stupid wars can be. All for greed and power. Many people’s lives torn apart for so many reasons because they and their lives have just become pawns in a game. One thing about Trystian though, he didn’t put up with a lot of crap. He rebelled all through his sentence, because what he had killed that man for was justified. Trystian loathed rape. He hated assholes who preyed on the weaker and not just women. One of his most haunted memories was killing a young boy he knew, who was sweet as can be, just to save him from a life of slavery and rape. He did everything he could to keep things right. When it often seemed so wrong. And I felt such emotions for him. It’s like a catch-22 with him. No matter what he does, something else comes along to change things again. All he wanted was to go home. To see his family. And after fourteen years, finally finding out how many of them have died or what they have done. He’s so weighted down by have to be the Lord now. He doesn’t know if he can do it. He wants to uphold his father’s name. He only prays his prayers to the Gods and Goddesses have been heard and the answer him.
This is one hell of a book. I couldn’t put it down. And would often find myself asleep with my tablet across my face lol. If you like history and suspense. You will love this book. I recommend!
RATING: 
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