Knight’s Ransom by Jeff Wheeler

Item: Knight's Ransom
Rating: 5
Author: karenbaron

Posted March 15, 2021 by karenbaron in Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Review, Series / 0 Comments

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy from the Publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Knight's Ransom

by Jeff Wheeler

Series: First Argentines #1
Series Rating:

Published by 47North on January 26, 2021
Genres: Action and Adventure Fantasy
Pages: 432
Format: Paperback
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“Jeff Wheeler has always been one of our more dependable storytellers. Knight’s Ransom adds to his reputation. A fine page-turner.” —Terry Brooks, New York Times bestselling author.

From Jeff Wheeler, the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Kingfountain novels, comes an epic new series of warring kingdoms, deadly family rivalries, and fearless loyalty.

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. A brutal war of succession has plunged the court of Kingfountain into a power struggle between a charitable king who took the crown unlawfully and his ambitious rival, Devon Argentine. The balance of power between the two men hinges on the fate of a young boy ensnared in this courtly intrigue. A boy befittingly nicknamed Ransom.

When the Argentine family finally rules, Ransom must make his own way in the world. Opportunities open and shut before him as he journeys along the path to knighthood, blind to a shadowy conspiracy of jealousy and revenge. Securing his place will not be easy, nor will winning the affection of Lady Claire de Murrow, a fiery young heiress from an unpredictably mad kingdom.

Ransom interrupts an abduction plot targeting the Queen of Ceredigion and earns a position in service to her son, the firstborn of the new Argentine dynasty. But conflict and treachery threaten the family, and Ransom must also come to understand and hone his burgeoning powers—abilities that involve more than his mastery with a blade and that make him as much a target as his lord.

Knight’s Ransom by Jeff Wheeler is the start of a great series in this world that the author has done such a great job of creating.

Will Ransom find someone to give his loyalty to?

Marshall “Ransom” Barton

Marshall, better known as Ransom, is the main character of this new prequel series to Kingfountain. We follow Ransom during different parts of his life, from when he was eight years old until he was twenty-three years old. It’s not a continuous account either as we jump from different years, but I liked it, especially with hearing a bit from Claire, a potential love interest of Ransom. All Ransom has ever wanted was to find a place where he belonged. People who could be friends and especially to serve a lord as his knight. Sadly that isn’t in the cards for Ransom. I felt bad for him throughout the entire book.

The Story

The story starts with a historian trying to figure out these early years of the kingdom’s life and can’t find much about the time of where there are two kings with the same name. Then we pop into Ransom’s story, and he is trying to find a place in this cruel time, basically. All Ransom has ever wanted was to find someone to serve as a knight and not only that but to find a place to belong. Ransom has had a tough time on that in all forms of a way for it to work. He is all about loyalty, and finding that is hard, especially with war trying to come in.

Five Stars

Knight’s Ransom by Jeff Wheeler is a roller coaster of emotions. First, your laughing, then your crying, and then you’re mad at Mr. Wheeler and closing the book to walk away for an hour. Just to come back and do it all over again. Sometimes in a different order. Mr. Wheeler is a fantastical author who gives all these emotions to his readers within his books. This is my first book from this guy, and I’m definitely coming back to read more from him. I might also, at some point, go back to read his Kingfountain series. I am giving this book five stars and recommending it to anyone that reads historical fantasy or just fantasy in general since I really think that you will like it!

Coming in May 2021

Coming in September 2021

Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed this review of Knight’s Ransom by Jeff Wheeler.

Until the next time,

Happy Reading!

About Jeff Wheeler

Jeff Wheeler took early retirement from his career at Intel in 2014 to write full-time. He is a husband, father of five, and a devout member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Jeff lives in the Rocky Mountains. His books have been on the Wall Street Journal Bestseller list 5 times (for The Thief’s Daughter, The King’s Traitor, The Hollow Crown, The Silent Shield, and Prism Cloud) and have sold more than 4 million copies. His novels have also been published or will be published in many languages: Italian, Chinese, Hungarian, Turkish, Polish, Spanish, Russian, and German.

He is also the founder of Deep Magic: the E-zine of Clean Fantasy and Science Fiction (www.deepmagic.co), a quarterly e-zine featuring amazing short stories, novellas, and sample chapters.

You can usually find Jeff at Emerald City Comic Con, New York Comic Con or at writers conferences.

Childhood

I was born in Neptune Township, New Jersey in 1971 but I don’t remember any of it. We moved when I was little to Silicon Valley and I grew up in the world of computers and hi-tech from my earliest memories. My dad worked at Hewlett Packard and we had lots of scopes and equipment and soldering irons at home. We also had an old HP9845 computer in the closet, which I loved to play with. A game of chess could last hours…well, at least because it took the computer that long to make a move. I remember using an old phone modem to dial into the HP network as a kid and play the mainframe games. You could say I had the makings of a geek.

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