Genre: Historical fiction
Publisher: BooksGoSocial
Pub date: 26 April 2020
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Description from Amazon

They sent three hundred warriors to kill one man. It wasn’t enough.

Mercia lies broken but not beaten, her alliance with Wessex in tatters.

Coelwulf, a fierce and bloody warrior, hears whispers that Mercia has been betrayed from his home in the west. He fears no man, especially not the Vikings sent to hunt him down.

To discover the truth of the rumours he hears, Coelwulf must travel to the heart of Mercia, and what he finds there will determine the fate of Mercia, as well as his own.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author and I’m disappointed. Disappointed in myself that I’ve not come across this author until now!

This was incredible! The battles scenes are amazing! They’re gory, bloody and detailed, the writing is fantastic! I could almost see the fighting as if I was watching a film.

The characters are brilliant, I especially love Rudolf and his mannerisms, Pybba and his determination and the relationship between Edmund and Hereman. The author’s skill at getting all these different characters to shine through individually is fantastic especially the loyalty shown by Coelwulf’s men.

As for the storyline, I loved it! This isn’t my usual era of history to read about but I’m so glad I did. I really cannot praise this book more. There is swearing as expected from battle scenes etc but it doesn’t bother me and only lends more to the experience. I read this in a day, I couldn’t put it down once I’d started, I enjoyed it so much!

I honestly cannot wait to read more from this series and will certainly be reading more from M J Porter, I think I’ll start with the Of God’s and King’s series set in 7th century Britain.

The Last King is available here: Amazon UK

Thank you to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for the opportunity to read this in exchange for my review.

About M J Porter (Taken from Amazon)

M J Porter is an author of fantasy (Viking age/dragon-themed) and historical fiction (Early English, Vikings and the British Isles as a whole before the Norman Conquest), born in the old Mercian kingdom at some point since 1066. Raised in the shadow of a strange little building and told from a very young age that it housed the bones of long-dead Kings of Mercia and that our garden was littered with old pieces of pottery from a long-ago battle, it’s little wonder that my curiosity in the Anglo-Saxons ran riot. I can only blame my parents! I write A LOT. You’ve been warned! Find me at M J Porter and @coloursofunison on twitter