By Darkness Hid is the debut novel by Jill Williamson

Achan and Vrell don’t know each other but their lives are mixed up together.  More than they understand.  Achan’s a stray and strays are worth nothing and treated as such — but he is not the norm.  Why does his Master keep giving him tonic every morning?  They say to keep him from giving disease to the Master, but he’s never met the Master… so why than?  And when a knight offers to take him on as a squire — well that’s not done; or is it?  I mean why would anyone want a stray?

And Vrell — it’s not her real name, but now it will do.  Hidden as a boy instead of being a the woman she’s suppose to be.  Trying to keep the prince at bay in hopes he will chose another girl to be his wife.  How long must she hide?   And can she stop the voices in her head that seem to call out ot her.  Can she tame the bloodvoicing and help another learn it?

This is not a small book.  490 pages of it.  I was shocked to read that it was her debut. Honestly I would have never guessed it after I started… in fact I never did guess it until I read part of the authors notes at the back.

At first glance I was thinking hmmmm this is going to be something I couldn’t get into. But five pages into it I had a hard time putting it down.  I finished it in a day and a bit (started Saturday night and finished Sunday, so it was okay lol)

Jill has done what few authors can do in a book.  She had me screaming at the “NOooooooooo” because I didn’t want it to end!  Seriously one of THE best sci-fi series I’ve read in a long time and I will absolutely be looking for book 2 in the Blood of Kings series.  A wonderful addition to the realm of imagination and mayhem.

I would compare By Darkness Hid to Narnia at this point.  The good and evil starting to stir — there is more to the story than meets the eye, and you can see a lot of Christian parallels in this book, yet if you are not a Christian it’s still a good book.

The characters are starting to shape as the book moves along and they have interesting personalities and quirks that you want to know them!  I kept wanting to say “no, don’t go there.”or cringe everytime I thought Achan was going to get beat again.  Yet the stamina and the perseverance they have make them likable and of intrigue.  There are so many interesting things in this book I can see it easily going down several venues.

This is something I will be loving to let my children read when they’re a few years older and I will be collecting the series because I think it is a worthy and the makings of a true classic series.

Want to know what others think? Check out the CSFF blog tour participants

Brandon Barr
Keanan Brand
Gina Burgess
Beckie Burnham
Melissa Carswell
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
Emmalyn Edwards
April Erwin
Sarah Flanagan
Andrea Graham
Tori Greene
Ryan Heart
Joleen Howell
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Leighton
Rebecca LuElla Miller
New Authors Fellowship
John W. Otte
Crista Richey
Chawna Schroeder
Andrea Schultz
James Somers
Rachel Starr Thomson
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Dona Watson
Phyllis Wheeler
KM Wilsher

**In conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour, I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

Want to know more about Jill?

Check out her blog – http://jillwilliamson.wordpress.com/

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