Skin

Skin
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy 
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

Celtic Britain, AD 43. For the Caer Cad, ‘skin’ is their belief, their greeting, their ancestors, their land. Skin name determines lineage and identity.

A young girl, Ailia, grows up an outsider in her village because she has no skin name; despite this, she is a remarkable young woman, intelligent, curious and brave. As a dark threat grows on the horizon – the aggressive expansion of the Roman Empire – Ailia must embark on an unsanctioned journey to attain the knowledge that will protect her people, and their pagan way of life, from the most terrifying invaders they have ever faced.

I got sent an ARC of this and I've been saving the review for the release date, or closer to it rather. I cannot tell you how I excited I was to actually have the map in this, it being an ARC at all, I mean....you know how much we all love a good map in a book. The book was incredibly beautiful inside and out. 

The main thing I loved about the book was the incredibly rich mythology and world that was brought to life through utterly fantastic world building. The author has very clearly done an incredible amount of research and I would love to know the resources she used so I can learn more about Iron Age Britain. It's amazing how the author has done all this research and it's present in the book so you're fascinated and learning but there's no huge info dumps bogging down the pace and slowing it down. Weaving the research in to the plot was so incredibly done. 

The writing is beautiful and makes you get lost in the book and the world and keeps you reading. The book is so well written it's just....amazing. The characters weren't just well written, they where interesting. There's nothing better than an interesting character in an interesting world. The characters where flawed which made them so incredibly interesting, and made them all the more realistic. The fact that they where striving to be better added another layer to them. I found our main character to be easy to connect to, I loved her pluckiness and just loved her in general! She may even be one of my favourites now. 

The dialogue was authentic and helped to suck you in to the world along with everything else. It was also thought provoking, because you where reading and there'd be the occasional gem of wisdom that you'd note down as a favourite quote because it made so much sense and was a quote you wanted to come back to and remember at times.    The book was an interesting blend between history and fantasy, and was pitched just right. Although I'm not entirely sure it should be classed as fantasy because it's more the spirituality of the world and the characters I think. There where, however bits that I found to be more gripping than others, but I was still so fascinated by the world and the characters that it didn't really bother me all that much. 

Overall Skin is an enjoyable and fascinating read, full of rich mythology and history that draws you in and really sparks your intrigue. It makes you want to read more about the time period and the elements the book is based on. The book draws you in and is a beautiful read.