The May Queen  by Patrick Axford

Paperback, 564 pages

Published 2018 by Independent

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Summary
A boy is dead, a man missing…

Dwarfed by monolithic, ancient standing stones, nothing is as it seems in the isolated farming community of Sanctuary. Isolde, a young and unproven Sentinel, has been sent by her order of peacekeeping guardians, a law unto their own, to investigate the disappearance.

A malevolent shadow hangs over the small town, and the villagers grow increasingly hostile towards the stranger in their midst. Sworn to protect the innocent, Isolde must work to save the lives and minds of them all even as they turn against her. To fight a rising cult and discover the fate of her predecessor, Isolde must push herself beyond her limits.

If she fails, it will not just be the lives of the villagers at stake…

-taken from goodreads

Review

*I want to first thank Patrick Axford for sending me this book for an honest review.*

In The May Queen we follow a sentinel name Isolde, who was sent on a mission to find her apprentice. Once Isolde arrives at the farming community known as Sanctuary she becomes aware of all the wrongs going on in this torn. While she’s there she also becomes aware that a boy was mutilated and no one has done anything to find out who or what did it. 

Isolde was such an amazing character to follow. She’s had such a strong and interesting persona. I hope to know more about her in the next book. I fell in love with her personality and even if she was a hardcore badass sentinel she still had a really soft heart. By the way did I say how badass she is!? She reminded me so much Ciri from The Witcher. 

The story line took me back to role playing games where in the middle of a quest and everything around me started turning creepy. If you love those fantastical RPGs like Witcher then you’ll seriously enjoy this. Also, if you need an October, fall or Halloween read you need to read this. I was so creeped out during a lot of the story. The monster in this book was so intriguing and incomparable to others I’ve read. In my head I kept thinking about the Hagubman from the Witcher but with the mouth of the creatures in Alien. 

I love how complex but simplistic this book was. I love the feel of that it gives of an RPG with fantastical but also horror like elements I really do recommend this book if you’re into all that. This was definitely one of my favorite reads of the year. I can wait to read more in this series. 

5★★★★★