Blood Phantom - A Story of Lharmell by Rhiannon Hart

Rating 4 out of 5
Title: Blood Phantom - A story of Lharmell
Author: Rhiannon Hart
Format: Ebook - Short story
ASIN:B00H5RBSC0

Summary

"Life in tatters and far from home, Rodden Lothskorn struggles to cope with the harming menace and his own harming nature. When an offer of marriage reaches his friend, Prince Amis, Rodden discovers that the bride’s inhospitable homeland might contain one part of the harming poison he would dearly like to get his hands on. But if summoned northwards, will Princess Lilith bring something – or someone – he dreads most with her? Locked in a years-long struggle with the Lharmellins, Rodden senses the battle is only now about to begin."

Review

I discovered the Lharmell series last year and I loved the first two books, Blood Song and Blood Storm.  So when I learned there was going to be a Rodden short story I was pretty excited. Then the author Rhiannon asked me if I would like to review her short story and, well, I can neither confirm nor deny, but pretty sure I squealed.

Blood Phantom is the prequel to the first book in the Lharmell series Blood Song. The story is told from Rodden's perspective and is set in the period just before, and at the start of, the events in Blood Song.

As you would expect from a short story, this is a quick read and not too in depth. There is no major plot development or story reveals here. It is short, sweet, and gives us a glimpse into the world of Rodden and Amis.

There are a couple of story nuggets revealed that help us understand Rodden better, and explains a couple of events that happened in Blood Song. 

I liked that we got to learn more about Amis. I got a better understanding of the Prince which I had not gotten from the main series. In the main books he doesn't get a lot of "page time" as he is not a major character (yet, maybe in book 3 this may change? who knows).

Then it finished and I am afraid to say I did a bit of a minion impersonation "whaaaattt???". I even scrolled back through the book to make doubly sure it had finished and that my down loading of the ebook hadn't got stuffed up.

So my only complaint is that it ended way too soon. I know, I know "short story" should have alerted me to the fact that it was going to end far sooner than normal. It did, I knew it was coming, I still didn't like it. I was having too much of a good time to want it to stop.

Good news is I only have to wait till April 2014 for book 3 Blood Queen to come out.

If you are a fan of the series then this is a good complimentary read and I recommend giving it a go.

Want a copy? Get your copy from Amazon.

Want to know more about Rhiannon? You can follow Rhiannon at her blog Dangers Untold and Hardships Unnumbered.

Lastly thank you Rhiannon Hart for letting me part of your blog tour.