Okay, I admit it. I wouldn’t have read The Circle of Ceridwen if I hadn’t seen it offered as a freebie. But I downloaded it, and I read it, and now I’m hooked. Only eleven more books in the series! Of course I am an historical fiction freak, and I do especially love British historical fiction.
So, Historical Fiction? British? Free? You got my attention. Great marketing tactic Ms. Randolph!
When we first meet Ceridwen she lives with the Black Monks who have taken over her late uncle’s estate. At nine years of age, Ceridwen has been an orphan for several years. She lives in a small village along Wales’ River Dee in the late ninth century. Her father is dead, her mother unknown. She was taken in by her uncle and at his death sent to the local monastery as an orphan. Her family worshipped the pagan gods; the monks taught her Christianity.
But Ceridwen is not what one might expect from a backwater town girl. She is neither poor nor uneducated. At thirteen, she learns she has an inheritance from her uncle’s estate that will go to her when she is fifteen.
For Ceridwen, it couldn’t be soon enough. When the day comes, she takes her money and sets out on her own in search of a life away from the village where she was born. It is winter: snowy, cold, damp and, although she has a horse, she is soon wet and chilled to the bone with only the forest for shelter.
She is rescued by Ælfwyn, daughter of Ælfsige, king of Wessex, who is traveling to Four Stones to become the bride of the Dane, Yrling, a marriage arranged to keep peace with the invading Danes.
There starts the tale of “Circle of Ceridwen.” Ælfwyn and Ceridwen maneuver their way with the hostile invaders and learn that even the Danes have a soft side when they aren’t busy murdering villagers and burning their homes.
There is so much to this book: life on the run, life with the Danes, and life on the run once again. More and more, Ceridwen must draw on the courage she didn’t know she had, stealing a horse and a prisoner and returning to her homeland.
I don’t know where the rest of the “Circle of Ceridwen Saga” will go, but I will be on the journey until the end.
Susannah Willey Writes 