Tanja reviews Warrior, Ride Hard (The Iron Warrior #1) by Erin O´Quinn. This book was published by Siren Publishing on September 4th 2012 and is 290 pages long.
Why I read this book: This was pick for me week and MtSnow chose this one for me.
We were provided a review copy in exchange for an honest review.
Blurb
Gristle is a former Roman soldier who has forsaken any relationship with a man since being abandoned by beautiful young Tristus ten years ago near the Wall of Hadrian. Now in Ireland in 432 AD as one of a group of emigrants at the monastery of St. Patrick in Armagh, he discovers the sensual pony trainer Wynn, half his age, is deeply attracted to him. In spite of Gristle’s resolution to forsake the lure of sex, the men come together one night, and the result is a burst of passionate encounters between them.
Arriving in sacred Tara, where he is one of the mounted guard protecting Bishop Patrick during the Samhain festival, he is stricken to find that Wynn, too, has deserted him–just as he finds Tristus again after ten years, now a changed man.
Told from three different POVs, the story revolves around the complex relationship among these three men. The novel deals with Gristle’s finding, rejecting, and finally trying to accept a kind of love into his parched heart.
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This story was told in three parts and also switched the point of views from Gristle, the former Roman soldier, Wynn, the pony trainer and Tristus, the former lover of Gristle.
The first one tells the meeting of Gristle and Wynn. I have to confess, I didn´t like this part very much. It was confusing at times because I just couldn´t connect very well with the characters and the time period the book was set in. I love historicals and actually read a few books set in that time period but in this case I was at some parts utterly lost. I asked myself again and again were this story will be leading. I had a hard time understanding why Gristle and Wynn felt drawn to each other since they barley talked before they fell into bed together. Then Gristle was more away from Wynn than with him and the time they had together….well sex and sex and…yeah you get it. Too much, I got bored. All in all the first part felt, like I was given some puzzle pieces but could never reach the whole picture.
The second part was way more to my liking. It tells the story of Tristus and Gristle. How they met and what happend after Tristus vanished one night. It was interesting to see that both man walked literally the exactly same way, only ten years apart. I got a better understanding about Gristle, what drives the man and I liked Tristus very much. This part was running more smoothly, it tells in a constant way what happend until they meet again. I could feel their love for each other and how it changed them when they lost each other. I also got some answers in part two about questions I had in part one. And there are a few turns of events which surprised me.
Part three was about after Gristle and Tristus met again and what happend in their and Wynn´s lives. While I absolutely liked that part about Wynn and the Druids I was deeply dissapointed with Gristles behaviour when Wynn vanished. Seriously?? The man he was supposed to love vanished and he did not even search for him? Nope, this I could not understand. Wynn had a hard time, a really hard time but at least I got to know the man a little better. This man has a backbone, wits and humour. You cannot not like him. I admired his calm self under the circumstances he had to endure. The only thing I didn´t like about the last part was, when Gristle and Wynn met again. Gristles behaviour, again, left me shaking my head and rolling my eyes. The solution for their problems was also way too easy for my liking.
This story is about three men, how they met, how their lives were interwoven with each other and above all else, what happens to oneself when you loose a person who matters to you. After the slow and confusing start, the story got interesting and had a few twists and turns I didn´t see coming.
7/10 pots of gold
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