Ryan Hauge and Ivy Smoak. Be Careful What You Joust For (Pentavia Book 1). 2018. See here to buy the book.
Ryan Hauge and Ivy Smoak are husband and wife and wrote this book together. It is a work of fantasy.
Here is a description of some of the characters:
Isolda: Isolda is the wife of Duke Garrion. She has royal blood
herself, in that her father was the king of the realm, and her brother
Ivan is the current king. Isolda has been living a secret life as the
crime lord Lady Marsilia. In that capacity, she sees the corpse of the
god Arwin, which is a sacred relic. Because that body is in Garrion’s
domain, she suspects that Garrion killed her father and stole the
relic. Isolda is also a bit of a religious skeptic.
Garrion: This book alternates among some of the main characters,
conveying their perspectives in the third-person. We see early on that
Garrion is a devout, sensitive soul. He has his prejudices, especially
against the people known as the Rashidi, but he desires to follow the
way of Arwin and to pursue peace. Did he kill Isolda’s father? Well,
believe it or not, he wanted to. The book spills this early on and
explains why he felt this way, so it was not a big mystery that was left
until the very end. There still is the mystery, however, about who
actually did kill Isolda’s father. This does get resolved at the end.
Marcus: Marcus is the firstborn son of Isolda and Garrion. As such,
he is obligated to participate in a jousting contest. The winner
receives the position of Arwin’s Lance, which apparently has a lot of
power, considering that the person holding it can declare war. Word on
the street is that Marcus is the second coming of Arwin, and that his
victory in the joust will usher in an era of peace among the nations.
Isolda is skeptical about this interpretation of the prophecy, and about
prophecy, period.
Rixin: Rixin is the son of King Ivan. He will be Marcus’ opponent in
the jousting contest. Rixin is cocky and quite sure of himself, but he
can be a nice person.
Oriana: Oriana is the firstborn daughter of Isolda and Garrion.
Oriana is obsessed with marrying Prince Rixin, but she remembers that
Rixin did not care for her when they were children, and there is word
that Rixin might marry the Rashidi princess Navya. Then Oriana meets
Bastian, and that complicates the picture.
Bastian: Bastian is a thief on the streets, who uses his pet
squirrel, Nut, to distract people while he steals. His father was a
lord and lost everything. Bastian rescues Oriana, and they develop
feelings for each other.
Terric: Terric is the second-born son of Isolda and Garrion. As the
second-born son, he is to be a priest of Arwin. But he does not want to
be a priest, confined to a monastery, even though he enjoys hearing
some of the tales in the Book of Arwin. He wants to see the world and
become a squire. Terric is rather precocious. Terric and Bastian try
to help each other in their goals, with laughable results.
Reavus: Reavus is the brother of Isolda and King Ivan. He has no
children, but he has exercised a great deal of influence on Prince
Rixin. Reavus was a butcher at the Wizard’s War, and Garrion suspects
that Reavus is just itching to get the country into a war with Rashid
and intends to use a victory by Rixin in the jousting contest to bring
that about. Garrion thinks that Reavus hopes to do this so that Reavus
can be glorious in battle, but Reavus also has a personal ax to grind
against the Rashidi.
Sir Aldric: Sir Aldric is Garrion’s long-time friend and right-hand
man. He does what Garrion says and investigates when he is asked to do
so. He is a no-nonsense sort of person.
The book was enjoyable to read. It reminded me somewhat of a 1950’s-1960’s medieval drama, in full color.
The mythological-religious aspect was interesting, but, hopefully,
the next book in the series will explain it more. Arwin was obviously a
Jesus-like character, who took a retreat into the desert, taught peace,
and sacrificed himself for his people. There is no empty tomb in his
case, however, since his corpse is a relic. And it is not explained how
he is the one true God. The book also could have gone deeper into
Garrion’s dislike for the Isolda’s father. Garrion did not care for the
king’s reckless war policies, which took the life of Garrion’s father,
but he also wanted to establish a pure cult of Arwin, in contrast to the
established cult. His religious motive was not explained.
There is also the question of what Isolda did as Lady Marsilia that
made her a crime lord, pursued by the authorities. And why was she a
crime lord? As far as I recall, this was not really explained. It
seemed as if she primarily went undercover to learn how and why her
father was killed.
There are details that are not resolved in this book, and the book ends on a major cliffhanger. That’s why there’s a sequel!
The Afterword of the book is interesting because Ryan Hauge talks
about the role his wife played in developing the characters, as well as
the research that he did to make this book better.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the authors. My review is honest!