Book Review and #BlogTour – In Two Minds (#1) by K.T. Findlay (5 stars)

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Title: In Two Minds (#1 Prince Wulfstan)

Author: K.T. Findlay

Published: 1^st of November 2019

Format: Kindle – 386 pages

Hello Hello! How are you?

My life is very hectic at the moment, but I’m so glad I have some wonderful books to read to distract myself when I have a minute. Today I’m going to review In Two Minds by K.T. Findlay for the blog tour organised by Rachel from Rachel’s Random Resources. As soon as I saw this cover and then read the blurb, I was sold and I knew I was going to love it. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I love how diverse and unique the books are that I read for blog tours and author requests, and this one is definitely unique. Thank you so much to Rachel for letting me take part in this tour and for sending me the book! Keep reading for my thoughts on this book!

GOODREADS SYNOPSIS

Hurled twelve hundred years into the past, into someone else’s body, things could hardly be worse. And then the body’s owner wanted it back…

Museum curator Thomas and ten year old Anglo Saxon Wulfstan, have to cope with a fifty year age gap, a huge culture clash, and never knowing from one moment to the next who’s going to be in control.If that wasn’t enough, Wulfstan’s father, King Offa of Mercia, has given his son just a year to find and prepare a team of ten female fighters to take on the King’s champion. In the brute strength world of Anglo Saxon battle, he hasn’t a hope.

Thomas has a plan to help, but first he’ll have to come to terms with eighth century Britain, with all its colour, violence, ignorance, and a disturbingly cavalier attitude to hygiene! And amidst all of that, he has to find ten amazing women willing to attempt the impossible.

The inspiration for In Two Minds: If you woke up one day to find yourself hundreds of years in the past, you’d be okay, wouldn’t you? I mean, after you’d got over the shock and everything, you’d know things that nobody else did, so you’d be rich in no time. Right? Ah, but do you know enough to actually do it, and could you get what you need to pull it off? The theory’s one thing, actually doing it’s quite another. And then there’s the tiny little matter of fitting in with your new neighbours…

MY REVIEW

In Two Minds by K.T. Findlay is a historical fiction fantasy novel, and the first book in the Prince Wulfstan series. Fantasy and historical fiction are my favourite genres, so I was so excited when I saw the email about this book and I’m so glad I decided to take part in the tour.

We meet Thomas, an old man in the present-day on the day that something tragic happens and he gets sent back to the past, around the 780s during the time when England was divided into Anglo Saxon kingdoms. He arrives in the body of a young Prince named Wulfstan, one of the princes of Mercia. After the events that let Thomas and Wulfstan to both be stuck in the same body, Offa, Wulfstan’s father and the king of Mercia bets his son to win a fight against one of his father’s best warriors and his 10 men. However, Wulfstan can only use female slaves for the fight in 1 years’ time. Thanks to Thomas, a museum curator from the present day, Wulfstan and his coterie of 10 female slaves and some other soldiers and men who give him loyalty, the prince learns to look after his new manor, take care of his people. But will he win the battle?

I was immediately swept away in this amazing book. It is so different to anything I have ever read before and right from the start I loved it. I absolutely love the female rep in this book, I love how the warriors Wulfstan could choose could only be women and how he and Thomas made sure to choose women with a special spark.

It was also so interesting to read about all the inventions Thomas came up with to help the people living in and around his manor, how he made weapons and taught the warriors to fight, how he taught Wulfstan to be a better person and always think about things before acting. I had such a great time reading this book, the world building was great, it felt to me like I was in Mercia alongside them. The characters were also so great and I really appreciated that the majority of them were women, but non was described as vulnerable or weak, they each had their own special ability and Thomas/Wulfstan praised them for it.

I also loved the ending, I wasn’t expecting that at all, this book really surprised me, but in the nice kind of surprising way. I’m really looking forward for book 2, I think this series has the potential to become one of my favourites.

MY THOUGHTS AND RATING

Overall, I adored this book and there wasn’t one thing I could fault. Everything flowed so well, it was so well executed, the writing style was lovely to read and the characters were so interesting.

I gave this book 5 stars and I highly recommend to everyone, not just fantasy or historical fiction fans, I think that a lot of people will love this book! Thank you so much to Rachel and K.T. for letting me take part in this tour and for sending me the book, all opinions are my own.

That’s all for now, I hope you enjoyed this post and will consider picking up the book! See you soon, stay safe,

Ellie xx

ABOUT THE AUTHOR – K.T. FINDLAY

“I’m the author of the Sally Mellors adventures and the Prince Wulfstan books. Ever since I first saw James Burke’s wonderful Connections series, I’ve been fascinated by the way a single new idea can change the course of history. The more I learned, the more intrigued I became about how some ideas stuck while others initially sank without trace, only to resurface perhaps hundreds of years later to change everything. The first Prince Wulfstan book, In Two Minds, explores this idea not just by introducing new ideas into a medieval society, but by showing just how difficult it would be to pull that off in practice.

I’m equally fascinated by the justice system. People expect it to be fair, which is why we allow it to resolve our disputes instead of simply taking revenge ourselves. But watch an individual case play out in court and it can seem more like a high stakes game between lawyers than the pursuit of absolute truth. And if you think it’s a game, do you still accept the result if you lose? Is that still justice? At what point will a perfectly normal, perfectly decent person snap, and what happens when they do? Is it possible to plunge into the darkness of revenge and remain the normal, decent, happy person you were before you started? Enter Sally Mellors, who’s going to give it a damned good try in A Thoughtful Woman. I live on a small farm where I fit in my writing alongside fighting the blackberry, and trying to convince the quadbike that killing its rider isn’t a core part of its job description.” – K.T. Findlay

You can learn more about this author and their books on their website.

If you would like to purchase this book, you can find it here: Amazon UK (affiliate link) – Amazon FR (affiliate link) – Amazon US