I received a free copy of this book from Hodder in exchange for an honest review.

Ailia is a young woman growing up in a tribe in Celtic Britain. Her tribe believe in something called Skin which is something yu are given and taught by your mother from birth but Ailia was abandoned by her mother as a newborn and is skinless. As Ailia tries to figure out who she is, she learns that the higher powers may have something in store for her as the Roman Empire marches ever closer.

I really, really enjoyed this book. It is descriptive, fascinating and I just couldn’t put it down. Ailia is a fantastic character - she is kind, beautiful, driven, charismatic. I loved her. I thought the world building within the tribe and the Mother’s Realm was pretty well done and while the whole idea of ‘skin’ was really confusing at first, I did start to get the hang of it the more Ailia explained it. I really enjoyed how her learning went though I would have liked a bit more focus on her lessons, I just love those kind of things in books. A lot of Ailia’s learning and time in the Mother’s Realm seemed to go really fast and I think the story would have benefitted with it being slowed down a little bit.

This book is jam-packed with amazing, strong female characters - from Ailia, her kitchen sisters, her cook mother, Fraid the tribesqueen and then of course, the Mothers who are the form of gods in this world. The women in this book really hold their own power in their hands, and they control their sexuality and their bodies - they can choose who and when they give themselves to and aren’t beholden to forced marriages or virginity, etc.

The ending left me slightly unsatisfied. It was a bit grim and not really what I was expecting and I couldn’t help wonder what was the point of Ailia’s entire journey up to that point, considering everything that happened. I would love to continue on with Ailia’s journey though.