Right off the bat, I have to say I received a copy of this book through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program, and I am grateful to the publisher for the opportunity to read it.

I didn't find this book super gripping? The plot felt a little weird, especially because the mystery at the beginning took forever to work through in flashback, and once it was "resolved" it felt really obvious, and should have been obvious to Alfred? But it was still an okay book overall, and I had no major complaints about it. I would actually like to see a sequel of Alfred beginning his next journey, as I think that has a lot of plot potential!

But it definitely wasn't a bad book, and it made me want to read more fantasy that relies in some ways on historical fiction (it REALLY made me want to return to Tamora Pierce's work, which I would recommend as a read-alike even though this is not YA.)