Another one is the character of Ishraq, who is a strong female character, both stronger and more intelligent than most of the male characters in the book combined which is just awesome. One of them is Gregory’s talent for worldbuilding, you just can’t fault her on that count because she’s really good at it. There were some things I really enjoyed about the book though. This is what bothered me most about the book I suppose, the indecisiveness. “Let’s go to Croatia”, “no, let’s go to join the children’s crusade”, “I’m going to Romania”, “on second thoughts, I might not go to Romania”. The characters can’t seem to make up their mind as to what it is they want to do. I felt the story in itself was lacking a sense of direction as well, sometimes quite literally. Isolde slowly turned into a petulant jealous child, and Luca was much too indecisive for my liking. Some of the characters, mainly Ishraq and Freize went through a nice bit of personal development, but I found the characters of Luca and Isolde were fundamentally lacking something. It had some good bits, and some lesser bits, which made it an enjoyable read overall. This one didn’t disappoint, not exactly, but I wasn’t exactly thrilled by it either. This is why I was really looking forward to the second installment, because the story ended very abruptly and I couldn’t wait for it to continue.

It was a very refreshing read, very different from Gregory’s other work, and I enjoyed it a lot. When the first book in this series, called Changeling, came out last summer I was very eager to read it, and I actually managed to finish it in less than a day. Luca and Lady Isolde are swept up in the growing excitement but something dangerous is brewing far out to sea… Its young leader promises that the sea will part before them, and allow them to walk dry-shod all the way to Jerusalem.

The five of them are followed into the town by a huge children’s crusade, led by a self-proclaimed saint.

With him are his loyal friend and servant, Frieze, and his clerk, Brother Peter, as well as the Lady Isolde and her mysterious servant-companion Ishraq. Breaking his journey in Piccolo, he finds a place filled with superstitious fears: of the unknown, of the forces of the sea and sky, of strangers. Luca Vero is a member of the secret Order of Darkness, tasked with searching out and reporting signs of the end of the world.

Philippa gregory order of darkness