I was extremely excited about this book, and that might have led to quite high expectations which the book did not quite fulfill. It is a good book though, not great, but good and an interesting read.

I love historical fiction and while I enjoyed reading this book I do wish it had a little more detail to it.

Set in Scotland just after the birth of Mary Queen of Scotland the era is marked with violence of an unimaginable kind. Enmities and grudges are carried on for centuries over generations and nothing seems to be forgotton - not the smallest slight.

All Mintie wanted was to find out who her father's murderer was and to seek revenge for it. To also get back his belongings and his horse from whoever murdered him. What she did not envisage was bringing on a time of sheer intermittent warfare between two sides with no signs of stopping. In her search for avenging the death of her father Mintie herself lost so much of herself, her spirit and her youth.

The sense of belonging to a clan and that the clan reigned supreme was apparent because it was the clan and the family you belonged to which gave you support, succor and protection. Lose it and you are done for. There was no chance of survival if you were alone.

This is good for readers of historical fiction but there is nothing light in this book. It is all quite heavy stuff and you need time to assimilate it all.

A Dish of Spurs by Robert Low is historical fiction, which takes place shortly after the birth of Mary, Queen of Scotland. Mintie simply wants some help in finding the man who killed her father and stole his belongings including a valuable horse. She can feel the power of the place and is awed by it but not turned from her resolve despite the fact that no one else seems to understand her haste. After she returns home, saddened and resolved to do it herself, a man arrives in the middle of the night, killing one of three men attaching her gates, insisting that she come down and marry their leader. He is older, disreputable looking, with one arm and after he finishes with the men, he tells her he is there to take on her quest. What he doesn't realize is that she plans to accompany him.

This is an interesting book. It is a journey. Its portrayal of the time is accurate and interesting. Both Mintie and her hero, Batram Coalhouse begin the journey. Along the way she learns a lot about him and we learn a lot about her. It is an interesting read, following people who have complex personalities. Mary and Henry VIII and the war between them made things complicated. The border between England And Scotland was intrinsically complicated. Everything was difficult. After they had finished, Batty left and Mintie never saw him again but she never forgot. Nor did he. It was an interesting, if difficult read. There was plenty of colloquial vocabulary, which made it slow going at times. The plot was good, and of course, somewhat based in reality. I recommend it to the serious reader of historical fiction, not the casual reader.

I received a free ARC of A Dish of Spurs from Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions and interpretations contained herein are solely my own. #netgalley #adishofspurs

This is my first book by this author. And I love historical novels and this time period is very interesting, but sadly I have to say that this book wasn't for me.

The writingstyle made it hard to read and follow the story. It didn't grab my attention and I had to struggle to finish the book.

Even if I found the plot fascinating I had issues with the style writing that would need some editing.
It could be an interesting read but it wasn't my cup of tea.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

Thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Canelo for the advance reader's copy of "A Dish of Spurs." I really wanted to enjoy this book - the description intrigued me and I've always enjoyed reading and learning about this particular historical time period. However, the writing made it difficult to get through. The language and sentence construction was challenging. Yes, there was a glossary of terms at the end, but that wasn't enough. For a book categorized as young adult, I imagine many YA readers will struggle.

Honestly very hard to get through.... Rubin sentences. Descriptions that seem to go on for pages. The story was good, but it was a hard read..