Empire's Edge is book 2 of a historical fiction series taking place in late first century Great Britain. Locations might seem to be confusing because the Romans here are located in what would today be the Scottish highlands, but one of the main local groups are the Cornovii, a hypothetical name for the people who originally inhabited modern day Cornwall. I am guessing Hunter was taking liberties.

Anyways, I did not read book 1, but it is fairly easy to pick up on what is happening in the story. Rome's reach has exceeded its grasp. After a six year campaign to control all of the island, troops are being steadily pulled to other parts of the empire and now they are beginning to realize that they cannot control everything they have conquered.

The main character, Faustus Valerianus, after helping to install the Irish high king on the throne of Hibernia, is tasked with leading the Batavians in an increasingly hostile north. An old flame returns to his life as well as a grieving sister whose husbands debts left her penniless on his death and so she travels from Gaul to Briton to live with her brother.

This book does skirt the edge between historical fiction and fantasy with Faustus regularly conversing with the ghost of his father, his love interest being a possible descendant of a selkie and believing she can understand seals, and the old people. The first two can be explained away as the two being just a little bit crazy and superstitious. The third... these fictional people play far too big of a role in this story and are one of the biggest drawbacks from what would otherwise have been an excellent historical fiction novel of British Rome just beyond the peak of its prime.

After really enjoying the first instalment I was looking forward to getting stuck in to Empire’s Edge. Unfortunately I did struggle to get in to the book at first, the amount of names crammed in for me was just too hard to follow at times and I nearly gave up quite early on! BUT! Once I started to pick up the characters and understand the lay of the land, the book did start to open up before me.
I really enjoyed this book after the first third and was action packed and suspenseful to the last.

An overall good read, reading on kindle makes it harder to flick back to the character list at the start and potentially caused my confusion at the start of the book. I do think it was hard to follow and as an avid reader of historical fiction i didn't expect to struggle as much as I did. A book of two halves for me.

I found the first instalment in this series gripping and entertaining, this one was even better.
The historical background and the places are vivid and well researched. i appreciated the old and new characters and the solid plot.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine