Book Tour - FROZEN RAGE by Steve McHugh

 

Out of This World SFF Reviews is delighted to be just one of the many blogs participating in the Storytellers On Tour Book Tour featuring author Steve McHugh and his fantasy novella, FROZEN RAGE!  This novella is volume 6.5 in Steve's Hellequin Chronicles.  Today marks Day #3 of the tour and I am very excited to be one of the stops. I will soon be providing you with a synopsis of the book, my review, as well as some important links and Steve's bio.  

But first I'd just like to mention that Storytellers is currently running an incredible giveaway in conjunction with this tour.  You could win one physical copy of FROZEN RAGE! (Open Internationally)

To enter, just click this link.  The giveaway ends this Sunday, October 4th at 11:59pm, so get those entries in now!

And now, here is a brief description of Steve McHugh's novella FROZEN RAGE followed by my review.

Book Blurb:

The Realm of Dreich is a getaway for the rich and powerful, a medieval-inspired town in the middle of a vast frozen wilderness.  Now it's the site of a wedding, intended to join two feuding families who have spent centuries in an uneasy truce with each other.  

When Tommy Carpenter asks his best friend, Nate Garrett, to help him with the security of the wedding, Nate reluctantly agrees, knowing that it will be a long weekend of work and, in all probability, treachery.

It is only a matter of time before members of each family are found murdered and it is up to Nate and Tommy to find the killer before more bodies fall, potentially reigniting a war.

Review:

Have you ever been to one of those murder mystery dinners?  You know, the ones you pay to attend and at some point during or after the dinner the lights cut out, someone gets "murdered", and it becomes an interactive experience from then on to try to find out who the killer is.  Well, this book is kind of like that except way bloodier, it takes place in a medieval wilderness, the main players are werewolves and werelions, and it's way more satisfying in the end.

FROZEN RAGE is technically a standalone novella that falls between books 6 and 7 in Steve McHugh's Hellequin Chronicles series.  And what a hard and quick-hitting bloody fantastic story it is.  I was reminded of a few fantasy books that I've read before and loved while reading this novella.  The one in particular that I couldn't help but draw parallels to is Matthew Woodring Stover's Heroes Die.  For some reason this story and the characters in particular had that feel and made my enjoyment of FROZEN RAGE only that much better.

Another thing I really enjoyed about this book is that everything happens so quickly and there's no time to ponder too long over something before another revelation smacks you upside the head.  The benefit of novellas, and this one especially, is that there's no real room for tortuous dialogue and slow spots.  I'm happy to say that FROZEN RAGE does not dilly dally in the least and the murder mystery unfolds at a breakneck pace.  

I don't want to give too much away, and the blurb did a pretty good job of laying out the plot.  Suffice it to say that you won't be disappointed by Steve McHugh's brilliant novella FROZEN RAGE.  It hits you from the jump and then rushes you through a quest to find the possible murderers with nothing short of an all out war being the result of failure.  These are the best types of books to read, where the stakes are high, and everyone is a suspect.  I really did like this one a lot and it makes me want to start at the very beginning of this series.  It was that good!

Rating: 8/10

You can purchase FROZEN RAGE by clicking on this 🠞Amazon Link.

About The Author:

Steve's been writing from an early age, his first completed story was done in an English lesson.  Unfortunately, after the teacher read it, he had to have a chat with the head of the year about the violent content and bad language.  The follow up "One boy and his frog" was less concerning to his teachers and got him an A.

 It wasn't for another decade that he would start work on a full length novel, the result of which is now available to purchase.

He was born in a small village called Mexborough, South Yorkshire, but now lives with his wife and three young daughters in Southampton.

You can connect with author Steve McHugh on his Website, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Goodreads.

And that concludes my stop on the FROZEN RAGE book tour!  I would like to extend a special thank you to Storytellers On Tour and author Steve McHugh for the opportunity to participate.  There are many more awesome stops on this tour, so if you would like to follow along, here is the official schedule:

Thank you as always for supporting Out of This World SFF Reviews.  Every single visit is appreciated more than you can ever know.

Happy Reading!

-Nick