I picked up this novel on a free giveaway from Night Shade Books (appropriately for St. Patty’s Day) with every intention of reading it straight off. I mean, the blurb told me the story combined modern-day Northern Ireland with magic, so I thought it would be a good fit.

Life intervened and the eBook got lost on my eReader for a while, but something stuck in my memory, and when I was looking for the next thing to read, I picked this up.

Now I’m kicking myself for having taken so long.

Stina Leicht is talented, no question, able to pull me into a world where politics is deadly and being in the wrong place at the wrong time can set you on a path from which there is no return. And that’s just the “normal” world for Northern Ireland in the 1970s.

Liam is an average young man in a place where tensions are high. He is just trying to impress his girl and stay out of trouble, but trouble follows him around like a curse, a feeling he has no idea is the honest truth.

This is a story of discovery, both of what defines a person and of who you become when pressed to the wall. The social and political situation is stark and dangerous. One wrong step and a young man’s life can be torn apart, with choices stolen and hopes destroyed. But for Liam, this is only one aspect of the challenges he faces as he learns the truth about who his father is, and discovers the battle he tried to avoid is being fought on levels both physical and metaphysical, with him pushed to the very center. His actions and choices have real, and concrete, effects on the people around him, sometimes at great cost and other times opening eyes to possibilities that could change everything if the right people will only listen.

This is a book that can be read as a simple thriller, with horrible things happening to Liam and everyone he becomes close to, but that would be doing it, and yourself, an injustice. Beyond the overt activities, Of Blood and Honey taps into faith and belief, not always the same thing, and perceptions versus reality. It’s got a lot to say, but in such a honeyed voice that the complexity is more on reflection than while you’re reading. There’s no time for contemplation as you’re down in the trenches with Liam.

Which is not to say this is a fast-paced novel that never stops to breathe either. It’s just one where every moment has significance, whether immediately apparent or something that builds. It starts with a bang, throwing the reader head-first into Northern Ireland’s political conflicts, and from that moment on, trouble after trouble comes for Liam, making bad moments worse and ripping away ones where he believes he’s found a kind of balance.

In case you can’t tell, I enjoyed this book. It sucked me into an unfamiliar world, and kept me trapped in a full sensory experience well worth every minute I spent absorbed in Stina Leicht’s words. And even better, from the way it ended, or rather the epilogue after a solid conclusion to the soul-searching Liam struggles through, I’m guessing a little search will find me another, equally compelling, read as his tale continues.