Ariana Franklin (aka Diana Norman) has a lively style that makes this strange tale a compulsive read. I particularly enjoyed the description of the company traversing the icy maze to Wormhold Tower, just like a scene from a Grimm’s fairy tale. If you are a fantasy fan you will find much to enjoy in here, as there is an otherworldly feel about the restless company of mercenaries holed up with nuns at Godstow, celebrating a pagan Yuletide. This is a tale, too, about the lot of women, and very much a story for women. History has been stretched here, and rather thinly in places, to give a good story a peg to hang on, but treat it as a yarn (the sort to read by a crackling fire with the snow falling outside perhaps) and you will enjoy it so much more.