Justin Newland – The Midnight Of Eights

Thanks to ZooLoo’s Book Tours for invitation to the tour. Thanks to Justin Newland for my perfect physical copy of the book in return for my honest review.

1580.

Nelan Michaels docks at Plymouth after sailing around the world aboard the Golden Hind. He seeks only to master his mystical powers – the mark of the salamander, that mysterious spirit of fire – and reunite with his beloved Eleanor.

After delivering a message to Francis Walsingham, he’s recruited into the service of the Queen’s spymaster, where his astral abilities help him to predict and thwart future plots against the realm.

But in 1588, the Spanish Armada threatens England’s shores.

So how could the fledgling navy of a small, misty isle on the edge of mainland Europe repulse the greatest fleet in the world?
Was the Queen right when she claimed it was divine intervention, saying, ‘He blew with His winds, and they were scattered!’?

Or was it an entirely different intervention – the extraordinary conjunction of coincidences that Nelan’s astral powers brought to bear on that fateful Midnight of Eights?

Justin Newland, if you ask me, is one of the best authors who creates novels that are fantasy and interwoven with history.

I have read every novel he has written, and I am obsessed with his stories. The Midnight of Eights is the second book in The Island of Angel’s duology.  The first, The Mark of the Salamander, introduces us to Nelan. He has just arrived back on the Golden Hind and finds himself recruited as the Queen’s spy.

What a read! I adored reading this novel. As always, Justin Newland had me in the palm of his hand. His ability for recreating times gone by but with his unique twists, is excellent. His characters are developed, so I feel like I was returning to a friend with Nelan.

I finished this way too soon, and now I have to wait for Justin to publish another amazing read!