Just finished re-reading and loved it as much as the first time, maybe even more so, because the second time brings out the details that I didn't think significant before.
Moving onto book 2. ( )

The series is 3.5-4 stars...while I liked the main characters, I did not fall in love with them. ( )

Fantastic book! First in a trilogy that tells the tale of the peddler, Scarlet, and the bandit king, Liall. Liall and his band hold the pass through the mountain. Scarlet is indignant when told he must now pay a toll. His indignation turns to horror when he learns what he is expected to pay - a kiss for Liall! A well written, sweeping adventure that crosses many countries and an ocean, with a witty and likeable protagonist. Scarlet is intelligent, resourceful, and honorable. Liall is (of course!) more than he seems. I highly recommend all three books. ( )

A fantasy with a bit of romance. Scarlet is a pedlar (who wears the traditional red coat of his profession) who travels around Byzantur for business and comes home to his parents and sister as often as he can bare to stop traveling. One day when he comes home, he learns that a nearby mountain pass is being held by bandits led by a strange white-haired man named Liall and called the Wolf. (Yeah, there's a Little Red Riding Hood parallel; nah, it doesn't really work. But the story doesn't hit the conceit hard enough for it to matter that it doesn't really work.) Liall tries to joke with Scarlet, demanding a kiss for passage over the mountain. Scarlet refuses, gets prideful, and starts trying increasingly elaborate plans to sneak past Liall's blockade, all of which fail. Meanwhile, Byzantur is rapidly descending into civil war, with ethnic factions fighting and Scarlet's faction almost certainly on the losing side.

The story carries two main tensions: first, the brewing civil war and Scarlet's attempts to convince his family to move out of Byzantur, and second, Scarlet and Liall's feelings for one another. Both of these tensions just bubble along under the surface while the story is busy world building, developing characters, and following various little bits of action. One is not surprised when these tensions boil up (if for no other reason than that the jacket copy telegraphs it), but it's lovely to watch it all unfold, especially Scarlet's feelings for Liall, even more so because his angst is very much about personal identity and very little about societal questions of propriety or masculinity or similar.

A slim first entry in a series, but one that packs a whole lot of interesting stuff into its pages. I find myself daydreaming a bit about this world, and I'm excited to get on to the second volume soon. Recommended. ( )

Interesting. I enjoyed the story, but I don't know if I'm emotionally invested to continue on with the series. I'll see how it goes. Three Stars ( )