Banquo's Son

Banquo's Son by T.K. Roxborough

Age: Adult
Category: Historical
Rating: 4 stars

Helen Thinks: Ten years have passed since Macbeth’s bloody reign over Scotland. For those ten years, Fleance - Banquo’s son - has been hiding away with a new family in the woods of Northern England. Denying his noble bloodline, Fleance has managed to stay hidden away from those that murdered his father and has fallen in love with a sweet maid named Rosie. However, he’s haunted by images of his dead father both when sleeping and awake as his Father wants justice - as well as the greatness for his son that was prophesied by the three sisters. Neither Scotland nor Fleance will rest until this day so he sacrifices his life with Rosie to travel back to Scotland where he encounters many people including young Prince Duncan, murdered king Duncan’s grandchild and third in line for the Scottish throne. Once encountering the young prince, Fleance’s life changes and the decisions he makes not only change his future but the one that he has with Rosie too...

This book popped up as an advert on my kindle and I accidentally clicked it unlocking said kindle. However, at high school, Macbeth was one of my favourite Shakespeare plays so I was intrigued and found myself adding it to my library. I’m going to be completely honest with you and admit that it was a slow read to begin with. The first couple of chapters focused on Fleance’s life in England with his new family where they live simply and his love interest, Rosie, that travels around England with her family so he rarely sees her. However, Rosie’s father demands to know what Fleance’s intentions towards Rosie are and he finally admits the truth that he can’t stay with Rosie until he has travelled back to Scotland where he can learn what truly happened to his Father all them years ago. Rosie and her family are obviously devastated by his decision causing her Father to say that his chances are over but thankfully Rosie understands and says she’ll wait for him. So off Fleance goes on his travels back to Scotland. While this is happening, we also see Prince Duncan dealing with his unstable father, Prince Donalbain, and the news that his uncle - King Malcolm - is on his deathbed without any children to inherit the Scottish crown as well as taking care of his sisters, Rachel and Bree. Upon receiving news that King Malcolm is definitely close to the end, Duncan sets out to journey to his Uncle’s castle so that Malcolm can be amongst family. On his journey, he is attacked by a pack of wolves where our titular hero comes into save the day and a friendship is born. Duncan can sense there is more to this “Flea” than his companion is letting on but he doesn’t push and together they make it to the Royal castle in time for Duncan to see his uncle before he passes. The death of King Malcolm and the coronation of King Donalbain starts to make people uneasy and eventually there’s whisperings of rebel forces allying with England to take control of Scotland.

Banquo's Son is 402 pages long and Roxborogh ensures that every page is crammed with excitement and action like you would imagine a film depicting this era would be. Deaths, coronations, rivalries and of course - love interests. Our hero, Fleance, finds himself torn between his old simple life where he’s in love with Rosie and his new life of nobility where he’s got the admiration of Princess Rachel. By the end of the book, circumstances that I won’t detail because it screams spoiler alert have to sway Fleance towards one of the women but I can’t wait to continue the journey in book two and see what decisions are made.

This book swims with characters from Fleance, the royals, thanes of different cities, the people we meet on their travels, Fleance’s family as well as Rosie’s. It’s one of them books where you could possibly do with a character list at the beginning to ensure you’re aware of who is who. However, Roxborogh never loses track of who is who and where they’re supposed to be. I always applaud any author that can have a huge cache of characters and write smoothly. Roxborogh definitely achieved this.

It is my first venture into historical fiction - the author does disclaim at the beginning that not all events are accurate as it is based of a fictional piece of work in itself - that is not solely romance, and I can definitely guarantee that it won’t be my last.