Book Review - Excalibur Rising Book 1 by Eileen Enwright Hodgetts

Excalibur Rising Book 1 by Eileen Enwright Hodgetts | Blushing Geek

Excalibur Rising by Eileen Hodgetts
Series: Excalibur Rising, #1
First Published September 25th 2014 by Emerge Publishing
Genre: Fantasy, Historical
332 pages
Format: eBook
Source: Review Request
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
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Get it on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3uUVWou

A newscaster. A psychic. A legend brought to life…
Marcus is losing his touch. The TV newscaster’s ratings are down and his job is on the line. So when he’s given the opportunity to leave Las Vegas and search for Excalibur, the missing artifact from one of the greatest legends ever written, he jumps at the chance. It doesn’t hurt that the mafia also gave him an offer he couldn’t refuse.
Violet’s psychic abilities serve as a gift and a curse. When the mafia’s marching orders force her onto a plane to England with Marcus, her skills are put to the test. As they probe the legend of King Arthur and Camelot, the unlikely team watches the body count start to rise.
After their search takes them to the mist-shrouded Welsh countryside, Marcus and Violet begin putting the pieces together, but a surprise awaits. A surprise that could change their lives for good. If they survive to see it…

Review

I don’t think I’ve read any treasure hunting fantasy books before so I can’t really say that I’m a fan, but I do love watching The Mummy films (the old ones though) when I was younger. For this book, Excalibur Rising, I wasn’t expecting it to be about hunting for treasure, let alone hunting for the famous Excalibur! I do love stories about knights and basing this one to an all-time favorite legend about King Arthur?! Now that’s definitely something. And yep, Excalibur Rising didn’t disappoint at all. I had this book in my list for more than a year already and I can’t believe I’ve waited this long to finally read it!

The first thing that I noticed when I started this story was the writing style. I’m not sure about you guys, but I can always tell that I will enjoy the whole story if I like the writing style as early as its first and/or second pages. And as you can see with my rating, I sure did!

There’s already mystery as early as the first chapter and you know me, I love mystery. Plus, there’s solving-a-crime parts as well! Sounds just like my favorite MHClark stories eh? Aside from that, I also love the fantasy which really coincides perfectly with its historical aspect. I don’t think I ever found some scenes in this book that I think were questionable. All scenes looked convincing and I also love the narration.

When Marcus was first introduced (male main lead), I actually think that I like him, but when Violet (main female lead) came in and he needed to work with her, he started to sound really rude and quite annoying to me. You see, Marcus has this annoying Mr. know-it-all quality and he believes in facts and evidence, so when he found out that Violet has a psychic ability, he’s fast to judge. He always cuts her off and makes sure to always prove her wrong. He’s so rude to her that sometimes I think he’s the gangster and not their employer, Mr. Mandretti. But as the story progresses, he slowly became open minded especially about Violet’s ability and then the two of them finally worked out their differences, and I can also see a possibility of romance, *wink.

Even though I love the whole story, I still find myself skipping some lines. Well, that’s one thing I don’t like about myself when I am reading exciting stories like this one because I tend to get impatient and would dive directly into the action.

This was my first time from the author and I have to say that I’m really impressed. I love the writing style, I love the concept and hopefully I’ll love the other books in this series as well. As for the ending, I don’t think it was a cliffhanger, I actually think it was the perfect ending for its first book as it will definitely make you look forward to the next book. Will they finally stop the war? Will King Arthur succeed? Or will the enemy take the throne?