Hero

by E.A. Stewart

It's hard to be a hero, even when it's your job. Chretien, the troubadour-warrior of Valeros, pursues a mysterious assassin wreaking havoc in Montpellier. It's 1215, and a Church council seeks a peaceful end to the crusade against the Cathar heresy. The Count of Roussillon pleads for Chretien's help, claiming rumored assassination of Church leaders will create a dangerous future for all the lords of the Languedoc. Chretien's family and friends are threatened by this rising chaos in Montpellier. While Chretien hunts the assassin, his nephew Yusuf begs his help to hide science books from his university library, protecting them from monks purging texts by heretics, schismatics, and Saracens. Injured defending a tale-spinning orphan he never intended to rescue, Chretien endures endless stories of pirates and unlikely adventures. When a ghost sharing bad advice settles in as his inconstant companion, Chretien is saddled with burdens and responsibilities he must meet to protect his dead father's honor. Chretien, under the weight of more promises than one man can meet, faces more danger than one man can defend against. Hero, a standalone story, joins the series of 13th century adventure tales, Legends of Valeros.

285 pages, Paperback

Published June 19, 2018

About the author

E.A. (Annie) Stewart is an American writer whose Accidental Heretics series explores intrigues in France and Spain in the Thirteenth Century. After a brief academic career studying myth and literature, she took up siege engineering—as a technical writer and project manager in the heart of the computer industry. Her technical work focused on strategic advances for cutting-edge hardware technologies for PCs and servers. During a lull between critical deadlines, she began this adventure series, and now focuses full time on fiction and cutting-edge publishing technologies.

Annie Stewart lives and writes in Seattle (no cats! no dogs!). She explores issues for Thirteenth Century Languedoc, heresy, and writing historical fiction in blog posts at www.accidentalheretics.com

Reviews

[JJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I waver a little on reviewing books I edited, but honestly editing means I had to read it at least three times, sometimes more, and if after that I'm still interested in re-reading a book because I loved it so much then I think it's fair to review it.

This is sort of a spin-off of the author's Accidental Heretics series, and follows Chretien through some bonkers adventures when all he really wants to do is get home to his boyfriend. It's a cold winter book, so perfect for when we're all wishing for adventure while stuck in January gloom. Committed to protecting his family (found and otherwise), and his honor to his lord, Chretien falls in to a more of mishaps while searching for an assassin. Like all my favorite books this book has incredible characters, flawed but kind and interesting, and setting that makes me want to buy plane tickets right away and head off to France in search of medieval ruins. This book has the added bonus of music and sword play and some very clever children of varying ages. Absolutely recommend. You don't need to read the rest of the series to follow this story, but knowing the other characters makes for a few otherwise hidden jokes. Mostly you should read this book so you love can love Chretien as much as I do.

[Ajax · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this author's Accidental Heretics series, and Chretien is by far my fave character in that series and here he finally gets to be the main character instead of just the brother!

This book is an interesting mix. A mystery of sorts for sure, but also sort of personal exploration of what happens when someone finds himself responsible for a lot of people when he's never been depended on in that way before.

Chretien is a gay knight in the early 13th century and it's like just not a big deal. I mean the story isn't about that, it's just a fact of who he is, while we read an adventure story about him. This is something I just can't get enough of in fiction, but historical fiction especially: diverse characters where the story isn't about their "difference." Chretien's story is just a wild ride of unexpected twists and danger while he tries his best to be the man his father raised him to be.

Full disclosure- this book came from my publisher and I did beta read an earlier draft of this story (as well as reading the final book for my own enjoyment).