Venganza de sangre (Vengeance of blood). This historical fiction novel takes place during the late 13 century going into the early 14th century. This was the time where the Mediterranean was being fought between the Crown of Aragon and the Kingdom of France, as well as the different Italian city states. I was already familiar of the political landscape of this era, obviously with more focused on the Hispanic side of the Crown of Aragon, but overall the political situation is very well described in this novel without it sounding like history book or an info dump to the readers that are not being with this era. It felt very organic the way it was presented in the story.

In this novel our main protagonist is a Aragonese knight named Blasco. Very early on in the book, we get to find out why Blasco is set have “Vengeance of blood”.  The story spans essentially throughout Blasco’s entire life. We follow him from being a child to then grow up and become a Knight Templar, to then become a mercenary after the fall of such military order. In a way, somewhat of a coming of age story.

This is a historical fiction novel, so the author took some liberties from the reality of this historical era. I really enjoyed some of the elements he introduced to the story. For example magic is one of them! This was such an enjoyable read. I really like the ending. For a fairly long novel, having a great ending felt very rewarding. This is my first novel that I’ve read from Sebastián Roa, needless to say it won’t be my last.