Book Reviews

Book Blurb

Fiscal analyst Mike Carlson is good with spreadsheets and baseball stats. He doesn’t believe in fate, true love, or fantasy. But then a fertility goddess whisks him away to another world. A promise has been broken, and if Mike is ever to return to California—and his comfortable if lonely life—he must complete a pilgrimage to the shrines of a death goddess.

A humiliating event convinces Mike to hire a guard to accompany him, and hunky Goran is handy enough with a sword, if a little too liberal with his ale. A man with no home and no family, Goran is deeper than he first appears. As Mike learns more about Goran, his disbelief wavers and his goals become less clear. Contending with feuding gods, the challenges of the journey, and his growing attraction to Goran, Mike faces a puzzle far harder to solve than simple rows of numbers.

 

Book Review

"What do you want?" he asked, knowing he sounded pitiful.
She turned away from the laptop to face him fully. She was smiling. "I want you to be a hero. A savior."

Wow. Talk about pressure.

Mike is having the weirdest experience of his entire life and it's no wonder he initially believes someone slipped hallucinogens into his fast food. A goddess, Agata, appeared in his apartment, transported him to another world, and now he has to complete a pilgrimage to appease her sister goddess, Alina, and lift a curse. Whoa. This alternate world appears to be stuck in the Middle Ages and Mike is forced to make his journey with stolen, handmade clothes, no shoes, no money, and not a technological gadget in sight. Crap. Then he meets Goran and Goran offers to be Mike's guide and protect him if, in exchange at the end of the pilgrimage, Mike gives Goran the journal Agata gave to him at the beginning of his journey. Sounds easy enough.

Their journey is hard, most definitely for Mike, as this is all new to him and being without his creature comforts and basic necessities he's always taken for granted is difficult. Mike and Goran begin to get to know one another and Mike wonders at what has happened in Goran's life to make him want to stay drunk as much as possible. They travel all day, every day, stopping at Alina's shrines where Mike has to make sacrifices and apologies to the goddess. Along the way, Mike learns more about Goran, and the more he learns, the more he grows to care about him. But Mike knows it can't last, for when his pilgrimage is complete he must return home.

This was the most fascinating premise for a book and Kim Fielding definitely did it justice. I loved it. I laughed and I cried, ugly snot and all. I can't tell the ending because it would ruin it, but I can say that these characters were real, in a way that hit me right in the gut and this is a story I won't soon forget. The love Mike and Goran shared was so pure and blindingly brilliant that it made my heart ache. Thank you, Kim, for a wonderful book.

 

 

 

 

DISCLAIMER: Books reviewed on this site were usually provided at no cost by the publisher or author. This book has been provided by Dreamspinner Press for the purpose of a review.

Additional Information

Format	ebook and print
Length	Novel, 200 pages/62627 words
Heat Level
Publication Date	03-February-2014
Price	$6.99 ebook, $14.99 paperback, $14.99 bundle
Buy Link	https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/pilgrimage-by-kim-fielding-5834-b