Sticking the feathers back on The White Hawk...

Book One of my intended trilogy set during The Wars of the Roses, The White Hawk, has just been revamped slightly (a new cover, designed and painted by my good friend and sometime co-writer Martin Bolton) and re-published via the folks at Draft2Digital: this means the book is now available as an ebook on Barnes & Noble and Kobo as well as on Amazon. I also hope to soon make it available on itunes.

See below for the new cover, a link to the book on Amazon, a plot description and a couple of nice reviews taken from Goodreads!

Links:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

Reviews:
"The White Hawk takes place during fifteenth century in England and explores two rivals-Lancaster and York-who is at civil war with each other and is tearing the country apart. Henry VI is king and is unable to prevent these tragic events. He has no stomach for politics and is too weak to fight. This story also, follows the Bolton's, a family who is caught up in this civil war and struggles to survive. They are loyal to the house of Lancaster and as the story begins with a battle scene-lives are lost, families are torn apart and revenge for the death of love ones takes hold and bad decisions are made and more lives are destroyed. 

One of the first things about, “The White Hawk” that I was impressed with was the opening scene-a battle-very dramatic and detailed. Pilling gives you a clear picture of war, revenge and continuous political instability throughout this period. As the plot unfolds and his characters come to life-I was enthralled in such a way- I found myself holding my breath and clinching my teeth anticipating what is going to happen to next. 

Pilling gives the reader a tremendous amount of history and he depicts medieval history brilliantly. One can tell he does his research and takes his findings seriously. I highly recommend this absorbing book to anyone who enjoys this period of time and who is looking for well-written historical fiction. 

- Stephanie Hopkins (link to my interview with Stephanie on her blog: Interview)

"Mr. Pilling approached me a while back asking if he could write a guest post to promote his book, The White Hawk Book One: Revenge. What he told me of the story piqued my interest as a former history major and general history nerd, and so I accepted (the post can be viewed on my blog at astheplotthickens.blogspot.com). He also offered to send me a free copy of the ebook so I could read and review it. Of course I'm never going to turn down a free book, especially when the story catches my eye and the author is such a nice guy.

It took me awhile to actually get around to reading the book, thanks to my Kindle deciding to go missing, but when I was finally able to start reading, I got sucked right in. The White Hawk is set during the Wars of the Roses, and tells the story of the feud between the houses of Lancaster and York. Though it's not a period in history I'm overly familiar with, I could tell right away that Mr. Pilling did his research. Over the course of my reading, I went back and did some research of my own on certain points that intrigued me, and as a former history major, I must say that it's some damn good historical fiction.

The characters are very well written and have believable motivations, and I found myself falling in love with the Boltons right away, particularly Mary. I was reminded of George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, not so much by the content of the story or the writing, but because it tells the story from multiple points of view from each faction, a technique that I, personally, quite like. A lot of characters in one story can put off some readers (and that's one reason it takes me so long to get through A Song of Ice and Fire), but Mr. Pilling does a wonderful job of pulling everything together. I was never once confused by who was who or which house fought for which side. 

Some people tell me that they don't like historical fiction because it seems so dry, but this definitely isn't the case with The White Hawk. The story moves very quickly and sucked me right in, and it was never dry at all. Despite the huge range, both in time and geography, no part of the story seems disconnected from the rest.

Overall, I highly recommend this book to anybody that has even a passing enjoyment for historical fiction, a story with plenty of action and a bit of political intrigue, and well-written characters. Fair warning, though--the ending will definitely make you crave part two! Pilling gives the reader a tremendous amount of history and he depicts medieval history brilliantly. One can tell he does his research and takes his findings seriously. I highly recommend this absorbing book to anyone who enjoys this period of time and who is looking for well-written historical fiction." 

- Jennifer White