Renegade by Kerry Wilkinson. Blog Tour/Giveaway

So tomorrow, 7th May 2015, the second book in the Silver Blackthorn series – Renegade – is released. I am so happy to be part of the blog tour today and to welcome Kerry telling us a little more about Silver. I have a copy of the book to give away – simply comment on this post or tweet me @Lizzy11268 and tell me why you would like to read it for a chance to get your very own copy.

Silver in the real world

One of the great things about writing books is that, if you’re really lucky, your books can be read by people all around the world. It’s always lovely to receive emails from readers who want to ask or talk about the books – but it gives a special sort of buzz when you get one from some far-flung place to which you’ve never been.

What many people might not realise, even UK readers, is that Silver’s universe very much fits around the real world.

The place from which she comes – Martindale – is real. It’s about 10 miles from Penrith in the Lake District, carved onto a beautiful set of hills with crumbling roads that are better for cycling than they are cars. It’s not really a village, more a collection of farms, but it’s there. I’ve beefed it up in the books, making the hamlet a proper village to where refugees were re-homed during my fictional civil war.

The Gully is a real place, too. Just north of Martindale is Ullswater lake (http://www.ullswater.co.uk/). It’s long and thin – about nine miles from end to end but less than a mile across – and home to all sorts of water sports and fabulous views. I figured what better way to describe its beauty than to drain the water and fill it full of the nation’s rubbish to the extent that it is a giant landfill in the series!

Windsor is, of course, real – as is the castle. I always wanted the King to rule from a castle and there’s not really a more famous one in the country.

At the end of Reckoning and the beginning of Renegade, Silver and her friends are holed up in a village on the other side of “what was once a wide six-lane road” – which is meant to be the M42. That puts them in somewhere like Beaconsfield, Bucks, with the early part of Renegade taking part in the Chilterns.

There are lots of other places, too – but to mention them here would mean having to spoil things to come, so I’ll leave it there.

You can always email me to ask, though … especially if you live in some far-flung place!

Thank you!

Review

Silver Blackthorn is a fugitive from the law.
Silver Blackthorn has committed treason.
She is dangerous. Do NOT approach her.
A large reward is on offer. Report any sightings to your nearest Kingsman.
Long live the King.

Silver Blackthorn is on the run. She fled Windsor Castle with eleven other teenagers, taking with her something far more valuable than even she realises: knowledge.

With the entire country searching for the missing Offerings, Silver must keep them all from the vicious clutches of King Victor and the Minister Prime. Until now, no one has escaped the king and lived to tell the tale.

Or have they?

With expectations weighing heavily on the girl with the silver streak in her hair, will she ever find her way home?

I was a HUGE fan of the first novel in this series, so to say I was happy to get to read the next one a little early is putting it mildly. And for me it was worth every second of the wait.

Silver and friends have escaped the immediate clutches of the King and are on the run. Decisions have to be made and everyone is looking to Silver to make them, she however is not sure she is the right person for the job.

Renegade is very addictive – whilst Kerry Wilkinson expands and deepens the mythology he has also written a bit of a thriller, a bit of  road trip drama and given our characters a lot of emotional upset to deal with. He keeps things rocking along at a heck of a pace, introducing new places and people, giving Silver a lot to handle and solidifying and intensifying the relationships between our core group. It is engaging and compelling throughout.

I am entirely in love with this series, one of those times I can’t really tell you why – although it probably is mostly to do with Silver as a character who is a gorgeous mix of strong independent woman and ditzy teenager. You just want to follow along with her, a bit like her fellow runaways – one of those brilliantly written characters that just pop off the page and become very real.

I’m being careful not to say too much about the story itself just in case you have not started this series yet – but I will say it is excellent – great writing, great characters, terrific world building, at least several bags of maltesers worth of reading joy.

The end drove me nuts – yep thanks for that Mr Wilkinson – now the wait begins for the finale. I’m going to be first in the queue. Everyone had better stay out of my way!

Find out more here: http://kerrywilkinson.com/

Follow the author on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/kerrywk

Purchase Information: https://www.waterstones.com/book/renegade/kerry-wilkinson/9781447235316

Also Available: Read First:

In the village of Martindale, hundreds of miles north of the new English capital of Windsor, sixteen-year-old Silver Blackthorn takes the Reckoning. This coming-of-age test not only decides her place in society – Elite, Member, Inter or Trog – but also determines that Silver is to become an Offering for King Victor.

But these are uncertain times and no one really knows what happens to the teenagers who disappear into Windsor Castle. Is being an Offering the privilege everyone assumes it to be, or do the walls of the castle have something to hide?

Trapped in a maze of ancient corridors, Silver finds herself in a warped world of suspicion where it is difficult to know who to trust and who to fear. The one thing Silver does know is that she must find a way out . .

https://www.waterstones.com/book/reckoning/kerry-wilkinson/9781447235309

Don’t forget you have a chance to win a copy of “Renegade” by following the instructions in the introduction.

Happy Reading Folks!