📖 Publication Day Book Review ~ 757 by MJ Porter

Boldwood 
22 July 2026

House of Mercia 

My thanks to the publisher for the opportunity to review this book 

This is Mercia. The year is 757. 

A king will fall. A king will rise. 

But first, civil war will rage.

King Æthelbald's forty-year vice-like rule over Mercia has been rigid. But he lacks a legitimate heir despite his insatiable bedchamber antics.

Offa must stand hostage to his family’s good behaviour, when his father missteps in removing his mother from Æthelbald’s bed. Shockingly, his younger sister now replaces her.

But the king isn’t finished with his denigration of Offa’s noble House. When his parents are traitorously killed, Offa’s resentment grows, compounded by the ridicule heaped on him by King Æthelbald’s oathsworn warriors.

With the king’s health deteriorating, the matter of the succession becomes paramount. There are plenty who share a claim to the kingship.Discord threatens to fracture the mighty realm, and those with sword and shield, seax and spear are prepared to risk it all to be the future king of Mercia.

📖 My Review..

Enter the dark ages at your peril and immerse yourself in the England of AD 757 when into the lion’s den court of King Æthelbald comes teenage Offa who, together with his family, is subjected to the aging King’s wrath. Taken hostage, Offa is subjected to systematic humiliation and never ending misery however, over time Offa infiltrates into the kings elite guard of warriors. With daily combat training, with seax and shield, Offa must quietly bide his time until his ordeal is over and he can be restored to his Mercian lands.

As with any new series there is a certain amount of scene setting and we have main characters to get to know which I think the author brings to life with a skilful eye for traits and personality quirks which will be developed more fully as the series progresses. I had to concentrate on people, there are lots of them, and all seem to clamour for attention however, I followed the story with great interest, learning more about this dark time in history which, I have to confess, I knew very little about. In 757 we land directly in a country at war with itself, tribes fight for supremacy in situations where brute force succeeds over diplomacy. Political shenanigans are never far away, with gritty and realistic battle scenes which leave nothing to the imagination, gory and gruesome in places, this is the dark ages in all its demanding glory.

Cleverly written by an author who brings history alive in well researched detail, the story introduces us to the scrabble of 8th century politics and to the emergence of Offa of Mercia. It’s a powerfully immersive story which abounds with intrigue and danger and which transports us back to a dark time when the manifestation of power was forged on the turn of a well-honed seax.

About the Author

MJ Porter is the author of many historical novels set predominantly in Seventh to Eleventh-Century England, and in Viking Age Denmark. They were raised in the shadow of a building that they believed housed the bones of long-dead Kings of Mercia – so their writing destiny was set.

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