Skin By: Ilka Tampke

Skin By: Ilka Tampke 

Review

I would first like to thank the lovely people over at Hodderscape UK Publishing house, who kindly believed in a small blogger and sent this stunning copy to me for review.

Plot: 

"For the people of Caer Cad, ‘skin’ is their totem, their greeting, their ancestors, their land.

Ailia does not have skin. Abandoned at birth, she serves the Tribequeen of her township. Ailia is not permitted to marry, excluded from tribal ceremonies and, most devastatingly, forbidden to learn. But the Mothers, the tribal ancestors, have chosen her for another path."(Goodreads)

Characters: 

• Ailia- She is someone who is very well spirited and head strong. Ailia's head strong nature gave me a good laugh and allowed me to connect to her and fall in love with her character. Born with no skin, Ailia is a quirky and fun character; with a well rounded personality.
• CookMother- The loving and kind backbone to Ailia and her childhood. She took in Ailia as a child and raised her as her own in the kitchens working for the Tribequeen and towns people. She is that heartwarming and motherly character that every novel needs in order to thrive!
• Taliesin- One of the love interests, with a mystic past. He is stuck in the Mother's world where Ailia should not be able to go, I know this sounds like a very trope heavy novel and character set I can assure you it is not. He is a man of his word, who has fallen for Ailia and will not give up unless forced. Great character!
• Ruther- Headstrong, Roman supporter. He is the second man Ailia has fallen for, however he is not as well fleshed out as Taliesin but in the end he was still an entertaining voice to the story.
• Each character is well thought out and executed with the utmost care in these novels, each has a redeeming quality and some qualities that will make your skin crawl.

 Writing: 

1. I loved the writing in this book, it is a simpler style of writing that allows you to focus on the characters and world Tampke is crafting around us.
2. Setting is her strong point, the Mother's world blew me away because I was able to envision it all.

General Thoughts: 

• This series will take off as soon as more people begin to read it! So, GO PICK IT UP!
• The UK cover is STUNNING!
• The names will take some time to acclimate to, however when you catch onto them you will never forget these characters in their world.
• Skin is a beginning to a series, however even if you aren't looking for a series I feel you can stop after book one if you do not like it, it does not leave you desperately hanging. Which is a good thing as many books seem to just run out of ink and cut off in the middle of a scene; however this one leaves you satisfied yet still curious.

Rating: ****/***** 

4/5 stars

General Copy Information:

ISBN: 978-1-473-61642-4

BookDepository Link

Copyright: Hodder & Stoughton UK

Book Two The Daughter of Albion, comes out on April 19th 2016! With the publisher of Thomas Dunne Books.

Thank you once again Hodderscape!

Keep an eye out for anything by Ilka Tampke, she is going to take off in the bookish world!