The long awaited sequel to “The Watcher and The Friend” by R J Barron is published this Friday by Burton Mayers Books. “A Cold Wind Blows” is the second book in the trilogy, The Yngerlande Variations, set in the parallel world of Yngerlande in 1796. Here is the synopsis of the story so far. Warning! Spoiler Alert! Don’t read the summary if you have not yet read the first book and want to do so.
Tom has been summoned to help Silas and his allies defeat the relatives of the old King, Oliver and Jacob, who want to overthrow Queen Matilda and take the country back to a time when racism and discrimination were ever present. His task is made more complicated by the fact that he discovers that his sister, Grace, is alive and well in Yngerlande and is living there as a reward for her service when she was the Friend of Yngerlande. After many adventures and dangerous scrapes, they succeed, and Queen Matilda maintains her rule of peace, love and equality.
In “The Watcher and The Friend”, the first book in the trilogy, thirteen-year-old Thomas Trelawney is spending Christmas at an old Rectory on the North Yorkshire coast. It is the family’s first holiday since the death of Tom’s sister Grace. Here, Tom discovers a portal to another world and travels through it to Yngerlande, in 1795, with his cousin, Dan. Yngerlande is a parallel world to England, but is a much more diverse, equal society.
He meets Silas Cummerbund, who is The Watcher, the mysterious character who guards the portal between the two worlds. He tells Tom that he is the new Friend, the person whose role is to act as the link between the two worlds. This second book continues the story, as Oliver and Jacob return with another attempt to take back the crown of Yngerlande, only this time they are more dangerous and better prepared.
Silas has spent the summer training Princess Gaia, aka Clara to use her magic powers to their full extent, to be ready for any further threats to Yngerlande, but they are taken by surprise by the boldness of Oliver and Jacob’s new plan. A mysterious new character, Shrike, is introduced. He is by turns charming, dangerous, and duplicitous. Whose side is he really on? Even by the end of the book, that question is not clearly answered. One thing is certain, however. Thomas Trelawney is recalled from England to Yngerlande when everything looks lost. He does not trust Shrike, not least because Grace has fallen in love with him. Does Shrike have feelings for her, or is he just playing a clever game for his own ends?
“A Cold Wind Blows” begins eight months later.
The story takes in the wild North York Moors, Runswick Bay, Mulgrave Hall, the crumbling ruins of Hard Crag Towers, with its menagerie of bats, steedwings and owls, and the ancient city of York. It’s full of adventure, peppered with cross dressing, betrayal, vengeance, disguise and murder, with a liberal sprinkling of romance, friendship and love.
This is a must-read YA adventure, that is aimed at everyone from 9 to 90 who loves Fantasy novels. It’s available from the following links:
https://www.waterstones.com/book/a-cold-wind-blows/r-j-barron/9781917224116
https://www.brownsbfs.co.uk/Product/Barron-R-J/A-Cold-Wind-Blows/9781917224116
To buy Book 1, The Watcher and The Friend, use these links. Please note: the Amazon link gives you a free preview, but shows the old cover
https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-watcher-and-the-friend/r-j-barron/9781838345921