Jules Watson's SONG OF THE NORTH in Publishers Weekly

Publishers Weekly offers early praise for Song of the North, a new novel by Jules Watson, coming in January 2008. Watson is the author of The White Mare and The Dawn Stag, both published by Overlook. From the review: "Archeologist Watson concludes her popular Dalriada trilogy (after The Dawn Stag and The White Mare), with another richly imagined and action packed saga. Watson’s heroine, Minna, is a nursemaid for a Roman family living south of Hadrian’s Wall that separates Roman Britannia from barbarian Alba (present-day Scotland). A half-caste with “unnatural eyes and strange ways,” Minna runs away after the death of her beloved grandmother. Traveling north where her brother serves with the legions, Minna is captured by slave traders and sold into slavery. Her new owner, Queen Maeve, the wife of King Cahir of Dalriada—one of the tribal kingdoms of Alba—assigns her “to tutor royal children.” King Cahir soon realizes that the new tutor is a “‘sign of the prophecy’” that it is his destiny to “free Alba of Rome.” King Cahir forges an alliance among the usually fractious northern tribes and marches south to confront the Romans. Standing in their way are the hated Roman legions, their despised Wall, Minna’s split allegiance to her Roman roots and her captors, and treachery among Cahir’s family and allies. Watson’s work is as inventive, eloquent and exotic as ever; her fans will relish this rousing conclusion."