TC Ross's Rex Regis Book One of Blackwood

I was impressed with TC Ross’s Rex Regis: Book One of Blackwood and I find myself a bit surprised at that. I grabbed a copy of the book on Kindle Unlimited because I had been urged to by my friends over at Raconteur Press. I knew nothing about the book or it’s author, but I know some of the people who work for Raconteur and I figured that if they recommended the book, it would probably be worth my time. So I picked up a copy and read through the thing in like two days. That’s fast for me. Like, really fast. I couldn’t get my head out of the book because I liked it so much.

BUT…

Rex Regis is a story that starts off with somewhat of a romance feel and that’s not normally my thing. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mean that it’s a romance novel in the sense that there is a bunch of sex, and I’m told that one of the defining traits of romance is a whole lot of woohah in the hoohah. I find though, that the lack of the horizontal lambada actually improves things. Seriously, there are things I’d rather read about than a game of hide the salami and Ross managed to include a bunch of them.

Rex Regis had me engrossed (SCORE!! I JUST USED THE WORD ENGROSSED IN A SENTENCE! Somebody call my English teacher. She’d be so proud!) from beginning to end. I can’t quite figure it out. The first two thirds or three quarters of the book is more relationship- and worldbuilding than anything. That makes sense because it’s the first book in a series, but it turns out that Ross is really good at it.

Within the first couple of chapters I had one guy who appeared to be solid and dependable, but who I could tell was deeper than just stereotypical best friend dude (Bodgan Laird), a woman who was in a situation over her head (Katherine Sideris) and her abusive boyfriend (Nolan Iforgethislastnamebuthedoesn’tdeserveonesowhatever.) and a very messy situation. It’s not really a love triangle in the sense that The Hunger Games is, and it’s nowhere near as tacky as that Twilight trash, but there is a bit of that here, but with a twist.

Oh, wait. Did I say twist? Everything in Rex Regis is a twist. Maybe it just seems like it. Ross did a really good job of giving us things that don’t make sense at first, and then awhile later when you’re thinking about something else, it’s just like “OH WOW. I get it now.” I had to be patient while reading Rex Regis. Everything was explained eventually. It just took awhile to get there.

And for the record, just in case you missed it, I would like to kick Nolan right square in the teeth. While wearing cleats. Made of butcher knives. Or sumfin’. Yeah, he’s That Guy. It’s probably a good thing that he doesn’t actually exist. I might get myself in trouble.

Of course there are more than just those three characters in Rex Regis. Ross has placed a heavy emphasis on family throughout the book. I approve. There’s a lot here that makes sense. Sometimes it’s an older person offering advice. Sometimes it’s a younger person doing something not quite ill-advised but not quite well-advised either. Other times it’s that one buttface family member who won’t mind his business. Toss in a confused father or two and she had me alternately laughing, nodding and frustrated depending on the exact circumstance involved. Seriously, I once praised DT Read for how well she writes family, and I meant it, but Ross might just give her a run for her money.

Ross does description very well. I know that’s not something I usually comment on, but it’s true this time. I usually focus on characters and action (and my own writing suffers from a lack of description for precisely that reason) but there were times when I felt like I was actually there for some of these scenes. I could picture these locations in my mind so well that I feel like I could build the sets for them, given the skills and a big enough budget.

Rex Regis centers around two towns and the people in them. Both towns are full realized with multiple locations that just seem to fit there. The main characters know them well and I got a good chance to get a feel for them even if I only got to see the amount of actual real estate that actually fits into a single book. That’s good though. Ross showed off her towns enough to make them feel lifelike and didn’t get carried away to the point that it got overwhelming.

I don’t want to give too much away here, but there is also a wilderness area that I would very much like to take a hike through. It’s developed slowly throughout the story, but it sounds just gorgeous. It also sounds fascinating. I wish there was a Blackwood theme park because the forest would be an amazing attraction if they did it right. (They’d have to go heavy on the awesome and easy on the kitsch. That wouldn’t be easy.) I’m going to shut up now, at least about the forest.

There is also a lot of the world that still needs exploring. There is an appendix at the end of Rex Regis that covers the existence of certain fictional groups that don’t either don’t appear in the main text or were easy to miss. That’s okay though. This is Book One and, at the end of the day, that’s just another reason to read Book Two.

When the action actually does start though, it goes from zero to ten in about three words or at least it felt like it. It jumped out at just the right time and it was well written. What little violence there was happened in an entertaining and believable manner. Ross also managed to use the fighting to make her good guys gooder and her evil guys eviller and I loved that.

In short, I’ll be picking up the sequel as soon as I can. I’d urge you to get the first one now.

Bottom Line: 5.0 out of 5 Green Eyes

Rex Regis: Blackwood Book One
TC Ross
Self Published, 2024

Rex Regis: Blackwood Book One is available for purchase at the following link. If you click the link and buy literally anything from Amazon I get a small percentage at no additional cost to you.

Rex Regis: Blackwood Book One