As Meat Loves Salt by Maria McCann

Wow! If this book is meat then I don't think salt could make it better, seriously. It has everything you could want from a historical novel - powerful depictions of a country at war; the stench and gore of the battlefield; the heat, excitement and greed of lust; jealousy; doomed love; the strive for power; and a compelling and dangerous love story. Both Jacob and Ferris are complicated and disturbing characters who evoked my sympathy, disgust and confusion but I can't honestly say I particularly liked either of them. Jacob is alternately confused and befuddled by lust and has a violent and uncontrollable violence about him, whereas Ferris appears thoughtful and kind but always with an eye to his own needs and wants. Starting in the midst of the English Civil war when normal, hardworking men went to war against their 'betters', we see, through proud and obsessive Jacob and manipulative Ferris, the horrors of war, the passions of love, the dangers of jealousy that lead ultimately to betrayal and sorrow. Told with great insight and depth of feeling it's the story of a wealth of feelings and emotions felt by one man who, obessed and blinded by love is his own worst enemy. A powerful and passionate love story with a difference that will keep you spellbound and shocked.