As I purchased this book online and awaited it’s subsequent delivery, I was already prepared to like it (which is usually the exact opposite of what I expect when I read a new author, because I am pretty picky about how an author writes.) But I know this author. I don’t mean I know her in the way I know Stephen King, having read almost everything he’s ever written. I literally know her. Elly Zupko, author of The War Master’s Daughter, has been a close friend of mine for about 20 years. That she is a talented and creative author with a gifted sense of prose is common knowledge to me. Now, after great effort and determination on the author’s part, the rest of the world can know too.