The only home Rossamund has ever known is Madam Opera’s Estimable Marine Society for Foundling Boys and Girls. Found on the doorstep with the word assumed to be his name pinned to his blanket, he has suffered torment at the hands of some of the other children and found joy with the adults who have cared for and guided him. But now he is off on an adventure, tapped for the job of Lamplighter in a faraway land. Along the way, however, he gets waylaid, and there starts a grand adventure that begins his new life.

Rossamund’s origin story is part of the Monster Blood Tattoo series, Book One: Foundling, by D. M. Cornish. Cornish vividly creates a fantasy world where monsters lurk, ready to set upon regular folk who aren’t careful. There are also people who dedicate their lives to fighting the monsters, either for pay or self-preservation.

After growing up hearing of these adventures but being safely secluded within the walls of Madam Opera’s, Rossamund is finding out for himself how things really are. And he’s not always sure the stories he was raised on are his best guides for figuring things out.

There are hints that Rossamund is more than an ordinary orphan, and aside from a rather silly mistake he makes at the beginning that had me concerned I may not like him as a protagonist, I really got into the story and the fantasy world that Cornish creates. Each chapter starts with a definition of a type of character and how it fits into the world, and that was enough for me to read the story through. But for anyone who wants to get into the details, there’s an extensive glossary of terms called an Explicarium at the back.

Young fans of J. R. R. Tolkein will undoubtedly find a lot to love in both the story and the fantasy world in Foundling. Other books in the series include Lamplighter and Factotum. I will review each of these in the coming weeks as well as a companion piece, Tales From the Half Continent.

The publisher provided a copy of this title in exchange for my honest review.