**QWERTY**

The Faerie Guardian by Rachel Morgan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Protecting humans from dangerous magical creatures is all in a day’s work for a faerie training to be a guardian. Seventeen-year-old Violet Fairdale knows this better than anyone—she’s about to become the best guardian the Guild has seen in years. That is, until a cute human boy who can somehow see through her faerie glamour follows her into the fae realm. Now she’s broken Guild Law, a crime that could lead to her expulsion.
The last thing Vi wants to do is spend any more time with the boy who got her into this mess, but the Guild requires that she return Nate to his home and make him forget everything he’s discovered of the fae realm. Easy, right? Not when you factor in evil faeries, long-lost family members, and inconvenient feelings of the romantic kind. Vi is about to find herself tangled up in a dangerous plot—and it’ll take all her training to get out alive.
[This novel was originally published in four separate parts: Guardian, Labyrinth, Traitor and Masquerade. It includes bonus scenes at the end that were not published in the individual parts.] Purchase The Faerie Guardian: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Smashwords

Brace yourself (I'm saying that a lot lately maybe because it's almost winter), this is my first ever blog tour in which I will post my review of the book! I know I haven't been a good tour host before. Somehow, the books always ended up getting less than 3-stars or I have no time to review them. :(

Anyway, here's my review for magical The Faerie Guardian;

Review
Another faerie book. Just what I need because I know I haven't read enough of good faerie books. :P

Firstly, can I just quickly comment on the blurb. "That is, until a cute human boy who can somehow see through her faerie glamour follows her into the fae realm.". A cute human boy? Well...on normal days, I would just forget about the book straight away if I came across the words 'a cute human boy'. I don't know...it sounds...shallow?

Anyway, to be honest it was really hard not to compare The Faerie Guardian to The Iron King by Julie Kagawa. Quoting my dear GR friend, Rebecca, indeed it could be The Iron Fey in reverse. Haha. But fret not, only the initial plot outline is similar to The Iron King and all the details are sufficiently different.

The first part of the book was really amazing in my perspective. I even thought that Violet is a better heroine than Meghan. I can connect with her in so many ways, her ambitious, over-achiever personality. In short, she is tough inside and out, practical, determined but she also has the right amount of badassery. If I were to pick my dream cast for Violet, I'd pick Lindsey Stirling. I know she's not an actress but I think she can capture that agility and liveliness in Violet. Plus, she has the right size. :P

The incredible violist, Lindsey Stirling

Nate was introduced as this charming guy next door. Violet was assigned to kill a reptiscilla who I don't know...trying to kill Nate perhaps. But somehow, Nate can see Violet even with her glamour on and to make matter worse, he accidentally followed Violet to the fey realm. I think Nate handled himself really well in the fey realm. He reacted just the way I would imagine a high school guy would react. :) I particularly like this quote from him;

"Squeeze as hard as you need to,' he says. "But just you know, if there's any blood involved I'll probably pass out."

*Squeals* Come on! How often do you find guys that honest?'

***Spoilers ahead***

But towards the end of Part 1, I think the relationship between Violet and Nate grew too fast, it was borderline insta-love. They survived the attack from a power hungry faerie, Zell, and voila, they make out in Nate's backyard (or was it front yard?) Moreover, just in a matter of minutes, Violet changed her mind from wanting to give Nate the potion to refusing to give him the potion AND agreeing to the idea of finding Nate's mom. All in one night. And this is Violet we're talking about here, Violet who once thought getting the top spot in her training as her mission in life.

In Part Two, Violet went on a quest to find Nate's mother. Unbelievably, she went to the extent of breaking more rules for Nate. Although there were still actions offered in Part Two, I liked it less than Part One. First, because of the reason I mentioned earlier, I still couldn't believe Violet would do such things. Second, the plot went very linear and one-dimensional. But I adore the history of the halflings. I think this is the redeeming quality of Part 2. :)

The momentum was plunging down even more with the start of Part 3. It's kind of expected as the book was indeed originally written as four separate novellas. I regain my fangirlsm at Violet a bit when she gave the goblin other option apart from death. The plot continues to plateau as Violet is back for the training. I may interject here that I like the spontaneity in the writing. For example, this line here;

"The fish bowl is an enormous orb that shimmers in the far corner of the training Center. It had another name once, but it's been called the Fish Bowl for so long that not even the mentors remember the original name."

I bet most of the authors would pick a fancy name for the Fish Bowl and mention that the name originated from a historical event or a legendary person etc. :P

The rest of Part 3 quickly picks up afterwards. More actions, more adventure, and most importantly, a big twist. Like, really, really big. You have to read it twice, thrice, fice (okay, that didn't work) just to make sure you read it correctly.

Part 4 makes up almost the second half of the book and this is where the story turns unexpectedly. It's really hard to describe it without giving anything away. Safe to say that from this point on, you wouldn't even remember that this book reminds you of The Iron King at the beginning. But for me, the characterizations weren't perfect. Ryn acted like a fairy version of Daemon Black from the Lux series. I find his reason to be mean to Violet as very immature and unreasonable and his character didn't improve significantly even after he gets to know Violet better in this part of the book.

The climax was...well, too planned, I guess? Violet and Ryn broke into Zell's underground prison and somehow Zell gladly told almost everything about the prison's secrets, the metal around the door is to prevent magic from outside...all the people in there have special abilities etc. Besides, the end was very loosely wrapped. There are still too many questions that were left unanswered, it kind of made this read a little less rewarding for me. The bonus chapters? Hmm...they weren't contributing much to the story either. Yea, we learn more about Ryn and Nate but as I said before, these chapters didn't really add much to the existing plotline.

***Spoilers finished***

My favourite character is none other than Filigree. Not a single line was spoken by him but his dynamic personality easily won me over (keep in mind that I said 'dynamic :P)

To sum it up, if I read The Faerie Guardian a year ago, I wouldn't hesitate to give it five brilliant stars but as I've read many other fresh, imaginative YA reads this year, The Faerie Guardian falls a little short in making a lasting impression on me because it simply is not unique enough. But of course, it has all the ingredients to be a fun, quick, enjoyable read for all YA fans out there especially for those who like fairies. :) A solid four stars from me!

I received the ARC from the author in exchange for an honest review.

View all my reviews

Character Spotlight:

Ladies, hold your breath because I was chosen to spotlight NATE!


Name: Nate
Age: 17
Family: Father and step-mother. No siblings.
Likes: Xbox, movies, running, computer games, hanging out with friends.
Dislikes: spinach (does anyone actually really like that stuff?), guys at the gym who stare at themselves in the mirror, conflict.
Current life status: High school senior
Current purpose in life: Uh ... graduate high school?
Plans for the future: Off to college to study Chemistry (I’m smarter than I look, okay!)
Special skills: Does dragging myself out of beg at 5 a.m. every morning to go running count? It should.
Anything else you’d like to add: I’m not the most popular guy in school, but I’m not the least popular either. I take my studies seriously, but I also like to think I’m a pretty laid back kinda person. Oh, and freaky stuff like magic? Well, it’s cool in computer games, but there’s no way it’s actually real, right?

Excerpt:

Yup! I tend to be a little overexpressive. Heee

Full Tour Schedule:
Mon 5 Nov
Loves 2 Read ~ Review & Giveaway
Refracted Light ~ Interview with Vi & Ryn 
Walking on Bookshelves ~ Review & Excerpt 

Tues 6 Nov
The Book Hookup ~ Spotlight on Violet
Simply Sensational Book Fanatics ~ Review

Wed 7 Nov
**Qwerty** ~ Spotlight on Nate
erica and christy ~ Meet The Author (Virtually)

Thurs 8 Nov
Cherie Reads ~ Review
Read Review Smile ~ Review, Interview, Giveaway
Camille Picott ~ Review

Fri 9 Nov
Worlds Away Book Blog ~ Spotlight on Ryn
Better Read Than Dead ~ Review & Spotlight on Tora

Rachel Morgan was born in South Africa and spent a large portion of her childhood living in a fantasy land of her own making. After completing a degree in genetics, she decided science wasn’t for her—after all, they didn’t approve of made-up facts. These days she spends much of her time immersed in fantasy land once more, writing fiction for young adults. The Creepy Hollow Series Amazon|Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Book Trailer Rachel's LinksBlog | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Google+