Creepy Hollow Blog Tour: Book Review of Guardian by Rachel Morgan

Title: Creepy Hollow Series: Book One: Guardian

Author: Rachel Morgan

Publisher: Self-published

Genre: Paranormal/Young Adult

Page Count (e-book): 64

Rating: 4.2 out of 5

Cover Rating: 4.5 out of 5. I love the design, since it's simple and the purple is great contrast. Also, the girl's face seems perfect for the main character.

Blurb:

1. Receive assignment.
2. Save a life.
3. Sleep.
4. Repeat. 

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 one of her assignments—a human boy who shouldn’t even be able to see her—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? But Nate and Vi are about to land themselves in even bigger trouble—and it’ll take all Vi’s training to get them out alive.

My expectations: I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this story. I love reading Rachel Morgan's blog, but blogs and novels/novelettes are different things, and while there are many high-quality self-published books, I had to wonder if this would be one of them. 

Whatever my expectations were, however, Guardian definitely exceeded them.

About the book: Just to demonstrate what I thought of this novelette, one day (soon after I got the ARC) I resolved to read a few pages, as I didn't want to spend long on the computer. I ended up powering through it during that and another sitting.

• Writing:

Short and to the point. There wasn't much in the way of embellishment to the style (such as vivid description), but that seems to be the usual for the Paranormal genre and I think it fit the overall story, especially because novelettes have to be short. I can't recall finding any typos, either, a rare thing for any book--and an excellent one.

• Plot:

With some books it can take 50 pages to reach what Guardian put in on page 5, i.e. this novelette moves fast. There are a good number of twists to the story as well, which I loved.

• Characters:

Vi was determined, capable, and she had a great voice. Nate was sweet, and since the reader knows almost a little about Vi's world as the reader, the dialogue between him and Vi divulged information about the world without being an info dump and helped flesh the two out.

• Setting/Elements:

The world is a fascinating one. It plays on the usual faerie surroundings such as the Seelie and Unseelie Court (the Unseelie being evil), but there are unique details as well that help set it apart.

Content: Some violence, kissing. Nothing I'd really raise a flag over.

Other: I'll admit, I haven't read too many novelettes, and those were in a Science Fiction anthology. But the length works in Guardian's favor here, and since so many people are migrating over to e-readers and the like, shorter stories will probably find a much larger audience than they could have before.

Do I recommend this book? If you want a quick and entertaining Paranormal read, I highly recommend this book. The characters, plot, and efficient writing style make Guardian a great choice for those in the mood for a well-told adventure (with a bit of romance, too).

**********

Thanks to Rachel for providing me an ARC to review!

**********

~  ~  ~

Rachel Morgan is the author of Guardian, the first novelette in the Creepy Hollow series. She was born in South Africa and spent a large portion of her childhood living in a fantasy land of her own making. These days, in between teaching mathematics to high school children, she writes fiction for young adults.

Buy Guardian from

Amazon US | Amazon UK | Smashwords

The Creepy Hollow Series

Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Book Trailer

Author Info

Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Google+

And before you go, Rachel is also hosting a giveaway of a copy of Guardian. Enter below: