Review: worth some patience
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 11, 2014
This is a deep, haunting inspirational fantasy novel, well, somewhere between inspirational fantasy and sweet romance, with dystopian elements thrown in.A small town teacher, Mahrree Peto, is challenged to publicly debate the new fort's commander, Captain Perrin Shin. As they verbally wrangle on the village green's stage, they find a) they like each other and b) they like arguing with each other. But there are dangers in this world, where strange people called Guarders attack villages from the forest, killing and stealing, where it almost seems as if the Guarders know individuals within the village and single them out as targets. What's going on and what's it going to take for the captain to protect his growing family?Some solid writing underlies the story, although a bit of trimming and another proofreading pass wouldn't hurt the text. The characters not only are well constructed, they have that extra something that personality provides. The combination carries the story through the slower parts (where trimming could help it along), making it rather hard to notice the story's slowed until you think on it later.All in all, it's a good story for patient readers. Let's call it four stars.