*ARC kindly given by @netgalley for my honest opinion.*

"The Shield Breaker" by Scott Beckman is an exhilarating fantasy adventure that delivers on both action and character depth. Beckman's vivid world-building and well-crafted plot keep the reader engaged from beginning to end. With its intriguing protagonist and high-stakes conflicts, "The Shield Breaker" offers a thrilling ride for fans of epic fantasy looking for a new hero to root for.

I wanted to enjoy The Shield Breaker so badly. It sounded so interesting, but perhaps I wasn't the right audience for this post-apocalyptic urban fantasy book. From reading the summary I was intrigued by the notion of survivors hiding under a magic dome and our protagonist learning forbidden magic. I mean who can't get enough of learning how to use magic? Harry Potter is my favorite read after all! But Harry Potter this was not. It was closer to The Hunger Games and Divergent.

The plot was captivating and the tension was written and sustained well - but the main character Cait annoyed the hell out of me. I thought she was a bit of a spoiled brat and had nothing to really complain about really and there were times when it was hard to root for her. I just didn't care about her. It was a bit like how I felt about Bella in Twilight. I was there for the plot rather than wanting to know everything I could about the main characters.

As a result, I gave this book 3 out of 5. I would consider reading the next one but I think there needs to be some major character development. If you enjoyed Divergent and post-apocalyptic novels and magic then I would recommend this book.

I received a copy of this ARC thanks to Netgalley in trade for a fair and honest review.

-- I received a free review copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for a honest review. --

I felt very neutral about this book until about 90% in. I'm really curious to see what happens next, and will likely pick up the second book at some point.
I can't quite put the finger on what my problem was, but I just could not get into the story. The characters are not very well developed, and are therefore rather two dimensional. I feel like there's potential there, and am curious to see how this author develops further.

This book had so many elements that I loved, I just felt they could have been approached differently at times. Overall though, this was a fun, rather quick read, and I would recommend it for fans of The Black Magician trilogy!

My thanks to NetGalley and Scott Beckman for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What is it about?

Cait is a 15-year-old girl who wants nothing more than to learn magic so that she can be the one to repair the world which was destroyed by others who wielded such powerful magic. She lives in what may be the only place where humanity has survived; a small portion of Denver, Colorado shielded by magic. Cait is about to find out that they aren't the only ones who survived after all. 

Was it good?

The story was interesting, and I was surprised by the big showdown. The main reason I didn't rate this higher is because I didn't like Cait. She is only 15, but she was annoying. She's fed, warm, dry, safe, clean, loved, and unhappy because her parents don't want her to learn magic for very valid reasons. Magic is what destroyed the world and so her whining and complaining and thievery and poor justifications for her actions made it difficult to sympathize with her.

The protagonist, Cait, lives in an enclave protected by the powerful magic-wielding Vitoria after magic destroyed the world 15 years before. Cait believes she has what it takes to become a great wizard as well, but her parents forbid her from pursuing this desire of hers after seeing how magic destroyed their lives and killed those closest to them. When another wizard of sorts begins appearing to Cait and helping her learn magic on her own, she has to decide who she is willing to trust and learns there is a much more to the story then she thought.

I really enjoyed this book. I found the characters engaging and the plot really interesting. My caveat is that I do not feel like the author went into enough depth about why most of the population was killed and the formation of the enclave and what had taken place since. It gave some vague ideas but I did not get a concrete view. Thus, I found I had a lot of unanswered questions at the end. It would have been nice for Cait to cover a little more of the history.

Overall though it was a great YA dystopian and I would happily read the next book in the series since I am anxious to learn what happens next in Cait's story!

I thank the netgalley website and the author for the partnership.

I was immediately attracted by the cover, we see the beautiful Cait who is part of the survivors of magic that destroyed the world. Her dream to leave this shield to explore the ruins and allow the survivors to rebuild themselves, but without magic impossible and she can not learn to use it. Except that outside the shield, she will meet a wizard who will teach him.

A post-apocalyptic book read in one go, I loved the captivating story filled with suspense and twists. I love the pen of the author who is addictive. Eager to read what follows.

After the war all the known survivors live under a shield cast by a spell to protect them, using magic to keep them alive., Cait's parents decide that magic is not something they want her to learn. But that doesn't stop her especially when a stranger appears offering to teach her the magic she has been denied to learn her whole life. This stranger has plans of their own wanted to use Cait to help them get rid of the current ruler under the shield. This is an interesting story about a hard-headed girl who doesn't really enjoy rules and decided she no longer wants to follow them. Cait is a little frustrating because she doesn't really think about consequences. It's a good story but I wish the story was more from Cait's point of view and not 3rd person.

I received this book from the publisher via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

I found the concept not as good as I hoped, to be honest. For a start we never get a good reason why the infiltrators are trying to do everything they do. We get some, but nowhere near enough. Plus we don’t get any history of what happens outside the enclave since it went up, and I feel that would have lent the book a depth it desperately needs.

The overall story line is a relatively interesting concept, I just wanted more from it.

Cait is an annoying, selfish and shallow main character whose motivations changed by the page, and I couldn’t connect with her at all. I do like, however, Cait’s feelings about trying to understand the truth, and doubting what she’s been told. I can understand her basic thought process, and that she’s not sure what the right thing to do is. I just can’t understand that she’s so all over the place and every time someone tells her something she just goes “oh yeah, how true, that must mean you’re good” and then the same when the next person contradicts it five seconds later.

A lot of the characters felt very two dimensional as well - her dad flip flops on opinions and being nice to being angry. The bad guys were doing the worlds worst job of pretending to be nice, and helpful, and frankly Cait is an idiot for falling for it. Vitoria was probably the best, at least seeming consistent if not always honest.


***
Note that due to the poor review, I will not be cross posting this to my blog.

I received a copy of this book for a fair and honest review. Magic caused a war and now people how dangerous magic is. Wizards have to keep this under control and monitored. Cait wants to learn magic and wants to escape the prison that she has known all of her life. When a book of magic comes into her possession. She is secret teaching herself magic. So is betrayal by a friend enough to stop her from her dreams of magic and escaping her prison? You will have to read it and find out for yourself.

Fantastic YA epic. Can’t wait till the next one. I want to see how they are going to reconcile the cost of saving what is left of a decimated world. This review is via NETGALLEY.

If you’re looking for a Teen/YA novel filled with magic, compelling characters, and a story with so many questions propelling the story forward that you don’t want to put the book down, then The Shield Breaker is one you definitely want to pick up!

The main character, Cait, seems to be the only person in the entire enclave (a safe space protected by a powerful wizard since the wizard war destroyed the world) questioning whether the shield that protects them from the dangers lurking outside their city is actually keeping the monsters out… or keeping everyone else in. She feels like a prisoner, even though she was born in the Enclave. She has an overprotective father that seems to disagree with everything about Cait – the way she thinks, the things she does, her desire to learn magic – it makes you question whether he even loves his daughter. You can’t help but feel for her and understand her desire to get away just because of this one relationship (which is more complicated than it seems at first).

The story really begins when Cait and her best friend find a hole in the shield, and Cait tries to get through… but something or someone was waiting and tries to pull her to the outside world. She escapes, but the stranger leaves a magic book behind and suddenly Cait’s entire world becomes a lot bigger. She begins to question everything…who is Vitoria, really? Can she trust the strange wizard she met and her promises for something more than this life? Is magic really good? Is it really bad?

There are so many intriguing story lines in The Shield Breaker, that you continue to read it despite a few clunky sentences toward the beginning of the novel. As the book goes on, the sentence structure evens out and stops being an issue; however, there were some typos that stuck out to me.

I’d definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys young adult fantasy with lots of twists!

Do you plan on reading or have you read The Shield Breaker? What do you think? What intrigue’s you about this book or are there similar books out there you’d recommend based on this one? Let me know!

THANK YOU TO NETGALLEY AND THE AUTHOR, SCOTT BECKMAN, FOR PROVIDING ME WITH A COPY OF THE SHIELD BREAKER IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW.

First and foremost, I would like to thank NetGalley and the author, Scott Beckman, for the opportunity to read this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

One of the fun thing about this book was that it was sent directly to my Kindle, and I can take notes on it. Some of the concepts and ideas were a bit hard to follow at first, but were explained later, so I am going to write about some of the things I noticed about this book full of magic. But first...

This book is about Cait, a girl who lives in a post-apocalyptic world in which magic was its downfall. Now there are a few wizards, but magic is so dangerous, wizards need to be trained and kept in check. When Cait finds a book of magic, she teaches herself with the guidance of a spectral wizard against the wishes of her own city's guiding wizard.

Vitoria, the guiding wizard of Denver, finds that Cait's meddling with another wizard is dangerous and that she should not meddle with this outsider again. This other wizard tells Cait all of these horror stories about Vitoria. But who is telling the truth? Who should she choose to guide her magic training? Who can be believed?

With only the Shield to protect the city from the devastation of the outside world, Cait has some serious choices to make.

One of the main aspects of this novel is that the main city's name is Denver. I don't recall the book ever explicitly saying that it is the same Denver we know in Colorado, but perhaps this is a potential future to our society where magic becomes prominent and deadly. The other thing it reminded me of was The Maze Runner series' The Death Cure and how the main city is Denver. Why is Denver such a popular place for post-apocalyptic settings? Another thing that actually reminded me of The Maze Runner series were these creatures called vorazi, described in a way that is reminiscent of Cranks, but later we learn even more about these creatures that separates them from that type of "undead," as it were.

In this world, technology once used to be a prominent thing. Now generators are run by magic from the few wizards living in the city. People live in tends strewn about as various communities. Cancer is as real as ever. And there are different types of wizards. Some can see through the eyes of animals while others can control minds.

I find Cait to be a pretty interesting character, although her internal conflict doesn't seem too strong about some of the choices she makes. When a friend tells on her, she seems to be mad for too short a time. With this in mind, the end leaves room for some fun character and relationship development, as well as opening up to a longer adventure for Cait, so that will be fun to read.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this book and read it pretty fast compared to some other books I have picked up recently. It's not too complicated, and things get explained more than once, which seems warranted for some of the more complex ideas that might not stick in the reader's head right away. I would definitely recommend this for readers 12-18 (or anyone who loves a good story about magics and wizards in a post-apocalyptic world), and I find that the next book will be even more fast-paced and exciting than the first!