The Fallen Guardian was an okay read. There was a lot of information upfront. I couldn't get through all of it.

This felt unfinished; if its part of a larger series it should be integrated into the next book to provide a complete narrative. Unsatisfying

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to review a copy of The Fallen Guardian by Anthony Chaveleh.

To be honest, I picked this book because dragons. I love books with dragons in them, unfortunately, I never made it past the prologue because between the map, pronunciations, and the massive info dump in the beginning it felt like my brain was going to be fried.

If you love info dumps more than dragons read this book, if you love dragons more than info dumps than maybe skip something at the beginning.

3 ⭐

DNF @ 67%
The cover is so stunning, and the blurb made it seem interesting. But the story did not hold up. The writing was awkward and boring.

this was a good read, there were some format issues but I enjoyed the plot of the book and the cover was really nicely done.

thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a free ebook in exchange for an honest review! this has not affected my review in any way, all opinions are mine.

No Rating If Possible — Did Not Finish

while i initially picked up this book because i was intrigued by the blurb, i quickly came to realize that it was not going to live up to expectations. the writing style was clunky, and i felt so little attachment to the characters or world. it became tedious to pick up, so i chose to dnf it instead, which is a shame because the idea had potential.

The eARC was provided to me by Netgalley.

At first, I was super excited to read the book because I was really intrigued with the synopsis. However, due to poor execution, I sadly now have a 1-star rating 🥲 I almost, almost, almost DNFed it. But look how much time I already took to finish this 😂 I also have no more interest in reading the rest of the series 🥲 Others might enjoy it, but this one isn’t for me, sadly.

I unfortunately had to DNF this book as I just couldn't get into it. The writing style is not to my taste, and there was a lot of info dumping at the start that was hard to get through. I love the premise but just couldn't get into the story. That's not to say others wouldn't enjoy it though! It's just not for me

I received “The Fallen Guardian” by Anthony Chaveleh as an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

With the cover and the description, the book drew me in, but that’s unfortunately where it ended. Honestly, I could not keep reading this book and DNF-ed pretty quickly because of the writing. I could not get invested into the characters and found I didn’t quite like them. Also, the biggest problem for me was that the writing did not flow well, I found the voice of the characters to be a little irritating, and felt like it didn’t vary much throughout the first few chapters/sections. I didn’t make it far enough to really say much about potential, just that it might be for someone out there, but it wasn’t my cup of tea.

Is this a joke? This is so bad. There's no way I could read the whole thing, I barely got through the first couple percent... The writing is not YA at all, much more adult, and there's a lot of infordumping right from the start which is just annoying. I really can't read a letter more.

This review is being provided in exchange for an electronic copy of the book provided by netgalley.com

This is not a book - it is the first part of a serial. I am accustomed to books that reach a climax in the plot and then come to a denouement, but this never reaches that point; the volume ends before the climax, and there is no resolution, just a note to join the author in the next volume. It was, at best, disappointing to reach the end of the book and have it just... stop... in mid-plot. This is not the common resolution followed by a lead-in to a sequel, which is bad enough in a first novel by an author (assuming that the book is good enough to guarantee a sequel); rather, it is an incomplete novel that stops before completion. As I approached the end of the book, I kept wondering how the author would complete the story in the pages remaining; the answer was, he didn't.

Added to the problems caused by the volume ending with no resolution is Chaveleh's writing style, which is somewhat abrupt and choppy, with a stilted style and some consistent errors in past tense verbs, which are distracting and make it appear that the author either needs a good editor or may not be a native speaker of English who has translated the text either while or after writing it. I had hoped, upon reading the first part, that the writing style was intended to indicate the change between narrators, as this book is told by its two main characters, but the writing style did not change significantly between Calig and Reth; it was only possible to tell the two characters apart because of the chapter headings, which stated which character was the current focus.

These issues are disappointing because this is an interesting story involving magic, dragons, mystery, and sudden changes that keep the story itself interesting. Calig is a lord whose primary job is to guard one of the passages to the Turmoil, a region magically protected to keep dragons within it, so that they won't ravage humanity and the environment in their never-ending war against each other; his immediate quest is to track down several dragons who have escaped the Turmoil and return them. Like many people born to privilege in a caste-based society, he appears to be somewhat stuck up and opinionated, although this impression changes as the reader gets to know him better. Reth is an orphan who loses his memory at the beginning of the book, while on a quest that he can't remember, who is being targeted by evil magicians who use umber, a substance that can infect people, animals, and even plants, and turn them into mindless zombies that seek to spread umber further - and that's just the beginning of what umber does. Like Calig, Reth evolves throughout the novel based on his experiences within the story. Their separate quests ultimately lead them toward each other, and possibly toward an ultimately mutual goal. It's really too bad that a potentially good novel is plagued with the issues noted above.

I’d like to start by thanking Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for allowing me an arc of this book.

The premise of this book was the main reason I requested it, and I wasn’t disappointed with its outcome. I enjoyed the story and the world building was good too! It was a bit wordy in places, sometimes there was a lot being said that didn’t necessarily need to be said, but I don’t think it detracted all that much from the overall read. I think the pacing in places was a little off, but it wasn’t enough to take away from the enjoyment of the book.

I’d recommend this to reader of YA or those new to the fantasy genre.

My thanks to Netgalley and the author for a complementary copy of this book. I was attracted to the premise of a quest with dragons lurking, but found that the plot lagged and the prose was much too wordy. The story has promise. Perhaps in the hands of a creative editor the length can be adjusted to enhance the forward movement of the tale. It takes too long to get the dragons involved and that is the major draw.

The Fallen Guardian follows Reth and Calig on their journey to vanquish an ancient evil that threatens life as they know it. The story itself is alright; there are some good ideas sprinkled throughout the book, but I couldn’t get into the story as much as I would have liked. The author’s prose is decent; however, I found a notable amount of repetition of unimportant aspects that deterred from the plot and the pacing dragged in some instances when there wasn’t content that moved the story forward, in my opinion. Overall the story is easy to follow which is good for a YA novel, and I enjoyed how the author chose to distinguish the chapters, i.e.; “Reth’s First Chapter,” “Calig’s First Chapter,” and so on.

The Fallen Guardian takes the reader on a fanciful journey with the age-old premise of good versus evil as it’s backbone. A young prince must step up to the plate to take his father’s place and along with that comes the mantle of responsibility that finds friction with the desires of youth. While it wasn’t unenjoyable, I found it lingered too much on details which added a bit of weight to the story. Who should read it: people who enjoyed Serpent and Dove may enjoy this book.

I wanted to much to enjoy this book but ultimately I felt that I could not connect to the narrative or the story. I was about 45% through and decided that this wasn't for me.

This isn't to say that there won't be an audience out there. This has potential to be big, but it just wasn't for me.