Jarren Heartwood has had a hard life. His father disappeared at the time of his birth; his mother is killed in front of him when he's 10, and he is left to fend for himself. Taken in for training by the Shadow Academy, Jarren is trained for the next 7 years to become an elite assassin - all the driven to gain the skills he needs to gain revenge against the flares who tortured and killed his mother, using the magic focused through the gems in their scepters to do so.

Because of his difficult life, Jarren is a difficult person; he trusts no one, and his driven only by his desire for revenge. He strives to be the best, because only the best assassin will be able to manage the revenge that drives him. He is surrounded by enemies, both within the Shadow Academy and outside it. His world is dying from an ecological and magical malaise, but no one believes it's happening; the "Rot" is dismissed as a fairy tale on all sides.

This is an interesting story, and overall I enjoyed it; however, it was marred by a somewhat stilted writing style that seemed to get even more stilted as the book proceeded, and made the writing somewhat hard to follow on occasion. There were a few fight scenes that were described in rather more detail than necessary, as if the author were attempting to get to a certain length, and padded fight scenes to make the book longer. I would like to see more of Jarren, but I do hope that any future volume would be better edited.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Thank you <i>Netgalley</i>, <i>Nirwood Publishing</i> and author D.K. Hansen for providing me a review copy of this book.
I found the writing very intriguing from the beginning, very much action-packed. The introduction was enough captivating to immerse you in the world straight away. However, the reason why I gave it a 3 star, more like a 3.75 star is mainly because I didn't find it as catchy in the middle as it was in the beginning, things started becoming a bit repetitive, or maybe it seemed to me cause they were always fighting. And the love interest is something that actually didn't make any sense to me, the relationship appeared to be so much underdeveloped, abrupt and unnecessary, there were several mentions of Jarren remembering her, but as a reader, I truly failed to make anything out of it even though I tried hard to connect to it. Maybe it is written this way since the author has written most parts skipping some of the events and though I see many people complaining about this, that was absolutely okay for me as long as the author didn't try to make their relationship paint with the same brush. To make the long story short, skipping many of the pedantic details made the story fast-paced which is great but at the same time in some parts, although very few, it failed to make the point.
Another important thing I would like to point out is that the fighting at the end didn't sound to me as serious as it should have been. Maybe because we have been witnessing this kind of fighting for a long time, or maybe it should have been a bit more detailed or figurative.
Nevertheless, I would have given this book a five-star if it just focused on these issues, because there is no denying I enjoyed reading it, at least the first half. This might have been the best book out there if gone through several edits. All I felt is this only needed a meticulous editor, nothing else.

Read as far as I could over months. I realize that reading is a subjective experience, but for me,, on the sentence-by-sentence level as well as character and story level, I kept being thrown out, thinking that this was a book in desperate need of a better editor.

Because I could not finish it I would rather not slang it with a review outside NetGalley. I hope it finds its audience.

I'd like to thank Netgalley and Nirwood Publishing for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Great book and I can't wait to see where it goes from here. This book has an interesting plot and characters who stick with you and leave you wanting to know more about them. The details in the story are thorough and you can see yourself in Jarren's world. The book has a great flow to it and the action helps to move it alone and keeps it interesting.

This book does end in a cliffhanger which is always frustrating so I can't wait for the next book to come out. If you are a fantasy lover this would be a great book to pick up.

Thanks, Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review.
This is the first novel I read from the author and it was a fantastic read. You share Jarren's life from his birth to his time when he's a young man. It's true that his coming of age and training period in the Shadow Academy is skipped and I pretty much wanted to see at least a few chapters of his time in there, but I guess that would've made the book bigger, which isn't a bad thing. Jay Kristoff's Empire of the Vampire is a real proof for that, but as the author's first novel, I guess it's fine the way it is. Jarren is the kind of protag that you learn to love, respect, partially criticize, simply because he's not a stranger to darker thoughts and motives born from suffering, and in the same time his longing to see the light for himself and live a better life, thorough the noble wish to do the right thing not only for himself, but for everyone else. A fantastic read I really recommend and can't wait to read the other books in the series.

i was expecting this to be a middle grade/YA in a magical school but that only lasted for about 100 pages. we start off with jarren being a 10 year old kid basically fending for himself, but there’s a lot of time skips in the assassin academy leading him to be 17 … and then things get a little weird. overall, i loved the epic fantasy plot but the characters (especially jarren’s motivation) just weren’t it to me.

jarren:

- “i’ll never share my emotions” & keeps sharing his emotions
- “i’ll never trust anyone” & trusts everyone
- “i’ll never hurt anyone” & hurts everyone
- “i’ll never let this woman humiliate me again” & then goes to her room to do the dirty with someone at least twice his age (seriously why wasn’t she stated to be like 20 … he’s just 17 and she sounds old enough to be his mom and i feel bad for both of them because he’s a child that doesn’t know how to do anything that involves emotions)
- thinks a girl is “clearly interested” when she just does her job and asks him what he’s ordering
- zero desire to help other people … unless he wants to sleep with them
- “he would have felt sorry for having hit such a beautiful woman” because beauty is the only reason not to hit people

the plot is fun (especially the assassin academy!! but that only lasts for about 30%) but jarren wasn’t a fun character to follow for me. i can get behind his quest for revenge, but he’s way more obnoxious, judgmental, and hypocritical than he needs to be. levina though …. stunning. the other characters don’t have a ton of substance, but i love what we got of alec as a mentor.


i was surprisingly interested throughout the whole story, but every time tara showed up i wanted jarren to get just a little common sense. he’s spent probably 2 hours sleeping with her over a period of months (again when he’s 17 and she’s like his mom), and has had more conversations with literal horses in this book, but yet he places her on the same pedestal as the people he’s loved for years. the theme of love over vengeance just didn’t make sense when these characters clearly don’t care about each other.

ARC provided by publisher-Nirwood Publishing-in exchange for an honest review.

First of all, I just want to thank the publisher of this book who gave me an opportunity to review this book. I really appreciate it. Thank you once again.

Jarren Heartwood is the first book in the Quadrant Of Balance book series by the author D.K. Hansen.


On Natgalley website, I was looking for an ARC to read and review. There, I saw this book. The cover attracted me, and as I read its blurb, it piqued my interest. That is how I laid my hands upon this book. I requested for it, and the publisher gave me an opportunity to read and review it.

Let's talk about the cover of this book. The cover is very beautiful. I think, the cover is the only reason I am reviewing this book. And look there in the cover, a boy has a dagger in his left hand and a curved knife in his right. That's quite the thing to notice, because the appearance of Jarren Heartwood in the cover really matches with the description in the book. In the past, I have read some books which have different images on covers from the descriptions in the books, but here is nothing like that.

This book has all the intresting things. There are assassins, wizards that are called flares and holy worriors. It is the story of a very young man named Jarren Heartwood, main character of the book, who decides to take his revenge of her mother's death from her killers. His mother is killed when he is just 10 years old and he becomes an orphan who roams around the city in search of food and shelter because his home is no more his, now. And from there the story picks its pacing of how he decides to take revenge and what he should do to kill the murders of his mother. Along the way, we learn many things about the factions, the Rot and the dryads.

The language of this book is very simple. World-building is quite good, but I hope it will improve in the future. Characterization of main character, Jarren Heartwood, is impressive. Plot of the book is simple, and yet intresting.
There are two more characters, Ameida and Sepheus. I just want to know about them a little more. I hope, in the next book in this series, I will be reading more about them.

“I understand your unhappiness, but allow me to give you a piece of advice. Never waste a moment of your life. That is the most important thing this old man has learnt. You might die tomorrow. Don’t regret something you could have done today.” ......Quote from the book.

Overall, this book is worth reading. The only problem that seems to me in the book is that there is too much jumping and skipping in time. Other than that, I really enjoyed reading this book. It is debut book of this author, and it is amazing.

The quote in this review was taken from an ARC and is subject to change upon publication.

I tried to read this but I couldn't really get into it. I felt it jumped around too much but I appreciate the opportunity to read this.

This is the first book in a new series by new and upcoming author, D.K. Hansen. Being a new author, I was not sure what to expect. However, Hansen did not disappoint with his debut book. Hansen is a master at weaving the characters into the tale in such a way that you cannot wait to know what happens next. I have definitely added Hansen to my follow list on both GoodReads and Amazon to make sure I do not miss out on the next chapter of this series.

From the first chapter of the book, the storyline was very fast paced. I do feel that there could have been some more character development during Jarren's "training" period. There were large chunks of time skipped in order to ensure the story could be finished in a reasonable amount of pages. The training phase probably could be a book in and of itself.

Quadrant of Balance follows the life of Jaren from the time he was born in Nirwood, until his first few years of graduating from the Academy. He must overcome, at a young age, trials that would break most adults. Before her death, his mother introduces him to "the rot", which represents the evil and corruption which lives in our world today. Witnessing things which would harden the hearts of lesser people. During his time in the academy, he is subjected to every form of training and torture to ensure that he will be able to best benefit the Academy once he graduates.

Upon graduation, Jaren must continue on his quest to figure out why his life is the way it currently is and to seek revenge against those who took away what was most precious to him. During this time, Jaren is able to make friends. He also realizes that when he removes himself from "the rot" he can become a happier, better person and there is a better way to live.

Recommend for fantasy lovers who love a little magic!

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Jarren Heartwood is left as a orphan on the streets at age 10 after watching his mother murdered.

He struggles to keep himself alive and finally enters Shadow Academy training as an assassins seeking revenge for his mother's murder.

When he returns home his eyes are opened and he learns things aren't always as they seem.

A great cast of characters full of life lessons.

I've never read anything by Hansen before, but the summary caught my eye. This is the first book in a four-part series, and it's a great way to kick things off. The book is well detailed, and fantasy lovers will likely enjoy the mix of magic and mystery. The characters are well-crafted, and it's easy to connect with Jarren. The author has a way with words that pulls the reader in to his world.