The book seems well-written and well-thought-out. Unfortunately, I can't connect it and started to feel like forcing myself to finish it. I decided to DNF it for now, but I want to emphasize it's the case of "It's me, not you" DNF :)

Thanks to the publisher for giving me the possibility to try it. I may give it another try soon.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Tor for providing me with my very first eARC!

Going into this book I was incredibly excited as it was high on my list of anticipated reads for this year. Unfortunately, it fell mostly flat for me. I found it incredibly hard to push through the book and was debating whether I should simply dnf it multiple times as I didn't want to spend time with a book that could not hold my attention.

Aelis being a female necromancer had so much potential for an interesting story and the whole plot seemed very intriguing right off the bat! However, I couldn't really relate to her as a character, let alone grow fond of her. I found her to be quite arrogant and irritating at times and her sense of entitlement (which she did let go off for a bit towards the end) made it not easy for me to like her.
One of my biggest gripes with the book and Aelis as a character was Aelis' inner monologues. But most of the time you can't even describe them as inner monologues because she is actually talking to herself. Out loud. I don't mind some mumbling here and there but Aelis voicing her inner thoughts out loud just hit all the wrong spots for me. At some point, I thought it finally got a bit better - only to be proven wrong again. It might just be a pet peeve of mine but even I, as an introvert, don't talk to myself like that.

What the book tried to do with what I think of as a try-hard The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim-esque quest thing, unfortunately, failed to do its job. Other reviews I read also describe it as a poorly written DnD campaign with a DM and players completely new to the game - and I think that hits the nail on the head. The ideas seemed great but the execution felt lackluster and just, as I just mentioned, it came off as a bit try-hard. The romance had potential but was drawn out in good old YA fashion with lots of "should've, could've, would've" and ultimately did nothing for me. Additionally, the typical trope of "oh, so they like each other? Well, then they should banter all the time!!!" didn't help much either.

Overall, I felt indifferent to mostly everything - the story, the characters, the world, and the magic. None of it really merited my attention in the way I was hoping for.
The Warden is by no means bad, it's just wasted potential for me. I do want to say though that I can see a younger audience definitely enjoying the story for what it is!

I had such a fun time with this book! Poor Aelis is just a city girl necromancer stuck in the backwoods who is faced with situation after situation. The poor girl can't catch a break! I loved her as a main character and I loved all of the side characters just as much. I can't wait to see what trouble everybody gets into next in Necrobane!

THE WARDEN is definitely a book with a ton of potential. I really enjoyed the female necromancer aspect and the world that Daniel M. Ford created is an intriguing one that hints at more to be revealed later on down the road. It's also a story that I easily got lost in for stretches. In the beginning of the book we see main character Aelis a little annoyed at the fact that she didn't get a better assignment as a warden, feeling she'd been given the worst of the worst compared to her fellow Magisters. Lone Pine is not exactly in the center of civilization nor a hotbed of evil activity. And yet we can tell that we are being set up for something that will soon change her perspective on things.

Once the action picks up this was a fairly enjoyable fantasy romp that refreshingly deviates from the usual formulaic fantasty books. Aelis has to deal with a lot of roadblocks, including a populace in this small backwater town that inherently doesn't trust her. Yet they also need her for protection which makes the relationship reluctantly symbiotic in many respects.

For some reason though I just never got fully invested as I feel like I should have, that's where the potential comment I made earlier comes in. I kept waiting for something to get me 100% hooked but that didn't happen and although I did enjoy the book for the most part, it kept me from being able to give this a stellar rating.

I do believe that Daniel M. Ford can pull me back in and I was dazzled a couple of times by his descriptions of magic. So I would certainly continue on with this series as I feel like the characters are also neatly drawn and have a significant depthness to them. So there's a lot to like and the next book will hopefully build on the solid foundation that has been laid down in THE WARDEN.

I would definitely recommend this book if you are looking for a quick fantasy read that features a strong female protagonist, really cool magic, and some fascinating worldbuilding that transports the reader into a wondrous setting. Overall I liked this book and will anticipate future releases from Daniel M. Ford with keen interest.

Unfortunately, I did not like this very much. While I like a fast paced story, I found this to be almost too rushed and I needed more of the characters and the setting to really feel any attachment at all. As it stands, I didn't really like or care for any of the characters. I loved the idea for the world, but it was just not fleshed out enough and I think the book needed to be less rushed to really give the reader a chance to fully immerse themselves in this world. Also, the $27.99 price point indicates that this is being marketed and sold as an adult sci-fi/fantasy novel, and I really don't agree with that. I could see it being considered older YA but it really doesn't read like an adult novel. The expectation that this was adult combined with how rushed everything was left me sort of dissatisfied with the book overall. I can see where people would like this--one reviewer mentioned that this seemed like Lord of the Rings lite and I can agree with that. I think people who enjoy that kind of thing might get a kick out of this, but it just didn't work for me.

This was just an okay book. I feel like it was a bit rushed and I didn’t care for hardly any of the characters. I did like the setting and thought there were some creative aspects that I enjoyed.

I thought this book was just alright. I didn't feel much attachment to the characters, and while the world was interesting, it could've been explained better. Aelis was a fine main character, but she didn't stand out to me very much, and she talked to herself way too often.

This just doesn't do a thing for me. I forced myself to read 15%.

The MC is a necromancer. We're told right off the bat that she's extremely intelligent, but, well, you know how that goes. She could rival Einstein in the brains department for all I care. I couldn't stand her. When the book begins she's highly indignant because she has been assigned to the Warden position out in the middle of nowhere, in a little town called Lone Pine to be precise.

Let me explain why I disliked the main character. 1. She displayed a strong sense of entitlement. 2. She has some aristocratic bloodlines, but the way she thought about and/or interacted with the villagers was still condescending, aristocracy aside. 3. She was very, very arrogant. 4. She was kind of stupid for being so smart.

As a female, I just really couldn't relate to this fictional female character. Perhaps it's due to the fact that the author is a male and wrote her as basically a man with you-know-whats. I don't know. But it is what it is, and she was written as obnoxious. Even with all of that said, I might have continued but for the straw that broke the camel's back: her extremely annoying habit of talking to herself in a way that people just don't do.

I'll put it this way. We all talk and mutter to ourselves at least sometimes. But when we do, we don't say full-length paragraph dissertations. We might say things along the lines of, "Where the heck did I put...?" or if doing something stupid we might say "That was smart!" Small comments, unless I'm talking to myself incorrectly 🤔 But certainly nothing close to this girl! She loved to hear herself talk. Here is a random example from the many, many, many examples from which to choose:


“Well,” she sniffed. “Surely a simple oversight. No doubt they’ll correct it in the morning. They had better,” she added. “I’m not about to go down among them and ask for supper now. Besides . . . surely many of them are after their sleep now. Rise with the sun and go to sleep with the moons, aye?”


Who talks to themselves like this? It was such a distraction! I can see if this was done to give the character some endearing eccentricity, but it wasn't. He could have had her thinking rather than speaking aloud; that might have made more sense. But it drove me bonkers. It's very unrealistic. Now that I think about it, this complaint is more about the writing style itself than the character.

Actually, the only likeable characters up to my stopping point were the innkeepers and the goat.

Maybe this would be better marketed as YA. I can't see these things being an issue for a younger audience. As I am in my mid-fifties, they were indeed a negative.

I received this eARC from Netgalley and Tor. I wish that it had worked out more favorably.

Great story and a writing style above what I was expecting. A discovery author for me which i will gladly reread in the future!

It took me a while to get into this one but in the end i enjoyed the hell out of it.

Aelis grows on you. Her compassion, tenacity and... choice of language as she deals with a challenging "frontier" Warden posting are engaging.

It's a simple, character driven story with pretty good world-building that is there only to serve the story. I always like that.

This is well worth a look and my only real gripe was that until about ten pages from the end i thought it was a stand alone, which would have made a nice change from to 50 plus ongoing Fantasy series I'm reading and trying to keep track of in my tired brain.

Oh, well. Another enjoyable read on that growing pile is not the end of the world!

Really loved the world building in this new fantasy. There was good rep here and appreciated the different races. It leaves off on a cliffhanger so I hope the next one is on its way! Definitely would continue the series and recommend to others.

Lord of the Rings lite that is prefect for older teens. Not too many characters, a good female lead, a Bildungsroman built to form, and diversity led to a good fantasy start to a series. However it started to lose steam at the end for me and the cliffhanger isn’t enough for me to want to continue the story. I liked where the story finished and it could do well as a stand alone.

My thanks to NetGalley for making an eARC of this book available to me.

This was a pretty good opening book in a new fantasy series. Interesting magic systems, multiple races (human, orc, elves and more), and a general acceptance of non-cis relationships made for good world-building and a decent read. The writing was a tiny bit choppy in places, but that won't stop me from seeking out further books in this series as they come out. Be forewarned that this book ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, so hopefully the author can get the next book picked up and published.

Thank you, Tor Publishing Group, for allowing me to read The Warden early.

I'm sorry, the Warden is not my cup of tea. I didn't particularly like the writing and the characters. I hope other readers will love the story more than I did.

The Warden by Daniel M. Ford, I really enjoyed this book, it starts off a little slow and doesn't telegraph where its heading. I urge you to give this book a chance as it might just come out of the blue and surprise you.

I requested this one because it might be an upcoming title I would like to review on my Youtube Channel. However, after reading the first several chapters I have determined that this book does not suit my tastes. So I decided to DNF this one.

I could see the Twin Peaks elements in the story and do such a good job in telling the story. I enjoyed the way Daniel M. Ford wrote this as I was invested in what was happening in this world. I was invested in what was happening and it did a great job in being a scifi novel. The characters worked so well in the world and were interesting people. I'm glad I was able to read this.

“Empty saddle waiting for me,” Maurenia murmured, turning to Aelis and sweeping some hair behind an ear. “Time I’m away. But . . . if I can come back sometime,” she said, with a shrug that even Aelis could read as too casual, “I will.”

Dnf. I couldn't finish it, it wasn't for me . It might be for other people. I couldn't get into the story like I wanted to.

I wanted to enjoy this but was overly unimpressed with the relationships, the dynamic, and the plot felt convoluted.