Tuesday, February 2, 2016

The Blood Guard (The Blood Guard #1) by Carter Roy

When thirteen-year-old Ronan Truelove's seemingly ordinary mom snatches him from school, then sets off on a high speed car chase, Ronan is shocked. His quiet, nerdy dad has been kidnapped? And the kidnappers are after him, too? His mom, he quickly learns, is anything but ordinary. In fact, she's a member of an ancient order of knights, the Blood Guard, a sword-wielding secret society sworn to protect the Pure—thirty-six noble souls whose safety is crucial if the world as we know it is to survive. Now all those after-school activities—gymnastics, judo, survival training—she made him take, make sense. For suddenly Ronan is swept up in a sometimes funny, sometimes scary, but always thrilling adventure—dashing from one danger to the next, using his wits to escape the Bend Sinister, a posse of evil doers with strange powers. Falling in with two unlikely companions, Greta, a scrappy, strong-willed girl he's never much liked and Jack, a devil-may-care teenage pickpocket, Ronan is left with only his wits and his mom's last words of advice: Trust no one. That's a lot for an ordinary kid to deal with. But then again, maybe Ronan's not ordinary at all. 


 The Blood Guard is a fast-paced middle grade action adventure novel that I think would highly appeal to those both young and old alike. I would compare it to the reading level of The Hunger Games series ( which I also really enjoyed ). 

I think it's especially good for those who crave less romance and more fun clean adventure with some humor and likable characters. There are lots of action scenes with chases, fights, and even stolen cars. Throw in some magical aspects and bam instant page-turner! Be warned though that there is quite a bit of violence. The plot was definitely unique though, with talk of the Blood Guard and the Pures, but it was never hard to understand their world or what was going on which I thought was a plus.

 There was one major plot twist that I saw coming from a mile away but to me that was okay because the way it was executed still made it very exciting. Overall I would say that this was a very fun read and a great change up from all of the romances I tend to read. I would feel just as comfortable recommending it to my 13 year old niece as I would her mother as well, so I think that's always pretty neat when a book can have such a wide range of appeal. 

*I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. April

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