“If they fall, the world as we know
it will not survive.
Ronan Truelove has just discovered
the existence of the Blood Guard, an ancient order of knights sworn to protect
the thirty-six Pure.
It’s a lot for an ordinary kid to
deal with. But maybe Ronan’s not so ordinary after all…”
It starts with Evelyn Ronan Truelove (do NOT call him Evelyn!)
who discovers his mum is a badass ninja woman who can do awesome stuff with
swords and run really fast. His mum is one of the Blood Guard – and the people
chasing them are bad guys. She boots him out of the car near the train station
so he can met up with a mysterious escort but not without having to escape
baddies again. While on the train with the escort (Dawkins- who I’ve got to
admit is pretty awesome) an old school mate of his appears and ends up joining
their unlikely team. Greta seems to have an extremely unlikely skill set for an
average school girl.
We follow them through various adventures intermingled with
chats that slowly give us more information about the Blood Guard and the
baddies (before the baddies show up for ANOTHER show down).
The first half of the book failed to draw me in – it was
talks interspersed with the Bad Guys showing up, then running for their lives
and the cycle repeated itself several times, though in varying circumstances. The
fight scenes are interesting but I nearly gave up on the book then and there.
The second half is much more enjoyable. We find out about
Dawkins and how he joined the Blood Guard and we find out more about the Pure
Ronan’s mother was protecting. The story picks up brilliantly and I rather
enjoyed it. The “shock twist that you’d never expect” was obvious though.
Granted – one took me by slight surprise but I had my suspicions and the other
was blatant.
My main problem with this book was that I did not believe
for one second that these two kids could be that skilled by the age of 13. Yeah
okay, Ronan’s mum has been training him for this since he was 5 but Greta? She
would know a few neat tricks from having a cop as a dad but it all felt a bit
too convenient for my liking. The lack of romance was refreshing (though they are 13 and it may develop later in the series...)
Overall, I enjoyed the book and will continue reading the
series but I won’t rave about it as I have with so many other books. It is ideal for younger YA readers and those who like a bit more action.
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