Book Review: Guardian of the Gauntlet (Book #2) by Lenita Sheridan

Guardian of the Gauntlet, Book II by Lenita Sheridan

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

*I received a digital copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review*

Get a copy here!
AMAZON | BOOK DEPOSITORY

I started this book with an expectation of some improvements from book 1. I must say I was glad to find some yet other parts still remained the same which was pretty unfortunate. I’ll get into it in a bit.

The sequel of Guardian of the Gauntlet picked up four years later after Princess Camari had succeeded in taking a claim of the stolen gauntlet back. The gauntlet later was given to her as it was proved that she’s the one whose hand fit the gauntlet perfectly. Camari was then responsible in guarding the gauntlet and she had used it in a good path such as to help those who needed ones. And then one day a letter came from gnome kingdom that needed an urgent of the gauntlet through her. That’s when she decided to ask Prince Isryk to join the adventure just like the last time. There they began the journey to help the gnome while fighting all the barriers coming during the process.

Unlike the first book, this time I was intrigued from beginning chapter. The start was smooth and I found myself readying to big improvement coming next. Chapter one was winning, I admit. I liked how Ms. Sheridan decided to start the story by taking us to the scene of Prince Isryk thinking of Princess Camari. He was described of having a thing for Camari on the first book but constantly both of them was arguing nonstop while together. I really was hoping to find Prince Isryk and Princess Camari possible future later. Sadly, really sadly the author didn’t dwell on this part. I actually thought this very thing had a potential to engross the readers, though.

And the journey was the same thing happened during book 1. A lot of strange creatures came on their way to help the gnome. Ms. Sheridan once again showed good explanation of each fantasy creature and the surrounding they came across. But once again, the transition from one event to the next one was rushed; the plot wasn’t really built-up. There was this scene that was supposed to be the highlight of the story but it happened like… just happened and I was like,

*reading through the particular scene*“Wait…” *going back to previous page* *re-read**re-read*…“Ooh! This is the climax!”*re-read*“Yay! Victory!” (while awkwardly waving pom-pom)…“Well, then…”*continue reading*

What worse was that Prince Isryk (who actually took significant role on book 1) here was described total useless. I found myself questioning what the purpose of putting him on the journey together with Camari if in the end he was just going to constantly argue with her and make annoying remarks every so often?

What I liked the most was how Ms. Sheridan made Camari way more responsible this time. And she was such a humble Princess too, never forget to remind those who she’d helped to praise thanks to the higher power for the help instead of her or the gauntlet. Once again I think this book would make a good read for children because of the light plot and all.

3 stars for this book in the end (again the intriguing cover did it to me)!

Love, read, and review,

Cynthia D.

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Book Review: Guardian of the Gauntlet (Book #1) by Lenita Sheridan

Guardian of the Gauntlet by Lenita Sheridan

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

*I received a digital copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review*

Get a copy here!
AMAZON | BOOK DEPOSITORY

Guardian of the Gauntlet is a debut YA-fantasy book by Lenita Sheridan. The first time I saw this book, I was attracted by its pretty cover. I expected to find an equal amazing story inside but it’s unfortunate that I realized this book clearly wasn’t for me.

I fully understand that writing a short story (e.g. novella) holds different kind of difficulty than writing a long one. Sometimes it’s rather difficult to engross readers through very few pages. I found myself worrying about what I’d find in such limited pages of book. Would I find a great story? Would I meet characters with strong characterization? This is the reason why I rarely read novella. I could count with my fingers just how many novellas/short stories out there that I’ve enjoyed well.

I personally thought that Ms. Sheridan had a vast imagination about fantasy world. I could see that in the way she wrote description about each strange creature, how she narrated the sceneries in the story. I’m not quite sure but maybe because she’d labeled the story as a short story, she seemed to rush the plot. Guardian of the Gauntlet ended up having a really fast-pace story ―until the point that every event lost their meanings because the transition between each event and the flow of the story were rather unnatural― yet overflowed with description of trivial things. I know that for a fantasy book, it’s important to put a vivid description on the fantasy part that could help readers build perfect imagination in their mind. But authors shouldn’t forget that readers wanted a story with a well-built plot, too. So balancing both things is the main key here to write a good short story. Well, I’m not a writer though so what I said might not a hundred percent right… This is purely my opinion from an angle of reader.

The characterizations of each role including the main character of the book were too shallow. I even felt that several characters here that I thought would play good roles on the story, just ended up being insignificant items. There was still a lot of space of improvements in this department, I guess.

Guardian of the Gauntlet had a vibe of adventure even though the feeling I got wasn’t quite adventurous. The feeling was more like watching a series of images being flipped simultaneously in front of my eyes. I think this book would be a more suitable literature for children than for people my age (you know, old and all…). It was because the plot was not really built-up causing the book to fall into light read category. Moreover, it contained good amount of moral lessons as well such as jealousy wouldn’t get you anywhere, lying would just bring misery in the end, or learn to take responsibility since an early age. Maybe if this book was written without rushing each event and the author was taking time to build the plot deeper and steadily, Guardian of the Gauntlet might be a good YA-fantasy that I’d enjoy thoroughly.

I presented this book 3 stars for the intriguing-pretty cover and the good description of fantasy creatures that was really helpful in building readers’ imagination. Other than that, I hope to find improvement on the next book.

Love, read, and review,

Cynthia D.

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