Review: The Guardian's Wildchild by Feather Stone

Published Date: September 27th, 2011
Finished Date: Febuary 22nd, 2012
Publisher: Omnific Publishing
Format: eBook for Tour
My Rating: 2.5/5
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Blurb from Goodreads:
Sidney Davenport is known as Wildchild to her Guardian mentor, Greystone. She rebels against rules. Wildchild is gifted in the paranormal, but carefully conceals her powers from the world. Even in the crises that threaten her life, she refuses to use her powers of telepathy, telekinesis, space/time travel. If her enemies discovered the truth of who she is, her Guardian people would be destroyed. She calls upon her spirit guides, Seamus and Celeste, to guide her through a mine field of the insane - Madame and Captain Butchart.

Sidney leaves her home on Hawk's Island to help the underground stop two people who are about to cause worldwide madness. Unskilled in esponage, she is arrested and sentanced to death. But, God help Sidney, she can't deny her attraction to the man who has orders to perform her execution - the tall, dark eyed Captain Waterhouse. He's meticulous, disciplined and lives by the strict rules expected of an officer of the American navy.

Captain Waterhouse is about to scrap his higher morals to bust out of his hell. When a female prisoner is delivered to his ship, he has no idea she is capable of turning his disciplined life into a storm of unimaginable experiences. His prisoner's enemies, he discovers, are also the ones who hold his life in the palm of their hands.

Through stunning imagery, an intricate and adventurous plot, and a strong cast of characters, Feather Stone gives readers a fast paced story woven with murder and magic.

My Review

I thought that THE GUARDIAN'S WILDCHILD was a very philosophical and mature Dystopian novel - full of moral righteousness and teachings. I'm not a big fan of Dystopian stories, but when the synopsis told of a love story amidst military disputes and harsh conditions, being the romance-junky that I was, I decided to give it a try.

My Summary

The world is slowly falling into ruin, but only Hawk's Island remains to be inhabited by long-extinct flora and fauna, and this is where the Guardians reside. It was said that everyone on the planet was once a Guardian, but that evil, greed, and ambition has infiltrated the hearts of many that they lose their connection to their spirit guide and conscience. Hope is not all lost though, many outside of Hawk's Island have not lost their powers completely, and are merely Sleeping. The Guardian's sole mission is to awaken said Sleeping Guardians, and teach them of the higher purpose.

Sidney and Danik Davenport, orphaned siblings who came into the care of the Guardians on Hawk's Island, where only the hearts who seek the higher good are permitted entrance. As they grew older and learned the ways of the Guardian, using the mind to unlock doors and for telekinesis and telepathy, they left the sanctuary of their home and began to hold singing performances around the world to spread the Guardian's word. However, not everyone supports this type of talk of freedom and such, especially not the military commanders who control the population.

And even within the military ranks, high ranking generals and an outside connection have been secretly researching on a source of power so great, that even the Guardians back at Hawk's Island have been given a vision that was a result of them unleashing that power. A vision of a barren world.

Sidney and Danik was told of a plan to stop this, but Sidney was captured by one Captain Samaru Waterhouse, who is a husk of a man after his wife died and his children taken from him. But as they got to know each other, Sam's icy heart begins to thaw, and together, can they stop the destruction of the world?

My Thoughts

The beginning of the book was rather dull, and I have to say, info-dumping is seriously overrated. Why can't you just tell it in the narrative way like how a novel is supposed to be written? I was excited initially to get started on TGW, but my enthusiasm was sadly doused quickly. The pace was slow, but it did pick up after the middle, and then there was that climax at the end! There was a battle that our protagonists barely scraped through, one didn't though, but that is for a later paragraph to elaborate on. It was quite epic, and was what saved the rating. Kind of.

Sidney was too.....mature/philosophical. Not that it was a bad thing, but you don't go around telling your friends, "Trust in your heart and the higher good." Y'know? It's just not natural. But she was brave, and very courageous, that I'll give credit. She's also really innocent too. For some reason, I thought that her saying "dust bunnies" was real cute. As for Sam, he's a family guy, and for the better part of the book, he was set on betraying Sidney to get his boys out of his enemy's grip. I didn't like that about him, not that his actions were unjustified, I just couldn't stand a man who would sacrifice a defenseless woman. But he still protected Sidney in the end, so he redeemed himself in my eyes. :P Haha, and yes, since he is a man in uniform, he is also hot and handsome.

TGW is written in shifting POVs - starting mostly with Sidney's, then as the story progressed, it was more of Sam's head we're privy to. Another thing that I'm not a big fan of, and that's selective third person or shifting first persons. I've said this in quite a lot of my reviews that this sucks out a lot of the suspense and mystery for the novel, revealing quite so much of the other parties, and I like it when I can relate with that one heroine/hero (mostly heroines cause well, I am a girl) instead of a multitude of other people's thoughts. I like to guess what the other party's true intentions are, what they are thinking, and stuff like that that keeps me wondering. I mean, what if the the other party is one of the bad guy? Then wouldn't divulging that at the start kill the surprise?

Other than the points above, I liked the ending battle. It was a long and hard-fought one, and one that was quite amazing and fantastic. The tables turned so suddenly, and it all progressed so fast that the pages were turning of their own accord, I swear!

And now we come to the aforementioned one-of-the-characters-died part which is probably the one that I liked the least - the part that...

[If you're not one for spoilers, please skip the next paragraph of this review]

THE FREAKING HEROINE DIED! Of all the bloody things in the world to write about, she died. Seriously. What kind of a book lets the main character die? This is...I endured how many pages of info-dumping and dull, slow-paced plot processes for a short, sweet bit of romance and...this. This is seriously some headbanging moment. A total FML moment.

I don't really read that many Dystopian novels, so I wouldn't know who to recommend this book to, but compared to the few others that I've read, I thought that THE GUARDIAN'S WILDCHILD was not bad; The writing flowed smoothly, the plot developed nicely, and the world-building was well done too. A bittersweet Dystopian novel with a little hint of romance and kinship.

My Rating