An Illustrated Review: Guardian Demon by Meljean Brook

Source: A review copy was provided by the author. 

Warning: One spoiler for the previous books and one somewhat vague spoiler of something that happens in the first chapter of this one.

As you guys know (because I keep telling you), this is my favorite series, and the final book, Guardian Demon, was one of my most anticipated book of, well, ever. So it's a bittersweet moment for me, because as much as I enjoyed the book, saying goodbye to a beloved series is never easy. The good news is that I read the book in May, so I’ve had time to get over the book hangover, and this review won’t be a blubbering mess.

Remember how Nath and I wrote a post filled with theories about the book? Well, it turns out that we suck at guessing, because of all our theories the only one we kind of got right was this one:

Review: Monstrous Beauty by Elizabeth Fama

When I was a kid I wanted to be a mermaid. The tail, the red hair, the cute prince… Obviously Disney knew how to sell its movies. Then I read the original story and my underwater dreams died, but I remained intrigued by these creatures. I’m surprised that mermaids aren’t more common in PNR and YA, but I’m happy to see a book that’s not about vampires or angels.

Hester comes from a line of women who died soon after giving birth. Her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother died within days of having their first child, all of which also happened to be girls. Hester knows that there’s something very wrong with her and has decided never to fall in love. She’s aloof, angsty and tormented, but she’s also a teenager so it’s hard to tell whether she’s like that because of a curse, or because of her age. Things get complicated when her relationship with her best friend begins to change, but her unwillingness to fall in love makes her push him away. And when a mysterious guy saves her from an attack everything changes. She feels mysteriously attracted to him and to the answers he brings. Smells like love triangle, right? Not quite, more like creepy teenage obsession mixed with disappointing unfulfilled promise of a sweet romance. I’ll explain later.