4 Stars
I’m exciting to be doing my first giveaway with Jon Messenger’s Fantasy novel Wind Warrior, generously provided by Clean Teen Publishing! This book was massively entertaining, so enter to win a free copy, then check out my review below!
*Please see my GIVEAWAYS page for contest policies*
Publisher: Clean Teen Publishing
Pages: 192 pages
Best for: 15 and up (no sex, very little language)
Check it out: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Good Reads
I received this book from Clean Teen Publishing in exchange for an honest review.
Good Reads Summary:
THE EARTH GIVES WAY TO THE SEA,
THE SEA BOWS BEFORE THE WIND,
THE WIND FEEDS THE FLAME,
THE FLAME BURNS THE WORLD OF MAN DOWN TO THE EARTH.
The sleepy town of White Halls harbors a dangerous secret. On a picturesque street, two houses down from a lovely little park, in a quaint little home with a wraparound porch, lives a family that seems rather normal. Sure, their twenty-year-old son, Xander, still lives at home, but he’s going to college and dating the leader of the schools top sorority. It’s all very… normal.
However, when a man is miraculously saved from being hit by a bus, Xander’s life turns in to the living embodiment of the tornadoes he can suddenly create with a flick of his wrist. Whether he wants this gift or not, Xander must learn to use his new ‘super power’ quickly if he wants to survive. For his kind is a dying race, and when this sleepy town has a sudden influx of new, blonde, fire wielders, no one is safe, especially Xander. It doesn’t help that one of these blondes happens to be the most beautiful girl he has ever seen. Xander can’t deny the instant connection he feels to her so, when she tries to kill him, it certainly makes things complicated.
I really enjoyed this book! Fast paced with lots of action and fantasy, and the promise for a great sequel! Jon Messenger’s writing is clean and crisp, making the book easy and enjoyable to read. The story was fairly simple, although there is a lot of promise for a complex conflict later on.
Messenger doesn’t waste any time; you meet Xander, the main character and then BAM you head straight into the conflict.
I had a little trouble connecting with Xander. I think perhaps it was because he’s a guy, and an unmotivated college student, two things I am not. I am a very motivated college student, not to mention a girl 🙂 Anyway, that being said, I LOVED Sammy, and connected much better with her character. She is part of a complicated family, and has to figure out what she believes is right, which was a nice little sub plot that I enjoyed quite a bit. I hope to get more insight into her character in the second book.
There is a long history of conflict between the Wind Caste (Wind Warriors) and the Fire Caste (Fire Warriors) that felt very High Fantasy to me; this book is set in our world though, in modern day, so it’s not written as High Fantasy. But you get to see a young man gain new powers, forced to learn how to use those powers out of necessity, and then rise to try to defeat a very powerful enemy. I’m really excited to see where this series goes because Wind Warrior was quite short, and I kept wanting to know more about the characters and what happened next. There’s a wealth of potential for this series, and as I read, I got the feeling that Messenger was a talented enough writer to really tap into that as the books progressed. I really hope he spends a little time fleshing out his characters in the next one, because he set a good foundation and the conflict is excellent. He has my attention.
Don’t waste that.
There is definitely insta-love in this book. HOWEVER, Messenger kept hinting that there was some sort of supernatural explanation for that, so I’m assuming that is coming in the next book. I’m interested to see what it might be. Also, since New Adult is such a new genre and is working on defining itself, I didn’t really think to categorize it as such until I looked on Good Reads and remembered the characters are in college. So while there is no sex and very little language, I would still categorize it as New Adult (thank you for some clean books in this genre!!)
Secondary characters Sean and Jessica had a few chapters to themselves that were quite entertaining. I REALLY hope they join Xander as side-kick comic relief in the second book because they were very funny. I feel like they will add a nice layer of realness (not reality, no) to the story, because they are such ordinary people having to react to an extraordinary circumstance, and they react with humor (or, at least, they react in ways that are humorous to the reader). Always a positive.
So I have high hopes for the second book. While I really enjoyed this book (hence the glowing review), it was not a book I felt compelled to read straight through in one sitting (hence the four stars rather than five). But I was highly entertained, and it was a pleasant, easy, well-crafted read.