A review by brokenrecord
Guardian by Carole Cummings

4.0

This was good! I mean, it's very much a lot of set-up for the rest of the trilogy, so it's hard to evaluate it on its own, but I enjoyed it a lot. The world is interesting, and the plot grabbed me, even if I was still a bit shaky on some of the details at the end. You're kind of plunged into the world without a whole lot of explanation, but things become clearer as it goes on. Mostly, I just really enjoyed Dallin and Wil as characters. They're very different but both interesting in their own way, and I loved their interaction. There's basically no romance in this book at all, maybe just the TINIEST hint of something, but barely that. But I love slow burn romances that take multiple books to develop, so that was right up my alley. So much of this book is them learning who each other is and how to deal with one another (okay, mostly Dallin figuring out the best way to handle Wil — I loved the last chapter where he was going through the rules in his head for how to deal with him and get him to do what he wanted) and trusting one another (more Wil than Dallin, not that Dallin really trusts Wil either, but Wil is definitely more cautious). I loved Dallin's patience and understanding with Wil (not that he's ALWAYS patient and understanding, but how he comes to realize how to get answers from Wil and work with him and doesn't blame him for what happened to his mother). And Wil going from being a wounded animal who lashes out at the slightest hint of a threat to trying to learn to trust Dallin was great. Basically, I was very into their dynamic and the way their relationship slowly evolves (VERY slowly, they're basically just starting to get to a point of trusting one another by the end of this), and I'm very excited to see how it develops further.