Review: Ward against Darkness by Melanie Card

Ward against Darkness by Melanie Card



Publisher: Entangled Teen
Series: Reluctant Necromancer #2
Pages: 352 Pages
Genre: Fantasy
Release Date: August 27, 2013
Summary:
The last thing Ward de'Ath wants is more trouble. On the run from both the law and the criminal underworld, Ward and Celia flee Brawenal City only to stumble into the mansion of a powerful evil necromancer. And when Ward discovers the man possesses a dangerous grimoire, his duty leaves him no choice. He can't allow the necromancer to keep the grimoire. But the mansion is filled with monsters--human and undead--and Ward has no way of telling who's friend or foe. The only person he can trust is Celia who dominates more of his thoughts and feelings everyday. But there are still laws in the way of anything but friendship. She's still dead and he's still alive . . . for now.

Rating: 

Review:

I loved the first book of the series and was rather disappointed by this one.
Don't misunderstand me this is good enough. But it not only suffered second book syndrome- my biggest issue with it was that I'm not sure why it was written. It made no sense to the storyline in accordance to the first book and we learnt nothing at all about Ward and Celia's situation. I'm not quite sure but as far as I know Card has planned 3 books for this series and to be honest after reading this I felt like there should be just 2. This one just doesn't compare to the first one.

The plot was not half as enticing as Ward against Death. But it had some good action again and a fun big show down at the end. It's fast paced- not as fast as the first one- and there were interesting 'side'stories.

The whole book was actually just world building or to be more accurate history building. It's like Card decided to carve out the world she created in the first book add some history, mythology and really cool magic stuff. That's in fact why I gave this 3stars rather than 2.  I do like the world Card has painted with her words so expertly.

The character building was good. Though there wasn't much added to Celia or Ward. They were still milling around the same problems they had at the end of the first book. Same insecurities same issues. Which is what partly felt so unsatisfying at the end of this. The two MCs basically didn't evolve. It also lacked the great chemistry the two of them had in the first book, which was one of the things I had very much enjoyed in the series.
The support cast was on the other hand much more interesting than in the first book.  I did quite enjoy the villains, even if they were predictable and a little stereo typical.

Card's prose is beautiful. And I enjoyed her writing style as much this time around as I did in the first book. I probably would have rated this book higher if I wouldn't have such high expectations. I still think Card is an author to watch out for and am looking forward to reading many of her book in the future.

Sadly another book that managed to suffer second book syndrome this year. It seems to be the trend for 2013. A much anticipated book, that didn't deliver on my every high expectations. But I still have high hopes for the third book.

ARC was provided by Publishers through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

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