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| Image Copied from Goodreads |
I want to say right from the start here and now that I am not at all against anyone choosing to self-publish their novel. I have read some phenomenal young adult and adult novels that were self-published by their authors. Some of them have been even better and more polished than some traditionally published novels I've read. However, I really encourage anyone considering going that route to seek some professional editing before self-publishing. If you do not have beta readers or a critique group to workshop your work with, then seeking out both a developmental editor and a copyeditor is important. Though as writers we love our work and are capable of some revision on our own, an extra set of eyes can really take the level of development on a novel up to as good if not better than traditional publishing standards. So, that being said let's get into the good, the bad and the ugly for this novel.
I was very intrigued by the blurb for this book when I saw it listed on NetGalley and which I've copied here below from the site.
To be a Keeper was to dedicate one’s life – and heart – to protecting another.
Jasmine wasn’t ready for it. Less than a year into her training at Sanctuary, a college for Keepers and mages alike, and with a fresh start from a brutal life of thievery in the slums, all she wanted to do was continue mastering the sword arts and avoid her other responsibilities.
Those plans are ruined when she's assigned to be the protector of a young nobleman whose family was murdered. Her new charge is cocky, smug, and drives her up a wall at every opportunity.
Forced to protect a man she can’t stand with her life, Jasmine needs to find time that isn’t there to continue her training and keep assassins from killing both of them, all the while learning magic and discovering that there’s more to life than survival.
And yet, Jasmine starts to find herself inexplicably drawn to him. In the slums, Jasmine never had room to care about anything other than putting food on the table. But she’s not in the slums anymore, and she can’t keep her feelings tied down forever.
Unfortunately, burgeoning love is the least of Jasmine’s problems. As pieces of a malevolent plot start to unfold around them, she and her charge realize that there might be only one thing left that they can rely on.
Each other.
In terms of the plot, it is a decent story with lots of intrigue, some truly great training sequences for Jasmine, the female lead, as well as some really nice twists at the end. I really enjoyed the fact that the female lead in this novel, Jasmine, had to protect the male lead, Asher, from mysterious assassins. I also appreciated that while he was a decent fighter in the Keeper program, before his entire family is killed, Jasmine was the more proficient fighter and even becomes a better strategist. The fact that Asher sees her as more than an equal was also a good change from many previous traditional fantasy tropes. The magic system was interesting and unique as well. I don't remember ever reading about a magic system like it before. I also have to say that I really love the cover art for this book as well.
So, what were some of the negatives for this book you might be wondering? Well, for me at least, I felt there were so many missed opportunities with the worldbuilding for it. Most of these could have probably been avoided if there had been stronger developmental editing with it, which is such a shame, because it is a great premise and the key moments that could have been fleshed out more with it could have really set it apart as a stellar novel. However, in terms of the worldbuilding overall, I felt like I was thrust into the middle of things without much backstory to help me connect to the main characters. Normally, if the bits of backstory are woven into it as it unfolds a little later, I can go with it. But I didn't feel that this happened as much as it could have. We never fully understand the dynamics of this kingdom or why the king chose to promote Jasmine to Keeper training. All we hear about is that she drew his attention during a pickpocketing incident. But there is really no development about why or how she endeared herself to him enough in the moment to deserve saving from the gutters rather than being punished for what she did. A scene like this might have been a really good way to start the novel and then when we get to her training as a Keeper, we would be even more connected to her and what is happening. We could also get some similar backstory interwoven later in the book about Asher's feelings about his family and what happened to them. Instead, we only get his point of view about Jasmine and his feelings for her and while these are important, having your whole family annihilated unexpectedly like that would be devestating even if you didn't feel particularly close to them. We only get surface info about all of this and the school and the different divisions of people within it. The same is true about the mysterious organization we learn about that is after Asher. We learn they are bad and have toppled whole kingdoms, but not how or why they do this. Also, now that I think about it, I have no idea how the title even connects to the story for Keeper of the Scarlet Petals. More development for this world would have really taken this story up from 3 out of 5 stars for me to 5 out of 5.
As for the ugly, I will just say that there were plenty of places where grammar, punctuation and just overall copyediting for this book could have improved it as well. I can overlook small mistakes like this as I realize that no book is ever going to be perfect in this respect. But it did not seem that any copyedits were done on Keeper of the Scarlet Petals at all.
That being said, the plot twists and the training sequences with Jasmine's Keeper mentor, Riker, and Jasmine and Asher as they try to figure out what is happening with him and his magic were really fun and compelling. I also enjoyed the slow burn romance between Jasmine and Asher. I do agree with other reviewers in that this may be marketed as a New Adult book, but it reads very much as a Young Adult novel. Overall, this was an entertaining fantasy read. I hope any sequels to this book give us even richer worldbuilding and backstory as the plot continues to unfold. I was given a free ARC for this novel to read in exchange for this honest review by NetGalley and Aethon Books.
In a couple of weeks, my next book review will be of Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn. I've already begun reading it and while I found it a little slow in the first chapter, I am really loving it now! I can see why it is considered a gold standard for fantasy literature. Here is a blurb about the book, courtesy of Goodreads, for those of you unfamiliar with it:
The Last Unicorn is one of the true classics of fantasy, ranking with Tolkien's The Hobbit, Le Guin's Earthsea Trilogy, and Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. Beagle writes a shimmering prose-poetry, the voice of fairy tales and childhood:
The unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone. She was very old, though she did not know it, and she was no longer the careless color of sea foam but rather the color of snow falling on a moonlit night. But her eyes were still clear and unwearied, and she still moved like a shadow on the sea.
The unicorn discovers that she is the last unicorn in the world, and sets off to find the others. She meets Schmendrick the Magician—whose magic seldom works, and never as he intended—when he rescues her from Mommy Fortuna's Midnight Carnival, where only some of the mythical beasts displayed are illusions. They are joined by Molly Grue, who believes in legends despite her experiences with a Robin Hood wannabe and his unmerry men. Ahead wait King Haggard and his Red Bull, who banished unicorns from the land.
This is a book no fantasy reader should miss; Beagle argues brilliantly the need for magic in our lives and the folly of forgetting to dream. —Nona Vero
