The Guardian (The Immortal Dealers #2) By Sarah Fine [ARC Review]

RELEASE DATE: October 23th 2018 
AUTHOR: Sarah Fine
GENRE:  New-Adult, urban Fantasy, Magic, Adventure.  
PUBLISHER: 47North
SUMMARY:

Life and death are a gamble for a girl fighting to save humanity in a world she’s only beginning to understand.

One minute, Ernestine “Ernie” Terwilliger was a fairly normal young woman with an almost normal life. Absent father. Peculiar mother. Family secrets. The next, she was hurled into a land where the Immortal Dealers are waging a battle between good and evil—and where the fate of the world is in the cards.

Having only started to master her own deck, the inexperienced Ernie places the wrong bet on the right guy at the worst time. That’s when she’s bounced into another realm by a formidable and power-hungry rogue Dealer who knows more about Ernie’s fractured family than Ernie herself does.

Now, Ernie’s fight to free herself from the trap of the dimensional barriers is only the beginning. As the secrets of Ernie’s father and his own relics of power start to surface, Ernie will need to tell friend from foe—a feat not as easy as it seems.

At least now she has a full deck…because to survive secrets, betrayals, and dangerous dimensions, she’ll need to deal the best hand.

*I’ve received an e-copy from the publisher via Netgalley in return for an honest review *

The Guardian is a second installment in the Immortal Dealers series. Well, I actually enjoyed this book more than the first book, but honestly it’s still not a great read for me. In every book, I always find something missing in it. It doesn’t have that wow factor. The characters were okay-ish but it does have an interesting story-line with a unique concept and that’s why I’m still sticking to this series. As a newbie dealer, Ernie’s adventurous journey continues in this sequel.

       The book starts off with Ernie’s first mission as a dealer somewhere in Ukraine. Gabe is once again absent from her life. In the previous installment, while saving Gabe’s life, Ernie merges her card with Gabe’s and it creates a new card which builds a unique bond between them. Though they’ve defeated Duncan, they still have a major threat named Virginia, a dangerous power hungry dealer. She wants to become the next forger by defeating the current forger Andy, but first she needs the forger marks which was safely hidden in Gabe’s care. While fighting Virginia, Ernie gets pushed into another dimension. To find a way back to her home, Ernie needs to search for her father who’s been missing from their life for twenty years.

Ernie is not my favorite protagonist but she’s pretty likable. After the events in the first book, She’s finally getting used to being a dealer and her bond with her diamondback deck grows strong. She still likes Gabe even though he’s reluctant to return her feelings. Gabe is still being a broody guy and wants to deny his attraction to Ernie. The romance in this book is very light because it’s not the central focus in this series. If you’re looking for an urban fantasy read with strong romance then you might be disappointed with this one. As for the supporting characters, I didn’t care much about them, but I really liked the new guy Kot.

The plot was interesting filled with magic and adventure but the pacing seemed slow in most parts. I’ve skipped some pages because I was getting bored. It took a long time before things started to get interesting. I’ve enjoyed Ernie’s adventure with Kot in another dimension. It’s too bad that he wasn’t the love interest. I liked the action and adventure. There were some surprising twists especially the last one. Though this book answered some questions, it left us with even more questions. The writing style was good. As usual, this book was written in third person POV. The  magical concept in this was very creative but it was very hard to grasp. It took some time for me to understand how everything worked.

Overall, it was a good read but nothing exciting! The book was finally concluded with an interesting twist and I might check out the next book when it comes out.

Recommend it?
YES

Personally, this wasn’t my favorite urban fantasy series but it wasn’t a bad series either. If you want to check out this series then definitely give it a shot. Who knows, you might enjoy it more than I did?

MY RATING:

[3.5/5 Stars]

So, What do you think of this series? Have you read it yet? Do you Plan to read it?
Please feel free to comment below!

See You In The Next Post and Have a Great Day! 🙂