When I received this book, I was excited to read this. I was absorbed in this world and read this book in 2 days. I rarely read a book that quickly, but I could not put it down and I wanted more. The world-building was magnificent, and I cannot wait to read the next book.

I did not like the book. It was not my style and did not grab my attention I tried multiple times but was unsuccessful trying to enjoy the book. I appreciate the ARC but it was not my cup of tea. I did not see any other books by this author either on Amazon or Barnes or Nobles. Not sure what that means.

Keepers is the epitome of YA Fantasy containing intricate world-building, deliberate plot-lines and plenty of action. The series actively transports you through time and space, offering a delectable take on some typical tropes, with enough individuality to keep the reader hooked.

This book... was not for me.

When I first saw the book and read the synopsis I got really excited - it sounded like a phenomenal YA dystopian/mystery and I was really keen to get my hands on the book and delve into the world. So when I got the opportunity from Netgalley I jumped at the opportunity! When I actually started reading it though... I got confused and disappointed rather quickly.

This book follows Eden, a member of a royal Fallon family and one of the "Keepers" - tasked with keeping the balance in a universe seemingly ruled by fate. The world has what is essentially arranged marriages; being bound to your "other half" for all eternity - but that other half is typically not chosen by those involved, but by the "First Fallon" and "fate" itself. So Eden has the unlucky fate to be bound to her apparent worst enemy, and she's known that for a while and has tried to come to terms with it and get over her immense dislike of the guy. But when it's time for their fated "Binding" to occur something goes horribly wrong, and Eden goes through what is known as an "inheritance" following the death of her parents off camera (so to speak).

Honestly though, from there? I just spent was seemed like the entirety of the novel CONFUSED. Eden hates (or at least GREATLY dislikes) her "soulmate" yet goes along with some antiquated tradition that he must be right for her because that's what their leader says! And meanwhile she's having feelings for a childhood friend that is bound to another and who she has this whole mysterious history with. And there's the mystery behind why her parents were murdered, and the reveal of an unbalanced child that they were apparently investigating when they were killed, and this whole "in between" realm of... the dead?

I spent far too much time revisiting the glossary in order to try and work out what the heck was going on, and yet STILL being utterly lost. The amount of characters that seemed to be brought in that weren't properly introduced or explained until later and you were just kind of expected to know their purpose? It just didn't make sense It's like the author tried to do this epic high-fantasy world but didn't follow through on anything and just made an overly complicated society for no reason.

I think the only thing that the book had going for it was that it was an easy read. I tried my very best to suspend my disbelief and continue until the end because SURELY there was some twist coming where everything would suddenly make sense, or that the ending would be this phenomenal follow through. Surely something would bring up the rating! But the whole ending was just... meh. That's the only way I can describe it :/

Very disappointing read. Wouldn't recommend.

I received a copy of this book for a fair and honest review. I have been really in to steampunk. That is what drew me to this book in the first place. I love Eden she is a very bold and forward character. The worldbuilding in this book was beyond amazing and fun. I did not find out until after I was done with the book that it is a debut book. I love to start with authors debut books. There was a lot of action and suspense in this book. I could not turn the pages quick enough. I so want to know what happens next.

Arc provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is going to contain spoiler.

Ok, so I get very angry at book summaries that lead you along, hint at thing that you then don't get in the book.
The one on NetGalley is the one I read, that made me interested to read the book.

(What if your enemy was your soulmate?

Seventeen-year-old Eden East lives in a world ruled by fate. And as the heir to the ruling Elementals, her fate is bound to the odious son of their enemies: the Shifters.

Unwilling to accept her destiny, Eden rebels and unearths dark secrets. Then Trey Luchelli appears – a blue-eyed Siren who seems strangely familiar... The more Eden tries to ignore him, the more they are drawn together.)

I was interested in the idea of fated soulmates, but the book didn't do much with it. The characters are not fully explained. They were not human and had diff superpower. Ok but not much is explained about that. I don't know if this took place on a diff planet? Or a diff dimension? There is earth and you get to it by train, passing a weird in between place. But I didn't feel it gave enough information about it.

Her worst enemy? Just a guy she really does not like. They have been mean to each other since being kids and yet they are partnered in their school work, destined to be her soulmate. Everything about him makes her go "Ewwww" but SHE DOES NOT REBEL. Like at all. She is always convinced, for the majority of the book, that he's her soulmate, despite LOGICALLY not liking anything about him. She never thinks any deeper than that. Does not question the power who chooses which people are due to be soulmates.

As to the mysterious and 'strangely familiar' Siren boy.... dude he's her childhood friend. The moment she hears his name, she's like "oh yeah, its my friend from childhood who had moved."
His brother is one of her friends now! He's not mysterious at all. He's a Siren who has the ability to manipulate peoples emotions and memories. MEMORIES.
This we find out right off, the moment he's back in her life. And he's married or bonded or whatever to a diff girl. And being bonded is like for life and for the after life. It's unbreakable. People die when their soul mates die.
And yet he instantly flirts with her, ignores his wife. She is all "omg he's hot, how sexy this sexual tension is!" ....I call bullshit. In a society where soulmates and being bonded is practically holy. Kids born before a pair is bound are like bastards and are killed. Or are SO RARE! (eyeroll) So to have a married man hitting on her, should shock her so fucking much. It should be blasphemy! And yet she's just infatuated with him while never questioning any of it and keeps telling herself, no he's not mine, WHILE STILL NOT DOING ANYTHING ABOUT ANYTHING.

I didn't like the Siren guy. All he had going for him was he was hot. But there was this big thing about him taking away his own emotion to never deal with anything hard, like the death of his parent. He was pathetic and he didn't change, didn't grow. His big angsty thing was that he loved her, not his wife and his desire for her was the only emotion he could not take away from himself...-___-

It was easy to read, and despite all this, I kept reading, hoping at the end there would be a big reveal! The sexual tension would turn out to be just sexual tension but her soulmate would turn out to be someone completely different. Nether of the dudes, but a third person who comes into play later on...but no. No at the end she ends up being bound to the siren dude. His wife conveniently dies in a battle. Its never addressed if its a shock to him, or how he gets over it. Nope they are simply bound to each other now and are disgustingly happy.

Overall, I don't recommend. It didn't make me super angry or make me hate it. I just didn't like where it went and how much it missed out on. How simple it all was and that it didn't do anything to challenge the characters to grow. Won't be reading the next one.

Thank you Netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This is a decent Ya fantasy novel with creative elements that make it uniquely compelling. The author introduces magical elements like shifters, balance and imbalance that while it often felt cramped in one novel, it did make the story appealing. The heroine is a brave and intelligent young woman who risks a lot to right her world. I didn't exactly feel the connection with Trista but both worked together to set the balance so I came to appreciate him.
Unfortunately I won't be reading anymore of this series as it didn't completely hold my attention but worth the initial read.

<i> Arc provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review</i>

<b> DNF at 41%</b>

This won’t be a long review because this <i>Keepers</i> was just intensely bad. I refuse to waste much more time on it, but I do want to share my thoughts and hopefully no one else will waste their time either. I am baffled by all the glowing reviews...like….did I get a different book???

For one thing, I am always wary when the first pages of a book are the glossary. If you can’t introduce these terms in your writing and make me understand them as part of your world-building process, then we have a problem. <b>THIRTY-TWO TERMS, YOU GUYS.</b> Thirty-two. And the brief definition in the glossary is not enough for them to actually make sense in the world. More explanation was needed and never given. Just these terms thrown around. And also WHY THE FUCK is one of those terms “Steampunk Transporter” when there is <b>no reason</b> for this society to call anything “Steampunk.” The person with this title is a fucking bodyguard. There is nothing “Steampunk” about him. This society is run by magic. If there was supposed to be a Steampunk vibe, it did not come across. And even if it did this term would still be stupid af.

The writing was bad. Very bad. I understand that I was given an ARC, and that the final polishing is still to come, but even beyond the blatant misuse of commas on almost every page, the writing was just amateurish. Too many sentences just made me cringe because there was no subtlety, no sophistication. Too many times the characters would be referring to something that happened in a scene that we just saw...except what they are talking about didn’t happen. The explanation is that our MC blacked out….except she didn’t black out in the scene? She went all rage monster, but never blacked out as far as I can tell. It’s just poor editing, and I wish it had been gone over more thoroughly before being released, even as an ARC.

While the idea is initially interesting, it just wasn’t written well enough to keep my interest.

I loved this story and strongly recommend it to any readers looking to get glued to the pages!!! Was so into the characters as I got to know them.

Overall I enjoyed the book & would recommend to young readers & really anyone interested in this type of writing. I found it was good & entertaining to read, very much in the YA style.
Eden, the main character finds that she’s to be forever bound to someone that she pretty much hates while the guy she really has feelings for is already bound to someone else. The First Fallon says that once bound, forever bound but are the right people being bound together? Or is she putting people together because she has her own agenda?
The book leaves on a cliffhanging note & I’m curious to see what will happen in the next book.

This book was received as an ARC from Kobo Writing Life in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

I absolutely loved this book from cover to cover. This was unlike anything I have read before. I am also in love with books that take you away in one direction and then as you read on out of nowhere it takes you in a completely different directions with shockingly exciting twists and turns left and right. Eden also reminded me a lot of Mare from Red Queen but also of Merida from Brave because of her rebellious attitude and willingness to fight for what she believes in. I really desperately hope this book becomes a series because I know our readers are going to be highly anticipating the await for this book and the next.

We will consider adding this title to our YFantasy collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

This book has everything that I enjoy about YA Fantasy novels; wonderful characters, a well-built world with mysterious rules and rulers, and a lot of twists and turns in the plot. Keepers by Sacha Black tells the story of a seventeen-year-old girl with extraordinary powers, Eden East. After her parents are murdered and she is bound to an arrogant boy named Victor, Eden begins the journey to solving the mystery behind her parents' murder. Along the way, Eden learns the dark truths about her life in Trutinor; the history that she was once told is a lie. She must find the truth; about her parents' murder, about her destiny, and how to save herself, her remaining loved ones, and her State.

While the beginning of this book is a bit choppy and slow-building, the story is completely engaging. When we first meet Eden, we are introduced to the magic she possesses and the four States that comprise Trutinor. The background information that is needed to understand the rest of the story takes a bit of explaining, hence the slow beginning. Once the plot thickens and the events of the book become more fast-paced, Sacha keeps you on your toes. Just when you think you know what is in store for Eden and the others, she changes the pace. I loved the whole cast of characters! They were so fantastically developed that I fell in love with them; even the supporting characters were wonderful! I wholeheartedly recommend this novel for anyone who enjoys action-packed, YA novels with a fantasy element to them!

Plot (4 stars): This was a really fun read and the plot was great! There are four groups of people who live in the world and they are separated by the type of powers they have - shifters, sirens, elementals, and sorcerers. Their job is to bring Balance to those of us here on earth. Of course, they must keep balance in their home as well. When the balance is threatened, they must find a way to fix it. I love this plot, because it uses paranormal powers that we all know and love, but how they use them is completely different from other books. It was a fun, original twist.

Characters (4 stars): All the characters were great. The ones that I was supposed to like, I liked. The characters I was supposed to dislike, I disliked. They developed well throughout and reacted to situations in ways that made complete sense to me.

Writing (4 stars): Writing was good. I was able to imagine everything. There were a few errors in the book, but they were minimal.

Overall: I really enjoyed this book. In fact, I read it on a Saturday - the whole thing in one day. It was a really great book.

This wasn’t a bad book necessarily, it just never clicked for me. For starters, I never really liked Victor or Trey. Its hard to like a book when you don’t like its main characters. Then there was the whole romance thing. I’ll sum it up and say there was a lot of roaming hands and intense kisses. Yuck. The book itself is relatively short and the plot did flow, but I just wasn’t invested in the characters and couldn’t bring myself to care about what happened next.

I feel somewhat hesitant to write my thoughts on this book because for me it was a conflicted read. The first half introduces Eden, Victor and Trey but I'm loathe to describe this as a love triangle because honestly that's not how it felt. Eden is I suppose in a relationship that resembles an arranged marriage but as this magical society is all about balance and fate a huge part of me questioned things and that's when Treys presence started to make sense. Amidst all this confusion Eden experiences a devastating loss but then everything just seemed to speed up and it almost felt as if someone else was writing the remainder of the book !
Amazing train journeys and new characters got suddenly thrown in which certainly helped make it more interesting. I honestly did enjoy the way the author upped the ante although suddenly having characters using wands ( I just pictured Bellatrix Lestrange !) complicated the world building and muddied the waters. I guess for me it felt uneven and I would have much preferred that the world building had been less vague and wordy initially. I wanted to like Eden but with obvious cliches and conflicting ideas it really wasn't that interesting to me. There is a sequel and I sincerely hope it's a much more balanced book.
This voluntary take is of a copy I requested from Netgalley and my thoughts and comments are honest and I believe fair.