The premise of this sounded awesome, though I was a bit unsure of whether I'd love the high-fantasy style setting. However, the writing just didn't grab me, and I felt distanced from the characters and action throughout the novel, for some odd reason. Cool idea, but it just didn't work for me.

Aelis is a recent graduate of the illustrious Lyceum, a training college for magic users. However, instead of receiving a posh post compensate with her skills and noble house, she's sent to a rural village that hasn't had a magic user in years because some Lyceum administrator is a dick. As Aelis begins to make inroads with the locals and tries to fortify her mage tower against a determined goat, a band of mercenaries appears, and she realizes there's danger and evil lurking around every corner.

This was a lot of fun. The world building is neat, and there are some clever twists. Aelis is smart and snarky. I enjoyed watching her trying to establish relationships with the villagers and trying to do her best in odd circumstances. And out of all relationships in the book, I enjoyed Aelis and Tun the most. They get more screentime together, which I found a more compelling connection than the sapphic romance (which is still quite charming).

I think the "Twin Peaks" angle mentioned in the copy is perhaps oversold— there's certainly no log lady here.

BTW, this is the first in a series, but we get some reasonable satisfaction. I look forward to following Aelis's story!

**This review has been posted to Goodreads as well**

I found the opening to the book a little slow to get things going. We meet the main character, a skilled necromancer (with skills among some other magic schools as well) who receives her post as a warden (protector) of a very small village. As someone from a high class family in a big city this doesn't sit well with her. The first several chapters deal with this, her getting to the village, and starting to settle in before things start to get interesting.

Once things start to kick off we get a small series of adventures and mysteries from in and around the town which I was genuinely curious about. Our MC, Aelis, takes her job seriously and although she is young approaches each situation with some amount of logic. She may be a little rigid at times but we see the why of this with flashbacks back to her education at the Lyceum.

Even with the slow start I really did enjoy this book. I would've liked to get more with some of the side characters but presumably that will happen more in book 2. If you're looking for a quick read in an interesting world with a magical, but by no means overpowered, main character look no further.

**Publisher - I posted this review to Goodreads**

Enter the world of Lone Pine with the Warden Aelis de Lenti where Wardens uphold the laws of the kingdoms and odd occurrences abound.

Lone Pine is a tiny hamlet at the outer edges of the kingdom, it struck me as close to medieval as it gets with a few tiny differences that are spoilers if I mention them. The small mindedness and suspicion of any thing or anyone new, the adaptability of some of the residents and the unwillingness to adapt of others, the children who are wary but very curious. All really well done. There are backstories there and it is my hope that the author will flesh some of them out in the later books. Every character has depth, even the ones who make brief appearances on the page have an oomph to them. This is a credit to Mr. Ford.

Our heroine Aelis absolutely doesn't want to be in Lone Pine. She longs for the bright shiny cities she hales from and it is to the author's credit that Aelis doesn't suddenly (unrealistically) have a change of heart and decide she loves being out in the middle of nowhere. In fact, if anything, she doesn't seem to reconcile her life there so much as she is sternly resolute to finish out her two years come what may. Mr. Ford does an admirable job of depicting Aelis, her internal struggles, her determination and yes, her whining (internally of course) that she doesn't belong HERE; she belongs in the cities. He also does an admirable job of letting Aelis's ego get the better of her common sense at times. These little touches really bring the character to life and you become immersed in her dialogue. I will say that as a reader, I may have yelled at her a few times to get over herself.

Aelis has a hard job ahead of her to get the villagers of Lone Pine to trust her. They know what her robe specifies, what her specialty is and they view it with deep distrust. She sets about trying to find out what would work to aid in at least getting a modicum of acceptance. When things come up and she handles them, she starts down that road but it is about to get rocky.

When what should be a sleepy, easy albeit boring assignment to a backwater turns deadly serious after a couple of incidents, Aelis is called upon to use her warden teachings and skills in ways that she didn't ever think she would need to. It is here that the author's mastery of magicks and interaction of characters with those magicks shines. He makes it clear that while Aelis can do magick, it is not without cost and the learning of those same magicks took intense years of study. He masterfully weaves in parts of her magick lessons in flashbacks as she is trying to work those magicks in sometimes very difficult situations. Her thought process is muddled not clear and that is excellent because unless you are a machine, your thought process isn't always clear in difficult times. I particularly loved a scene towards the end of the book where Aelis must use both magick and ingenuity because magick alone isn't going to help her this time.

There is an element to this book that RPG players will like - the puzzling out of entering or leaving a certain space. For someone who doesn't play games, it will simply read as a clever use of puzzles to move the story along. It is really well done.

I would have liked to have seen more interaction in Aelis's school days as well as her family's reaction to wanting to become a Warden.

This is my first book by Mr. Ford, it won't be my last.... looking forward eagerly to book 2.

This book was suggested to me based on something I had read previously. After reading this book, I don’t see any similarities in the two except for a fantasy setting. That being said, I throughly enjoyed this.
In this book a newly minted Warden (magical protector and healer) is sent to a remote village that hasn’t had a Warden in a while.
As the Warden settles in, she discovers that the town has a few odd characters to it. Then a few odd characters come to town and the story kicks off.
I liked the world building in this. I definitely wanted to know more, both about the civilized world and the rustic village in which Aelis found herself.
The characters were fun and likable. I would like to know more about how her Sword and her Anatomist’s Dagger works. Honestly though, I’m hoping the goat makes a regular appearance in the second book.
If there were any downside to the book, I’d say that towards the middle during a hunt for a fugitive, the book seemed to dawdle a bit. I’m not saying it wasn’t interesting. I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy it. I’m just saying I felt it could have been a bit tighter in that part.
I’ve never read anything by this author before, but in waiting for book 2 of this series, I’ll definitely take a look at some of his previous work.

The book seems well-written and well-thought-out. Unfortunately, I can't connect it and started to feel like forcing myself to finish it. I decided to DNF it for now, but I want to emphasize it's the case of "It's me, not you" DNF :)

Thanks to the publisher for giving me the possibility to try it. I may give it another try soon.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Tor for providing me with my very first eARC!

Going into this book I was incredibly excited as it was high on my list of anticipated reads for this year. Unfortunately, it fell mostly flat for me. I found it incredibly hard to push through the book and was debating whether I should simply dnf it multiple times as I didn't want to spend time with a book that could not hold my attention.

Aelis being a female necromancer had so much potential for an interesting story and the whole plot seemed very intriguing right off the bat! However, I couldn't really relate to her as a character, let alone grow fond of her. I found her to be quite arrogant and irritating at times and her sense of entitlement (which she did let go off for a bit towards the end) made it not easy for me to like her.
One of my biggest gripes with the book and Aelis as a character was Aelis' inner monologues. But most of the time you can't even describe them as inner monologues because she is actually talking to herself. Out loud. I don't mind some mumbling here and there but Aelis voicing her inner thoughts out loud just hit all the wrong spots for me. At some point, I thought it finally got a bit better - only to be proven wrong again. It might just be a pet peeve of mine but even I, as an introvert, don't talk to myself like that.

What the book tried to do with what I think of as a try-hard The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim-esque quest thing, unfortunately, failed to do its job. Other reviews I read also describe it as a poorly written DnD campaign with a DM and players completely new to the game - and I think that hits the nail on the head. The ideas seemed great but the execution felt lackluster and just, as I just mentioned, it came off as a bit try-hard. The romance had potential but was drawn out in good old YA fashion with lots of "should've, could've, would've" and ultimately did nothing for me. Additionally, the typical trope of "oh, so they like each other? Well, then they should banter all the time!!!" didn't help much either.

Overall, I felt indifferent to mostly everything - the story, the characters, the world, and the magic. None of it really merited my attention in the way I was hoping for.
The Warden is by no means bad, it's just wasted potential for me. I do want to say though that I can see a younger audience definitely enjoying the story for what it is!

I had such a fun time with this book! Poor Aelis is just a city girl necromancer stuck in the backwoods who is faced with situation after situation. The poor girl can't catch a break! I loved her as a main character and I loved all of the side characters just as much. I can't wait to see what trouble everybody gets into next in Necrobane!

THE WARDEN is definitely a book with a ton of potential. I really enjoyed the female necromancer aspect and the world that Daniel M. Ford created is an intriguing one that hints at more to be revealed later on down the road. It's also a story that I easily got lost in for stretches. In the beginning of the book we see main character Aelis a little annoyed at the fact that she didn't get a better assignment as a warden, feeling she'd been given the worst of the worst compared to her fellow Magisters. Lone Pine is not exactly in the center of civilization nor a hotbed of evil activity. And yet we can tell that we are being set up for something that will soon change her perspective on things.

Once the action picks up this was a fairly enjoyable fantasy romp that refreshingly deviates from the usual formulaic fantasty books. Aelis has to deal with a lot of roadblocks, including a populace in this small backwater town that inherently doesn't trust her. Yet they also need her for protection which makes the relationship reluctantly symbiotic in many respects.

For some reason though I just never got fully invested as I feel like I should have, that's where the potential comment I made earlier comes in. I kept waiting for something to get me 100% hooked but that didn't happen and although I did enjoy the book for the most part, it kept me from being able to give this a stellar rating.

I do believe that Daniel M. Ford can pull me back in and I was dazzled a couple of times by his descriptions of magic. So I would certainly continue on with this series as I feel like the characters are also neatly drawn and have a significant depthness to them. So there's a lot to like and the next book will hopefully build on the solid foundation that has been laid down in THE WARDEN.

I would definitely recommend this book if you are looking for a quick fantasy read that features a strong female protagonist, really cool magic, and some fascinating worldbuilding that transports the reader into a wondrous setting. Overall I liked this book and will anticipate future releases from Daniel M. Ford with keen interest.

Unfortunately, I did not like this very much. While I like a fast paced story, I found this to be almost too rushed and I needed more of the characters and the setting to really feel any attachment at all. As it stands, I didn't really like or care for any of the characters. I loved the idea for the world, but it was just not fleshed out enough and I think the book needed to be less rushed to really give the reader a chance to fully immerse themselves in this world. Also, the $27.99 price point indicates that this is being marketed and sold as an adult sci-fi/fantasy novel, and I really don't agree with that. I could see it being considered older YA but it really doesn't read like an adult novel. The expectation that this was adult combined with how rushed everything was left me sort of dissatisfied with the book overall. I can see where people would like this--one reviewer mentioned that this seemed like Lord of the Rings lite and I can agree with that. I think people who enjoy that kind of thing might get a kick out of this, but it just didn't work for me.

This was just an okay book. I feel like it was a bit rushed and I didn’t care for hardly any of the characters. I did like the setting and thought there were some creative aspects that I enjoyed.

I thought this book was just alright. I didn't feel much attachment to the characters, and while the world was interesting, it could've been explained better. Aelis was a fine main character, but she didn't stand out to me very much, and she talked to herself way too often.

This just doesn't do a thing for me. I forced myself to read 15%.

The MC is a necromancer. We're told right off the bat that she's extremely intelligent, but, well, you know how that goes. She could rival Einstein in the brains department for all I care. I couldn't stand her. When the book begins she's highly indignant because she has been assigned to the Warden position out in the middle of nowhere, in a little town called Lone Pine to be precise.

Let me explain why I disliked the main character. 1. She displayed a strong sense of entitlement. 2. She has some aristocratic bloodlines, but the way she thought about and/or interacted with the villagers was still condescending, aristocracy aside. 3. She was very, very arrogant. 4. She was kind of stupid for being so smart.

As a female, I just really couldn't relate to this fictional female character. Perhaps it's due to the fact that the author is a male and wrote her as basically a man with you-know-whats. I don't know. But it is what it is, and she was written as obnoxious. Even with all of that said, I might have continued but for the straw that broke the camel's back: her extremely annoying habit of talking to herself in a way that people just don't do.

I'll put it this way. We all talk and mutter to ourselves at least sometimes. But when we do, we don't say full-length paragraph dissertations. We might say things along the lines of, "Where the heck did I put...?" or if doing something stupid we might say "That was smart!" Small comments, unless I'm talking to myself incorrectly 🤔 But certainly nothing close to this girl! She loved to hear herself talk. Here is a random example from the many, many, many examples from which to choose:


“Well,” she sniffed. “Surely a simple oversight. No doubt they’ll correct it in the morning. They had better,” she added. “I’m not about to go down among them and ask for supper now. Besides . . . surely many of them are after their sleep now. Rise with the sun and go to sleep with the moons, aye?”


Who talks to themselves like this? It was such a distraction! I can see if this was done to give the character some endearing eccentricity, but it wasn't. He could have had her thinking rather than speaking aloud; that might have made more sense. But it drove me bonkers. It's very unrealistic. Now that I think about it, this complaint is more about the writing style itself than the character.

Actually, the only likeable characters up to my stopping point were the innkeepers and the goat.

Maybe this would be better marketed as YA. I can't see these things being an issue for a younger audience. As I am in my mid-fifties, they were indeed a negative.

I received this eARC from Netgalley and Tor. I wish that it had worked out more favorably.

Great story and a writing style above what I was expecting. A discovery author for me which i will gladly reread in the future!

It took me a while to get into this one but in the end i enjoyed the hell out of it.

Aelis grows on you. Her compassion, tenacity and... choice of language as she deals with a challenging "frontier" Warden posting are engaging.

It's a simple, character driven story with pretty good world-building that is there only to serve the story. I always like that.

This is well worth a look and my only real gripe was that until about ten pages from the end i thought it was a stand alone, which would have made a nice change from to 50 plus ongoing Fantasy series I'm reading and trying to keep track of in my tired brain.

Oh, well. Another enjoyable read on that growing pile is not the end of the world!

Really loved the world building in this new fantasy. There was good rep here and appreciated the different races. It leaves off on a cliffhanger so I hope the next one is on its way! Definitely would continue the series and recommend to others.

Lord of the Rings lite that is prefect for older teens. Not too many characters, a good female lead, a Bildungsroman built to form, and diversity led to a good fantasy start to a series. However it started to lose steam at the end for me and the cliffhanger isn’t enough for me to want to continue the story. I liked where the story finished and it could do well as a stand alone.

My thanks to NetGalley for making an eARC of this book available to me.

This was a pretty good opening book in a new fantasy series. Interesting magic systems, multiple races (human, orc, elves and more), and a general acceptance of non-cis relationships made for good world-building and a decent read. The writing was a tiny bit choppy in places, but that won't stop me from seeking out further books in this series as they come out. Be forewarned that this book ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, so hopefully the author can get the next book picked up and published.

Thank you, Tor Publishing Group, for allowing me to read The Warden early.

I'm sorry, the Warden is not my cup of tea. I didn't particularly like the writing and the characters. I hope other readers will love the story more than I did.

The Warden by Daniel M. Ford, I really enjoyed this book, it starts off a little slow and doesn't telegraph where its heading. I urge you to give this book a chance as it might just come out of the blue and surprise you.