Arivaca Guardians of the Light by John Poulsen

338 Pages
Publisher: Folded Corners, AuthorBuzz
Release Date: December 13, 2014

Fiction, Teens, Young Adult, Mystery, Thrillers, Sci Fi, Religious Items

After a failed attempted robbery, Jesse gets knocked out and saw a vision of his mother. She told him it was time to face his destiny. When he opened his eyes, he was on a gurney and had two blue triangle tattoos on his chest. He had no idea ow they got there. Instead of a jail term, he was sent to Arivaca, a therapeutic rehabilitation ranch for troubled youths in the southwest United States.

Upon arrival, Jesse makes an impossible rescue of a boy on a runaway horse. Paco, a worker at the ranch, tells Jesse about the Breastplate of Judgment, being a Protector, and the evil group known as the Followers of Cain. Paco performed an ordination on Jesse. Now with his newfound powers, he sees Cedar Lane, a young woman working at the ranch, in a new light. She literally glows when he looks at her. Jesse needs to find the biblical treasure and protect it from Satan and his minions.

The concept of a youth camp for troubled teens with treasure reminded me of the book and movie, Hoot. If you would like a young adult version of the DaVinci Code, you will enjoy reading this book.

This was an ok read for me. The premise was very good but somehow I just did not become engaged. I could not connect with any of the characters. I am sure that many fans of the fantasy genre might enjoy it more.
Many thanks to Folded Corners and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I went into this book pretty blind, having only briefly reviewed the prompt online. I love historical settings and fated guardians and magical relics, although a lot of the ranch atmosphere just really dropped the ball for me- I'm an equestrian myself.

DNF

I've had this one sitting for awhile. I tried to get into it when I first received it but just couldn't get into the story, despite my best efforts and just don't see myself picking it up again.

Thank you for the opportunity to review and read this book. Sadly, I had to DNF it @30%. I could not get into the plot or the characters and it just sat on my shelf for a while. This book was not for me.

Mystery, romance and fantasy. Great characters and a very compelling book. More to come by John Poulsen

Due to formatting issues, I was unable to read this title. It does sound intriguing, so I may seek it out in the future.

*I never got around to reading and reviewing this book. I may do so in the future*

Have not had the time to read and review. At this point I will not be able to get to it.

Jesse three years earlier had gained the reputation of being an athletic phenomenon. Jesse was an orphan and lived with his aunt Diane and two daughters who loved Jesse Jesse found it harder that he thought it would be to watch his aunt and the girls go. . But today was the fifth anniversary of his mother’s death that Jesse blames himself for. He wanted the pain to go away. He was waiting for Dirk to get a fix. He had stolen fifteen dollars from his Aunt Diane. His aunt nagged him to get a job. Jesse had been with his deal and didn’t know until it was too late he was robbing a store. Jesse was running and seen three doors in the alley , one was partially open and Jesse went in the door He saw some stairs and started down them and slipped .Then Jesse sees his dead mom and she says”Jesse stop running, It’s time to meet your destiny”. Then before he knew it Jesse was in a cop car. Jesse felt a burning sensation above his heart and now there was two blue triangles above his heart. One triangle pointed up and one pointed down and inside were three symbols. Jesse has to go to a ranch in Arizona for one year instead of a jail sentence. Jesse learned through research that the 3 marks in the triangle were letters of the Hebrew alphabet Jesse had originally sentenced to two years in prison but then an old man came forth and talked to the judge and the judge changed Jesse's sentence to one year in the therapeutic boarding school for young men -The Arizona Ranch Jesse loved reading about history not sports and everyone in the school thought thought Jesse was a traitor Jesse found people and relationships just made life more complicated. Dan headed the ranch and Brian was second in charge. There were usually forty to fifty boys that stayed on the ranch at a time.. The boys are divided into posses of five- six boys . Jesse saved a boy from a runaway horse. Jesse posse was called the Side Winders. Cedar was a female on the ranch and called the horse whisperer. There was something about the new guy that stirred unfamiliar feelings inside of Cedar. Being close to Cedar rattled the fringes of Jesse’s mind. Jesse spent his time with an old ranch hand named Paco.Jesse was told he has been chosen for a mission Jesse doesn’t believe Paco it at first but then things fall into place and Jesse then accepts his role of Guardian of an ancient religious relic. Jesse must first find the relic. The Evil One wants the relic which is the breast piece of judgement. The Evil One wants to get his hands on the relic as well as a couple of others. Cedar is the Shield which helps prevent the Evil one from seeing where the relics are. Jesse had been anointed from the past protector that is why he had magical powers. I didn’t love this book , I didn’t hate it. I think this dragged a lot at least for me. Also some of the interactions in the story seemed forced and characters changed and some not for the better. I did like seeing Jesse understand everything Paco told him to be true and he takes his new position in life seriously. Although i found a lot of the dialogue immature for the ages of the characters. I didn’t like how Jesse acted toward Cedar at first even if he felt it would save face. But this story did have a lot of things in it such as: Evil One, religious relics, danger,a action, suspense, bad boys, romance, lives in danger, a human shield and protector, and much more. I am sure others will love it just wasn’t for me.

I went into 'Arivaca' completely blind. No recommendations, no expectations, no pre-reading hype. Total carte blanche head-first dive into the book.

And it was good. It is -- there's no denying that 'Arivaca' is objectively a good book. It has a more than promising beginning, reminiscent of Louis Sachar's classic YA novel 'Holes' -- a personal favourite of mine -- in which a teenage boy goes away to a ranch that will help him recover while simultaneously being punished as opposed to serving time in prison.

But this is a more fantastical world than 'Holes' which, despite its elements of magical realism, didn't have its boys develop magical powers and try to protect holy relics from King Solomon's Temple. There was potential in that premise, but the problem isn't the story: it's the writing.
The simplicity of the writing means that these characters start out poorly: they're poorly sketched, they interact poorly, and their dialogue is cringe-inducing. They do, however, develop. That's a plus, despite some of the interactions and chemistry feeling more than a little forced, even through the end. Furthermore the pace at which the story unravels is very, very slow. There was more than one moment while reading where I thought, "Where are we going with this?" Overall, the reading of this novel felt more like a taxing chore than an enjoyable activity.

I'm afraid I DNF'd this book. It felt just a tad messy for me, and the format on my e-reader was quite squashed which I found made it hard for me to focus on the story. I just wasn't connecting with the story or the characters, though I do think if I had maybe read it when I was younger i may have enjoyed it a bit more. I began to skim read quite early on when Jesse arrived in the Arrivaca camp and when that happens I know I need to think about putting the book down as it's not fair on the author to read a book that way or me and my time. I don't think the writing in this book was necessarily bad, just for me in this moment of time it didn't work out.