Review: Ward Against Death

Title: Ward Against Death

Author: Melanie Card

Publisher: Entangled Publishing

Publication date: August 2nd, 2011

Format: ebook - 286 pages

Genre: Fantasy

 

 

Ward de’Ath expected this to be a simple job—bring a nobleman’s daughter back from the dead for fifteen minutes, let her family say good-bye, and launch his fledgling career as a necromancer. Goddess knows he can’t be a surgeon—the Quayestri already branded him a criminal for trying—so bringing people back from the dead it is.

But when Ward wakes the beautiful Celia Carlyle, he gets more than he bargained for. Insistent that she’s been murdered, Celia begs Ward to keep her alive and help her find justice. By the time she drags him out her bedroom window and into the sewers, Ward can’t bring himself to break his damned physician’s Oath and desert her.

However, nothing is as it seems—including Celia. One second, she’s treating Ward like sewage, the next she’s kissing him. And for a nobleman’s daughter, she sure has a lot of enemies. If he could just convince his heart to give up on the infuriating beauty, he might get out of this alive…

My thoughts:

This one definitely surprised me from the get go. 

From the very first page I was certainly thrown into the deep end with all of the action. Admittedly it was a little confusing at first but I did get the hand of it after a few pages. I really enjoyed how fast paced it was - I've never read anything that was as fast-paced and intense as this read. 

I'm going to get it over with and talk about all the things I didn't like about the read. I thought, because of how fast the read was paced, that I wasn't introduced to the characters as well as I could have been. It was like they were just there and then it was bang, straight into the action. I didn't know a thing about the character's personalities or even all of their names barely. I think it's because of this that I didn't really like any of the characters. I know Ward is supposed to be sweet and the kind of man always trying to do the right thing but to me, he came across as a right idiot. I'm sorry, but he was ridiculously stupid in my eyes, not just in the decisions he made but how he talked to everybody.

I did love the plot of the book. It was a surprise from the very start. A girl is raised from the dead and immediately wants to solve her own murder. It was great. There were necromancers, assassins and a woman who can suck the soul out of you with kiss. There were brilliant action sequences.

I do have mixed feelings about this book though since I didn't get on well with the characters. I think it's a great read for anybody who enjoys a lot of action in their books but for me I think it was an average read.

My rating: 6/10

Melanie Card:

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