*Synopsis*
Ward de'Ath should be dead by now. Instead, he’s chasing after a soul-eating creature—that he unleashed— and is bent on stopping her before she slaughters more innocents. Fortunately, Celia Carlyle remains by his side, a nobleman's gorgeous and deadly daughter, who is…well, dead.
Celia claims she’ll champion Ward wherever he goes, even when she thinks his quest is hopeless. He can only hope her pledge comes from her heart, and not because she’s bound to him through his magic.
When they enter Dulthyne, they stumble upon a dark power that threatens the entire town. Ward, with his unreliable necromancy, is determined to help but finds himself ensnared in the lure of white-hot magic…blood magic he struggles to resist. But if Celia’s love is a lie, it might just doom his soul to the dark arts forever.
*My Thoughts*
Ward Against Disaster, the third installment in the Chronicles of a Reluctant Necromancer, takes necromancer/physician Ward De'Ath, Quayestri Tracker Nazarius de'Serra, and assassin Celia Carlyle to yet another city where they hope to track down one of Ward's mistakes before she terrorizes innocents. Card uses all three characters to tell her story, and often times switches points of view (third) after each chapter. Disaster is an action packed, grab you by the throat novel, that pushes our heroes to the ultimate test of survival against a villain that has all the advantages.
Dulthyne is a city filled with darkness, horrors, blood, and life & death choices for Ward & crew to make after something is set loose on the city. It also provides a much needed answer to Celia's question as to what she's become and what really happened to bring her back to life. The story leaves still more questions about the desires of the Seer of the House of Bralmore towards Ward and whether or not Ward & Celia can truly trust Nazarius who owes Ward. I will say that Ward, Nazarius, and Celia make a really good team. I will also say that Celia and Nazarius are serious badasses who kick ass and take names. Ward isn't a coward by means folks. He isn't afraid to jump in when things get nasty. He's just never quite been trained like Nazarius or Celia were.
Ever since Ward raised Celia from the dead in Ward Against Death, his life has been filled with action, adventure, mysteries, questionable choices, and decisions, while attempting to remain true to himself, and not fall into the darkness that seems to surround his every movement while calling to him. While Ward is a humble character, he isn't vanilla, but he does have moments of indecision. He obviously loves Celia, and in a moment of lightness, apparently the feeling is mutual. I will say that the ending to Ward Against Disaster isn't close to being finished. There are still so many questions, especially with a critical choice that is made that affects everyone.
We once again debate the merits of calling this series Young Adult. I consider young adult to be between the ages of 12 to 18, but this series is being released by Entangled TEEN. Lately, I've heard some categorize YA as 14 to 21, which would put Ward into this category since he's 20. Logically, in terms of human development, Young Adult goes up to age 40, but since publishers have created an entire new genre called New Adult, Ward Against Disaster and its leading man, Ward De'Ath could also fall into the NA category. Call me confused.
Apparently, Card intends to release books in this series every 2 years, which makes for some serious frustration after reading the ending to Disaster and having a door literally slammed in my face. I want another book sooner, rather than later. I want to know what happens next to our dynamic trio. I want to know if Ward and Celia can find true happiness, or if Nazarius and the Seer have other plans for them. I want more romance between Celia and Ward since we got a taste of it in Disaster.
Author - Melanie Card
Title - Ward Against Disaster
Series - Chronicles of a Reluctant Necromancer # 3
Published by Entangled Teen
Release Date: January 19, 2015
Genre: Fantasy, Magic, Romance
Format: E-Book, 276 pages
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