My sister and I have recently started discussing books we like. She was like, "You have to read this book. Chataine's Guardian. Read it!"
I was curious to see what she likes in a book and when she sent me a copy, I was like, okay, let's do this.
I finished and she was all excited, "So what do you think?!"
Without further ado, Chataine's Guardian.
"I am assigning a Guardian to ward you. His name is Roman. . .." Thus begins Surchatain Karel's explanation to his daughter, ten-year-old Chataine Deirdre, as to why her life is about to change dramatically. Karel's small country, Lystra, possesses the only navigable river on the southern coast of the Continent. The provinces that surround Lystra want its river trade, and will do anything to gain it--even kill the heir to the throne. So Karel places her life in the keeping of the most capable and trustworthy soldier he can find.
Willful and spoiled, Deirdre sees this guradian only as another servant to be mastered. She teases and abuses him as he places his life on the line for her day after day, year after year. Deirdre does not know at what point she beings to love him. But Roman knows from the very beginning that to love her will mean his death.
I will say that this blurb is at least better than the original that I saw.
On the tenth birthday of Chataine Dierdre, her father, Karel, appoints a guardian for her--Roman, a captain of the guard. Karel is aware of the Lystran law that, at age 17, Chataine must choose the man she will marry. But he never dreams her choice might be Roman, the homely soldier who calls himself a "Christian".\
Welp, now if you wonder what the story is about . . . you know! Considering it's at like 70% that Dierdre falls in love with Roman and then later that she chooses him, it's like they gave away the entire story!
Enter the only two characters that we really see much of. In one corner we have Dierdre, the spoiled brat princess who doesn't have any redeeming qualities. And in the other we have Roman, the poster child for perfect soldier.
The book starts when Dierdre is ten and Roman is twenty-two. Roman's life is completely taken up in protecting Dierdre and he seems to have nothing else going on. And on the odd day where he does something else like, train, or talk to another human being, Dierdre gets all butthurt.
Now this book didn't have much going on plot wise. We're basically waiting for Dierdre to grow up and though there's a thread of danger that winds throughout the tale, it's overshadowed for the most part.
Here's what got me in the end.
1. Dierdre is horrible! She gets sick at the 70% mark and wakes up magically a better person. There's no character growth for her entire freaking life to make us like her. I was like, wow, if we're going to root for her than we have to LIKE her. But she doesn't change, doesn't improve. And then she gets sick. Gets better and wow, she's now a new person. No explanation, nothing. Even if it was explained as "rewriting my personality because of a near death experience" that's such a cop out.
And even then she's still not that great of a person. It's really hard to be stuck in one character's pov the whole book when that character is a pain in the rear.
2. The age gap. I'm sorry. Age is not just a number. Maybe when I was a kid it would've been all romantical and stuff to have an older guy be interested in a teenager. Like maybe 14 year old me would've been all, "Oh, older men are so mature and boys my age are totally juvenile. It'd be so flattering to have an older guy like me." blah blah blah. But at 29, the same age as Roman when he starts his relationship with Diedre . . .
Can I just say eww? EWWWWW. I'm sorry, but the thought of being romantically involved with a 17 year old is NASTY. I can't imagine looking at a kid(and yes, 17 looks like a kid to me) and being like, oh yeah, I could totally go for that.
So gross. While this may work out for some people, it didn't work for me. Especially when it's revealed that Roman has "loved" her for longer than that. Um, at what point did this adult look at this kid he's been protecting and think, "Mmm, she's pretty dang fine. I want to marry her."
When she was 10? 11? I mean ANY point in that seven years between 10 and 17 is disturbing! And this isn't historical fiction, so don't try and tell me that it's historically accurate to have this kind of thing going on. And even if it was, still nasty.
Now I get why Diedre is like, mhmm, let's go. Roman is nice, doggedly devoted, and one of like two people who is actually involved in her life. It's natural that a kid who isn't matured enough yet to be able to sort through emotions would look at the one guy in her life who's nice to her and be like, "I love him!"
But Roman . . . he's got some sort of stockholm syndrome going on. This girl's pretty much owned all his time for the past 7 years and she gets insanely jealous when he spends time with anyone else. He's taken all sorts of abuse for her. Other than that . . . I don't get it.
She's not anywhere near his maturity level. She's not nice. She's actually been a complete pain for their entire history together. She's A CHILD. And here's where we lead into part 3.
3. The relationship. They finally decide they love each other and in like a few days of that hey have a speedy "wedding" involving running up to whoever does the marriage licenses and asking for a speedy recital and the signing of paperwork. Then they run off to this garrison and uh, don't waste any time.
Yes, it was light on detail, but I REALLY didn't want to think about some guy my age banging a kid. Blech. And for real. There's so much going on and yet they couldn't wait to jump in the sack. Which is basically the only thing that happens once they get married because the next day she gets shuffled back to someone's house to avoid conflict.
Months go by with zero contact between them and of course, Diedre is pregnant.
Now, I know that can happen, but for story purposes I don't know what the author was thinking besides, "Hey, let's make this even more insane by having Diedre need to hide a secret pregnancy!"
Having them be like, Day 1: We love each other. Day 7: Let's get married in 5 seconds. Day 7 continued: Bammedy Bam. Day 8: Cya Diedre, sending you away. Later . . . Oh no, I'm pregnant and the people I'm with can't know I'm married!!!
I just can't even . . .
Any other thing happening was neatly tied up. All the leaders and stuff died so the new blood could come in. Deus ex machina comes in at the end to make sure the impossible odds are overcome with ease.
I gave this 2 stars because I did finish it and the writing itself was decent. I just couldn't get past the personality of Diedre, the stomach churning "romance", and failing to like even Roman.
Which is really too bad because I wanted to like this. Especially since my sister was a fan. Now her challenge is to recommend a book I can do a 5 star ABB on!
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