Author: Erica Ivy Rodgers
Publisher: Peachtree Teen
Publication Date: 4 June 2024
Pages: 432
Format: eBook - PDF
Genre: YA Fantasy
Source: ARC via NetGalley
In this YA fantasy debut, a tenacious heroine with a dark gift must defend her family's legacy and faith from a handsome enemy.
Lady Charlotte Sand was born to calm the restless dead, but her power has grown unpopular thanks to the newly ascendant religion of the Silent Gods. Worse, her family’s ancestral Guardian, a lavender scarecrow who was once a defender of the crown, hasn’t woken for a new heir since her father’s sordid death. With other Guardians also reduced to pitiful bags of herbs on distant farms, the Order of the Old Gods is a struggling remnant filled with political exiles. But darkness stirs in Niveaux, and the spirits of the dead are turning into vengeful wraiths with alarming frequency.
Captain Luc de Montaigne is a pious follower of the Silent Gods, and he comes calling on Sand Manor with orders to collect the magic hearts of every sleeping Guardian. His success would purge the kingdom of the Old Gods once and for all, but Charlotte proves defiant and triggers a faction war. As an army of the dead amasses and dormant warriors stir from slumber, Luc and Charlotte grapple with a forbidden attraction: kill the other and step closer to victory—or yield to the electricity between them. The hearts they stand to lose may, in fact, be their own.
I enjoyed Lady of Steel and Straw. It contains many standard YA fantasy tropes, but the premise of the Guardians brings a wonderful freshness which makes it still manage to stand out from others in the genre. The idea of these spirit-powered scarecrow warriors really struck a chord with me: it was compelling and new and worked really well within the plot. Charlotte annoyed me a little at times as she caused so many issues simply by her own erratic behaviour, but her development within that sphere and her relationships with the other characters were well portrayed. Luc felt somewhat of a stereotype at first, but towards the end of the book we learnt more about his background which helped to flesh him out. Overall, the book held my interest from start to finish and when I closed the last page I was left wanting to read on in the series. As such, I am giving this one 4.5 stars and would recommend it to fans of YA fantasy looking for something with a new twist.
I received this book as a free eBook ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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