#REVIEW: The Blood Guard by Carter Roy

Title: The Blood Guard
Series: The Blood Guard #1
Author: Carter Roy
Publisher: Two Lions
Published Date: March 4, 2014
ISBN: 9781477847251
Buy It Link: Amazon

Synopsis: When thirteen-year-old Ronan Truelove’s seemingly ordinary mom snatches him from school, then sets off on a high speed car chase, Ronan is shocked. His quiet, nerdy dad has been kidnapped? And the kidnappers are after him, too?

His mom, he quickly learns, is anything but ordinary. In fact, she’s a member of an ancient order of knights, the Blood Guard, a sword-wielding secret society sworn to protect the Pure—thirty-six noble souls whose safety is crucial if the world as we know it is to survive.
Now all those after-school activities—gymnastics, judo, survival training—she made him take, make sense. For suddenly Ronan is swept up in a sometimes funny, sometimes scary, but always thrilling adventure—dashing from one danger to the next, using his wits to escape the Bend Sinister, a posse of evil doers with strange powers. Falling in with two unlikely companions, Greta, a scrappy, strong-willed girl he’s never much liked and Jack, a devil-may-care teenage pickpocket, Ronan is left with only his wits and his mom’s last words of advice: Trust no one.
That’s a lot for an ordinary kid to deal with. But then again, maybe Ronan’s not ordinary at all.

My Rating: 4 stars

My Review: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
As an adult reading a middle grade school fiction book, I enjoyed the book. It was full of action from the very beginning, and kept going until the final showdown. It was full of intrigue and fights, and while it is clearly fantasy in nature, it is a modern fantasy.
As much as I loved the book and plot, it did stretch reality somewhat (okay, a lot). Ronan's mother has secretly been training him his whole life to become a Blood Guard member, having him take different martial arts classes, and of course the Ultimate Frisbee League (of which he does use his amazing prowess in the book), all of which will inadvertantly train him to be a Blood Guard member when the time is right. And let's not forget the guy whose head gets chopped off and yet somehow continues to live (and see through his eyes though his head is miles away).
Violence....yes, there is a lot of it, much of it directed against children, but then you find that when you read a book about a kid who becomes a part of an ancient order of knights set out to save the world from the bad guys.
I don't know if I would have my almost-middle schooler read this book yet. I think I would wait until perhaps 7th for the emotional grownth of her before letting her read this.