Title: Wardens of Eternity

Author: Courtney Moulton

Pub. Date: January 21, 2020

Rating: DNF at p.135

Ziva Ellison has one memory of her parents, made the day they abandoned her on the streets of New York City when she was three years old. They left her with only a memory and a promise that she had a great and terrible destiny.

But trouble is brewing in the world around them; darkness is descending on Hitler’s Germany, threatening World War II. As the last heir of a revered Egyptian queen, Ziva is the only one with the power to prevent another costly global conflict. As Ziva navigates her newfound abilities and makes a connection with Anubis and other Egyptian gods, the Nazis are hunting for the ultimate weapon, and Ziva has caught their interest.

This probably won’t be a spoiler free review, because I feel a bit like ranting, but I also didn’t finish this book, so how much can I actually spoil? I’ll try to keep it as spoiler free as I can.

I thoroughly loved Courtney’s Angelfire series when I read it, so when I found she was writing a book about Egyptian Mythology, I was excited. Unfortunately, this book did not hold my interest. It took me days to reach page 135 before I decided that I just needed to stop. I didn’t care about the characters, the world, the conflict, any of it really. I thought the pacing was strange and I didn’t quite understand the point of setting the story at the beginning of World War II. Ziva doesn’t even remotely fit the mold of what a late 1930’s woman would be – not even in a “I’m a head of my time” kind of way. She felt like she’d been plucked out of the 21^st century and dropped into 1939 New York.

Which brings me to another issue I have. Ziva has powers, and there are others who have powers, and those powers are flaunted (in life or death situations, but flaunted nonetheless) out in the open, without a care to who sees. Same with the supernatural beings that put Ziva and her friends in these situations. Like, is there knowledge in this world of magical powers? Why aren’t locals more freaked out? It almost felt run of the mill and it was weird.

Let me jump back to Ziva really quick because she confused me. Other than feeling out of place in the story, I didn’t get how she was so trusting with Sayer and Nasira. They say they know things about her, and she just trusts them. What? She’s a young woman, living alone in New York and constantly has guards up, but she just trusts these two because they look like her and know things about her. This had me rolling my eyes.

AND Ziva goes from knowing nothing, to training and is suddenly like an expert with magic and fighting after like 3 days of training, bullshit. Like, i get that she’s special, and is inherently going to be gifted, but come on. Three days of training and she’s that bad ass. Three days of training after basically being starving and malnourished. I can’t. I don’t buy it.

Maybe one day in the future I’ll try finishing this book, but today’s not that day. I wanted desperately to like this book, but between the lacking characters, the weird pacing and unbelievable actions, I can’t bring myself to finish it. I don’t buy into Ziva, I don’t care about her or her journey. I don’t care about any of it, if I’m being completely honest. It kind of felt like this could have been a part of the Shadowhunter universe, but like, in a way that just didn’t work. I don’t know and I’m bummed because it sounds really good. Maybe the second half of the book is really good – if it is, and if you’ve read it let me know.