Mundie Moms

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Blog Tour: The Cadet of Tildor by Alex Lidell, Book Review / Giveaway


I'm excited to be apart of AToMR Tours's tour for Alex Lidell's The Cadet of Tildor. Today's stop features my review along with a tour wide giveaway! 



By: Alex Liddell
Published by: Penguin Teen
Released on: January 10th, 2013
Source: arc from publisher to review
4.5 stars: I Really Enjoyed It!
Purchase from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Tamora Pierce meets George R. R. Martin in this smart, political, medieval fantasy-thriller.

There is a new king on the throne of Tildor. Currents of political unrest sweep the country as two warring crime families seek power, angling to exploit the young Crown's inexperience. At the Academy of Tildor, the training ground for elite soldiers, Cadet Renee de Winter struggles to keep up with her male peers. But when her mentor, a notorious commander recalled from active duty to teach at the Academy, is kidnapped to fight in illegal gladiator games, Renee and her best friend Alec find themselves thrust into a world rife with crime, sorting through a maze of political intrigue, and struggling to resolve what they want, what is legal, and what is right.

 

I was on a fantasy kick last year and this year has already started off with a bang. Alex Lidell created a mesmerizing world full of intrigue, danger, magic and the type of character chemistry that hooks you and keeps you turning the pages just to see if anything comes out of it. It's one of those books that literally had me going, "Just one more page." over and over again until I was done. I couldn't stop reading it. The Cadet of Tildor introduced to me to some fascinating characters, took me on a dangerous mission that was brutal, hopeful, and extremely dangerous. With betrayal, skilled swordsman, and a lot at stake, I was impressed with all Renee accomplished in this book.

I am a huge fan of girls who prove that they can do what a boy can do, but in a manner that's fitting to the world their character is in and in circumstances that make sense. Meaning it's not something that's forced onto a character, or doesn't make sense for the character to be that way. Luckily this was not the case with Renee. I loved this character. Let's just say in a time when girls wouldn't dare touch a sword, let a lone lead a small band on a rescue mission, especially if that someone was a girl and someone who was part of a royal family, Renee was nothing what I excepted her to be and everything I had hoped she would be. She's stubborn in all the right ways, which aided her on never giving up. Never letting the guys best her, or showing that while she wasn't as strong as they were, she could still very much take out her opponent. I LOVED that she wasn't a damsel in distress. She held her own, asked for help when she needed, and she wasn't afraid to try, even if that meant her outcome may not be that pretty. She never game up. Renee can certainly hold her own, and I respected her for not only upholding what she believed in, but she also does things that prove how loyal she is to those she serves with and cares about. She's definitely a heroine that I won't soon forget about.

The guys in this book are fabulous! I love the way Alex created and wrote the characters and the various relationships. This story is full of family secrets, and betrayals that only add to the story's overall mystery and suspense. In the midst of everything that's going on, there are three guys who are all play different rules in Renee's life that I loved. Alec, Cory and Savory all surprised me. Well I can say I loved Cory from the get go. I liked Alec a lot, and dang it, the direction his story took and what takes place between he and Renee definitely pulled at my heart strings. What I was not accepting was to fall for Savory. Like, at all! Talk about a shocker, I LOVED they way Alex developed all of Renee's relationships, but especially this one. As I mentioned above, there isn't a romance, but there's that hint of one that's hopefully going to be developed. It's obvious about how much some of these characters care about one another and I'm just saying, while there's not kissy scenes, the character chemistry was just as hot, and so fitting for this timeless time period.

The setting of The Cadet of Tildor is so well developed. It reminded me of Graceling in the fact you're thrown right into what's going on right off the bat, vs having this steady build up, which I love. Everything plays out perfectly and in it's own way. If you're a fan of this timeless period where kingdoms rule, betrayals are rampant, magic must be kept hidden, and romance is just on the horizon, then I highly recommend picking up this book! It's that good!! If this is Alex's debut I can hardly imagine what the next book is going to entail.




Alex Lidell (www.alexlidell.com) was a finalist in the 2010 Amazon Breakthrough Novelist Award competition and lives in New Jersey. This is her first novel.

Giveaway: Thank you to Alex Lidell, she's offering the following to two lucky winners who are following the blog tour:

$20 Amazon Gift Card, PLUS a copy of THE CADET OF TILDOR with swag – US
$20 Book Depository Gift Card – International


a Rafflecopter giveaway

2 comments:

  1. I couldn't have written this review better myself. I second everything you said! Yep, the chemistry without actual romance is hard to pull off, but I loved it. I can't wait to see what happens next and if things do develop with Savoy (as I hope!)

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  2. I so agree with your review too. I loved this and stayed up way too late reading it one night and had to go to work on about 3 hours sleep the next day. But it was so worth it to finish the book.

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