Book review: The Sentinel by Holly Martin

When Eve is rescued from a horrific coach crash by her teachers, she is shocked to discover they possess super strength and speed. But what happens next is even more harrowing. 

In the aftermath of the crash she discovers that everyone in her life from neighbours, doctors, dentists, teachers, shop keepers and even her family and friends are actually super strength Guardians sent to protect her. They all have one thing in common, a single minded ferocity that she must be kept alive at all costs. 

However, she is surrounded by secrets and lies. Those in the know deny all knowledge of what happened that fateful night. Everyone else carries on as normal, seemingly unaware of the new strange world that she has stumbled against. 

With the help of Seth, her best friend, Eve discovers the prophecies surrounding her true identity and the super strength she too holds. With her Guardians pledged to protect her, her closest friends ready to die for her, her own hopes and dreams are put on hold whilst she battles to control the amazing powers she has been bestowed with.

But those that seek to destroy her move ever closer. Will the Guardians be enough to protect her when so many are prepared to stop at nothing to see her dead? And will she be strong enough to fulfil her destiny when the time comes? 

A free e-book copy was given to me in exchange for a review.

There was a lot to be covered in The Sentinel; at its heart, I feel like it’s a good book, or at least a good premise.  It takes place in our world but has an entirely new one that we need to be introduced to in order to understand what’s happening.  This is done by way of the main character, Eve, who’s special to this world but doesn’t know it.  Even though she was being raised by guardians, and even her dog was a shapeshifter who had vowed to protect her, she was raised to think she was a normal human being.

Well, not necessarily.  That’s a bit of the problem that makes it not actually the best book it could be.  Apparently she’s spent her entire life being taught self-defense and other such things on the weekends (she says that where other girls her age might be out with friends or on vacation or dates on weekends, she was stuck training).  That isn’t a problem itself, but she claims that she’s “always been normal” and “never had reason to think she wasn’t.” But when it comes down to it, she realizes that a lot of her life isn’t normal.  So the beginning was kind of weak, and felt more like a stock “Normal girl is actually not normal at all” thing.  That definitely should’ve been cut out.

Another thing I have to complain about is that things happen much too fast.  The book is definitely long enough, but so much is happening, and most of it is just talked about.  Integral training is told rather than shown, entire scenes reduced to a few sentences telling what they did and how much fun Eve had or how frustrated she was that she couldn’t get something of her powers down right away.  Like I said, it makes the entire thing rushed.

Finally, I feel like there are too many characters.  The ones who are obviously important to Eve are easy enough to discern between after a while, but she has so many guardians hovering around her who are all named and she talks to at some point that I got them lost in my head.  Near the end when a name is mentioned, I went “Wait, who’s that?” It was supposed to be a big revelation but yeah, I was just confused.

Still, I feel like this is a pretty good read.  I enjoyed it for what it was and would definitely recommend it for fans of the genre.  And perhaps you can go into it without being as picky as I am.  Happy reading!