The risk I took with Guardian

Since Guardian released a little over five weeks ago, I’ve had some great feedback from readers. While the ARC thing didn’t work out as well as I’d hoped this time around (I think timing just made it difficult for a few of the reviewers to get to it before its release, which happens), I believed this book would be well-received just based on beta reader comments. And it has been.

But I took a bit of a risk when I wrote this book, and a number of reviewers have commented on it: Guardian is a pilgrimage/journey story, but the main character is not the one undergoing the trials. He’s an observer who doesn’t get to see the intimate details of the mage’s trials, but he’s there throughout in the role of guardian (hence the book’s title.)

I knew from the onset that this was a bit of a risk. To have the main character relegated to such a role is almost unheard of in the fantasy genre, but I had a few reasons why I chose to write it this way, and I’ll go into details about that below. But from the feedback I’ve received, readers are really enjoying this book. I think I made the right decision.

The Caein Legacy was always going to be at least a 3-book series. (It ended up as 4 because there was too much to pack into the third book without it becoming an absolute doorstop novel. As it stands, the final book, Legend, is still the longest of the series.)

Books 1, 3, and 4 needed to be told from Andrew’s perspective. But book 2? I went back and forth on how to go about it for a while as I was finishing the initial draft of Exile. Guardian is really Alexander’s journey, but did it make sense to switch to his viewpoint for one book?

After a lot of thought and discussions with my husband, who is more often than not a sounding board for my ideas, I decided I’d stick with Andrew’s point of view. It made more sense to me to keep a single narrator throughout the series, but it also gave me the opportunity to explore some of my real life experience through the eyes of Andrew Caein.

His younger brother, Alexander, grows up a lot during Guardian, and Andrew is forced to take a step back from his lifelong protector role in order to let Alex mature and learn how to cope on his own. I’ve had to do the same as an oldest sibling, and it was both difficult and fun to watch my brother become the adult he is today. Andrew’s story mimics my own in that regard, and I had fun writing it.

While I know some readers are probably curious about what exactly a mage’s trial entails, you don’t get to see much of them in this book, but you do get to see the results…and some of the difficulties Alex experiences along the way. And for those who really want to know more about that bit of this world’s lore, I go into greater detail in the related series, The Mage War Chronicles. There are at least 2 main characters in that series who are actively going through the mage trials during the story (Helene and Seren.) I have every intention of publishing that series, but it won’t be until at least 2026. Just know it’s coming.

Going into publication with Guardian was nerve-wracking. Given that it was Alex’s story, but told by Andrew, I wasn’t sure how the general reader population would receive it. My betas loved the story, and the couple ARC readers who left reviews seemed to as well, but it was a big unknown. And after the somewhat unexpected success of Exile, I was really terrified that the sequel would flop. I mean, that’s a normal fear with any sequel, but since Guardian was so different, I think I had more cause to worry than usual.

But Guardian has been received so much better than I could have hoped for! It seems people really relate to the sibling bond between Andrew and Alex, and even though Andrew’s something of an outsider for the magical parts of the story, he learns a lot about himself and his dragon heritage while Alex is busy doing mage things.

Now, I’m just hoping Harbinger will go over as well as Guardian has. I guess I’ll know for sure in May.