Arbiter by Jamie Foley

Title: Arbiter

Author: Jamie Foley

• Date read: May 20, 2017
• Rating: 5 stars
• Genre: Fantasy / Suspense / Post-Apocalyptic (other world) / Christian
• Age: YA
• Year pub: 2017
• Pages: 282 (paperback)
• Series: Sentinel Trilogy, #2 (see my Double Review for Sentinel and Viper)
• Fave character: Jet!
• Source: From the author
• Notes: I received a free copy of this book from the author for review purposes (many thanks! :)). I was not required to write a positive review; these opinions are my own
• Links: Amazon (Kindle/Paperback) • Signed Paperback • Goodreads • Author’s Website

How do I even review this? Nearly everything that happens are spoilers of awesomesauce levels for anyone who’s read Sentinel, so it’s extremely hard to review this book. XD I will do my best to do so without spoilers, however! *tries to be vague*

Darien, Sorvashti, Aleah, and of course Jet are back for more epic shenanigans. *hugs them all* Jet is my FAVE as usual! 😀 He’s awesome. ❤ I’d say this book is primarily about Jet. We still get a LOT about Darien, since Darien’s the hero of course, but we get a lot of Jet’s POV and story, which I loved!! 😀 Darien is actually coming a long ways from where he was in book one. I was super impressed that he’s learning things and just coming further in general! *hugs Darien* I mean, he still has a lot to learn. >.> Ahem. But still.

IT’S SO INTENSE. *collapses* If book one seemed intense, this one was as much or more so. O_O I’m pretty sure I read this thing faster than I should have and consequently hardly remember bits of it, because I just could NOT stop zipping through those pages I was glued to! (Don’t ask about the logistics of this sentence. Just—don’t. Ahem.)

Other interesting thiiiings:

• There’s a new villain who, can I just say, is very interesting. O.o
• The settings range from snowy forested mountainsides to a tropical jungle island, so that was super cool!
• Somebody loses their memory AND IT’S AWESOME AND HILARIOUS. XD That’s one of those “tropes” that can be hard to do well but I LOVE it and it was particularly awesome in this. 😀 This book is worth it just for that. XD *zips lips and says no more*
• THE FRUIT. *dies of laughter* Nobody will understand this until reading chapter 14, but I thought it was epic. XD Ahhh, Jet is awesome. 😀

Downsides?

• It might be a little scarier than the first book… Maybe? So, kind of violent and intense, so if you’re sensitive to that sort of thing, I’d recommend caution.
• I did miss some of the extra humorous banter of Sentinel. There’s tons of funny lines in this one too, especially regarding the memory-loss thing, but overall this one seemed a little more serious? Could be my imagination. Don’t get me wrong, there is still a lot to laugh at in this one, which I loved! But things are getting more serious in the world as well, so… anyway. I don’t think that’s particularly a downside, necessarily, just saying the books are different. XD

I’m going to confess that I did the unthinkable… I actually peeked at the end. >.> I KNOW. So awful of me. But I was SO worried I just had to peek and make sure a certain something would be okay at the end before I could settle back down and enjoy it. Ahem. Don’t be like me, but I thought I would confess. XD After that I was able to enjoy it, and WOW did I enjoy it! 😀 It’s just a blast. Some of it was just a wee bit intense for me until I made sure some of it would be mostly okay, is all. But I’m a wimpier reader than some, so. 😉

I still love this fantasy world! It’s more on the dystopian/post-apocalyptic side, with remnants of technology, fantasy things going on (so many!) and an emerging spiritual world and so on. I’m enjoying learning more about this world and history and the different races, and the different Aether powers—including a couple new ones we didn’t run into in the first book! I love these Aether “superpowers”/“gifts” and how they tie into the story. 😀 Especially the mind-y things, since those are the “Arbiter” gift, which is what this book is named after… largely because that’s what Jet is and as I said, this book is somewhat about him. Also, I was very glad I’d read Viper (the prequel novella) because there’s a bit of harking back to that… and I will say no more because spoilers. 😉

But but FANTASY THINGS. Which I can’t say anything about, either… I will merely say that the Serran idea is fascinating, and a certain re-appearance of a character near the end (watch for a fox) seems to usher in a whole new look at fantasy things which has me very excited! 😀 (WINGS THOUGH. Ahem.)

SO MANY FEELS TOO. *collapses* Let’s just say I’m super worried/stressed at CERTAIN CHARACTERS’ life decisions near the end there. *cough* NO. STAHP. DON’T DO THIS!! D: I hope they will turn out okay in the next one. *squirming* I’m positively dying to read the final book, Sage, especially with that last chapter! Similar to book one (Sentinel), this ended not exactly on a cliff-hanger, but more on a “wait, that’s it? I NEED THE NEXT SCENE!” sort of place. Verrrry much looking forward to the final book and how all of this is going to turn out! O_O Just so much HAPPENED in this book! *flails* I need to know how this all turns out! (I also want more of Thracian. Because he’s cool.)

Anyway, definitely start with Sentinel, but I totally recommend this book as well, and it’s just as good as Sentinel, and in some ways better! 🙂 If you like suspenseful fantasy with a touch of technology and lovable characters and humor, that’s just super well written and generally AWESOME, definitely give this series a try! 🙂

Have you read any of these yet? Do they intrigue you? (I hope so, because they’re so unique and cool! XD)

Thanks for reading! 🙂

Dream away in those pages . . .

~ The Page Dreamer

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