Hi again! It’s me Kaitlyn, I’ve got some boring Swiss Miss Hot Chocolate, to combat the cold and dreary day. I read The Keeper of the Night, a couple of days ago and I have some thoughts… Mostly good, but some not so good and I am going to chock it up to Kylie Lee Baker being a Debut Author.
I get most of my YA books through my library now or as an ebook, because I have found myself drifting away from that age range here the last couple of years. There are definitely some YA authors that are still auto buy authors. But anything new I tend to try from the library first and if it’s a favorite I then buy a physical copy. I found it helps with excess spending and then donating books.
The Keeper of the Night follows Ren, who is a Japanese/British girl who is Half Reaper Half Shinigami. Which are essentially the same thing just have different lore depending on the nationality (Reaper = British and Shinigami = Japanese). After accidentally revealing her Shinigami powers to other Reapers she decides to flee Britain along with her Brother, Neven, and go to Japan in search of her Mother.
I am interested to see where Baker takes the story in book two, I was enjoying it a lot until Ren’s personality/attitude towards Neven did a very abrupt 180. Now there were some things going on in the story, Ren is “cursed” to have Death come for her but they spelled her name Wren (which is how her Father chose to spell it in Britain). And she is making a new friend name Hiro when previously it had just been her and her brother. Due to Ren’s mixed nationalities, she was not accepted by the Reapers even before they found out about her Shinigami powers.
So all of this can lead to sibling friction, in real life so it can definitely lead to that in a book. It was just so violent/sudden towards the end of the book that I was caught off guard. It was almost like Baker had accidentally brought the story to a conclusion but then realized she needed a story to write for Book 2 so she created the rift between Ren and Neven. Hiro, also turned out to be a bad guy, which Neven had been saying all along. But that really wasn’t surprising. No one offers to be that helpful without an ulterior motive.
Overall, I am interested to see Baker grow, and where they take Book 2. A solid Debut, that I would recommend picking up, even if it is for the folklore aspect of it.
Till next time,
Kaitlyn
Kaitlyn's Literary Teahouse 