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Zerah's Chosen (Guardian Circle #1)

by Isabelle Santiago (Goodreads Author)

3.5 of 5 stars 3.50 · rating details · 8 ratings · 3 reviews

In Zerah, Guardians of Water, Air, Fire, Earth, Life and Death are chosen by The Beings to serve their people. Able to feel the emotions the Beings cannot, they help their world stay in balance.

Guardians live and die together, but when Kieran is born with the marks that prove he's the Guardian of Death, his mother hides him instead of giving him up to the temple. She loves...more

ebook, 200 pages

Published September 28th 2009 by Drollerie Press (first published 2009)

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Jul 13, 2010 Larissa rated it 4 of 5 stars

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I am very conflicted about my thoughts on this novel. I went into it expecting it to be more in the romance genre, but I am not so certain anymore. I mean, there is romance, but there is no clear HEA in sight yet.

In Zerah’s Chosen we find ourselves in a world where guardians of the elements, Life and Death are born to every generation. They are marked from birth and should be taken to the temple for training from a very young age. There they take vows to the Beings that bestowed their powers ont...more I am very conflicted about my thoughts on this novel. I went into it expecting it to be more in the romance genre, but I am not so certain anymore. I mean, there is romance, but there is no clear HEA in sight yet.

In Zerah’s Chosen we find ourselves in a world where guardians of the elements, Life and Death are born to every generation. They are marked from birth and should be taken to the temple for training from a very young age. There they take vows to the Beings that bestowed their powers onto them and train to harness their powers and live selflessly toward the good of Zerah.

Kieran is has the markings of Death, but his mother refused to be separated from him, so she hid him for as long as she could. At age 15 Kieran accidentally kills a seer that was trying to help him, he then is found and taken to the temple whilst his mother is condemned to prison and isolation for the rest of her life.
From them on we follow Kieran’s journey into manhood while he learns how to control his power and while he forges a relationship with the other 4 guardians. However, he always feels like an outsider and the only bright thing is his life seems to be Amaya, the guardian that holds the power of water.
Any feelings other than brotherhood and friendship are forbidden by the code the guardians have vowed to follow, so when Kieran and Amaya find themselves desiring and needing each other in a way they have never known, things start to spiral out of control.

I actually went through this novel fairly quickly and I did enjoy the story. The whole “religious” concept behind the guardian was very interesting as was the whole “debate” about being a zealot and blindly following your own interpretation of a code that you consider to be holy.
I have a huge problem with this, especially since this sort of blind trust is what leads to so many conflicts in our own world. Therefore that only made this story that much more appealing to me.

All in all Zerah’s Chosen is a great fantasy read that ended is such a cliffhanger that I can’t help to rejoice in the fact that there will be a continuation to the series. If you are looking for a fast paced, action filled novel this is NOT the book for you. Zerah’s Chosen takes its own time in telling its story, and I was just fine with that. I definitely recommend it to any fantasy fan out there!(less)

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May 28, 2011 Lindsay Paige added it

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Title Thoughts: Fits perfectly with what happens in the book.

Cover Thoughts: I love this cover! I think it shows Kieran perfectly, with his dark hair and the marks on his wrists. The stone in his hands has so much to do with the book too. Plus, the circles have a lot to do with the book too.

WARNINGS: There is sex once, but it's off scene.

Let me start with the characters. Kieran is someone who is lonely and full of hurt, anger, and frustration. His mother is taken away from him for something he d...more

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Feb 01, 2011 Lisa Asanuma rated it 5 of 5 stars

Zerah is a rustic world, a world of common men, fishers, and prophets, ruled by Beings both mysterious and fearful. This story isn’t about common men or fishers or prophets, though. Every generation, six people are branded by the Beings and made Guardians over the elements—Water and Fire, Earth and Air, Life and Death. Those born with the brand are sent to the temple to train, to learn how to control the power they have over their elements in order to maintain the balance that makes up life.

The...more Zerah is a rustic world, a world of common men, fishers, and prophets, ruled by Beings both mysterious and fearful. This story isn’t about common men or fishers or prophets, though. Every generation, six people are branded by the Beings and made Guardians over the elements—Water and Fire, Earth and Air, Life and Death. Those born with the brand are sent to the temple to train, to learn how to control the power they have over their elements in order to maintain the balance that makes up life.

The story begins with a woman who has been brought to trial. She has borne a child branded as a Guardian, but instead of sending him to the temple, she has hidden him away, kept him to herself. He is, after all, her child. Kieran has been marked for Death, though, and his power is too much for him to conquer on his own. When he is finally found, his mother hands him over without argument. She knows her time with her son is over. The elders sentence her to life in a solitary cell, fair payment for treason.

Kieran then is thrust into a life he neither wants nor understands. Most of the other Guardians—one is still missing—fear and dislike him. Only Amaya, the Guardian of Water and an empath to boot, accepts him without question from the beginning. Over the years Kieran begins to find his place among his fellow Guardians, and even learns to feel that the temple is his home, but he cannot forget what the “righteous” elders have done to his mother. More than that, he can’t forget to love the way that she taught him to. Guardians are supposed to live without tie, without emotion. Without love. A passionate person to begin with, Kieran simply cannot live under the conditions set for him, and the story comes to a head as Kieran and Amaya’s friendship turns into something much more—something the Code of the Guardians forbids.

Zerah’s Chosen is the first in what is to be a trilogy. The world-building is rich and absolutely superb—you know the minute you set foot into the story that this is a society that existed before you started reading. The characters are also fantastic. The story is mostly told from Amaya and Kieran’s POV’s, but all five Guardians we get to know are so fantastically diverse from each other that every time one of the other three are in the scene it’s a delight.

My personal favorite is Phoenix, the Guardian of Fire, who has his own unrequited love for Amaya—something which I know is brought much more in to play in the second novel of the Guardian Circle Series, Zerah’s Offering, which isn’t quite available just yet, but I'm definitely looking forward to it!(less)

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About Isabelle Santiago

Isabelle Santiago is a multi-published author who dabbles in 1950s romance, speculative science fiction, and more recently fantasy and YA. A twenty something dreamer who loves chocolate, romance novels, and heart wrenching movies, Isabelle is most comfortable on stage behind a microphone belting out her favorite karaoke tunes, or curled up in bed with a book and a cup of cocoa on a rainy night.

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