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The Hooded: The Hooded Book 1
Damon Red has always lived in his brother Ander’s shadow. It makes sense. Ander is a member of the Hooded, a group of highly trained military specialists, each with the power to fight armies. If that wasn’t enough, Ander’s not just any Hooded; he’s the hero who saved the entire kingdom. Still, Damon hates being compared to his brother, until Ander tries to assassinate the king in the dead of night.
Suddenly, Damon’s life is thrown into chaos. No one knows why his brother would betray the kingdom. Damon’s reputation is destroyed, and few even trust him anymore. Now, he’s stuck with two crucial questions. Did he ever really know his own brother? What is he supposed to do with his life now?
With no clear answers, his only path forward is to join the Hooded, the very group his brother made his name in. To become a powerful Hooded, he must make new friends, new enemies, and learn what it means to protect the things he cares about. When he finds the truth, will it turn his life on its head again? An exciting young adult fantasy series, with funny and memorable characters, romance, unique powers, and a world that isn’t all that it seems.
Suddenly, Damon’s life is thrown into chaos. No one knows why his brother would betray the kingdom. Damon’s reputation is destroyed, and few even trust him anymore. Now, he’s stuck with two crucial questions. Did he ever really know his own brother? What is he supposed to do with his life now?
With no clear answers, his only path forward is to join the Hooded, the very group his brother made his name in. To become a powerful Hooded, he must make new friends, new enemies, and learn what it means to protect the things he cares about. When he finds the truth, will it turn his life on its head again? An exciting young adult fantasy series, with funny and memorable characters, romance, unique powers, and a world that isn’t all that it seems.
258 pages, Paperback
Published December 10, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 14, 2020
*This book was sent to me for review purposes by the author(s). All opinions are my own.
"Stand" is a fantastic mix of the Young Adult and fantasy genres with a touch of mystery thrown in. It primarily revolves around two brothers, Damon and Cyril Red. Damon and Cyril live in a kingdom where magic, called morar, can be wielded by anyone but only the truly talented and dedicated can wield morar to its fullest extent. The brothers want to be accepted by the Hooded, a powerful group that protects the kingdom, but to do so, they must train diligently to master morar and that’s not an easy feat.
When I first started reading this book, I was worried that it was going to fall into the YA chosen one trope. There are issues in the kingdom and due to unforeseen circumstances, Damon and Cyril are the ones that have to try and make things right. It would have been easy for the authors to have made the brothers overly talented and perfect, the chosen ones. Damon and Cyril could have picked up on morar use easily and been the typical heroes that we’ve seen repeatedly… but this book is different. Everything DOESN’T come easily to the main characters. They have to work and work hard to succeed. I love that and think it shows creativity on the authors part.
The book as a whole is very creative. It has a detailed magic system that makes sense, a story line that flows well, interesting characters and plenty of twists. I do have two minor complaints, however. One, the time period isn’t really referenced or explained, that I’m aware of. Knowing the time period isn’t crucial to the overall story but it’s just a detail that would have added to the immersion. Two, I would have liked there to be a bit more character depth. A few of the characters didn’t seem fully fleshed out but I’m sure that will be developed in the next two books. As I said, these are just minor complaints and nothing that can’t be fixed later in the series.
I recommend "Stand" for any young adult, fantasy fans. It was a clean read and would be appropriate for most readers.
For my full review and other reviews, go to https://thebookandbeautyblog.com/
"Stand" is a fantastic mix of the Young Adult and fantasy genres with a touch of mystery thrown in. It primarily revolves around two brothers, Damon and Cyril Red. Damon and Cyril live in a kingdom where magic, called morar, can be wielded by anyone but only the truly talented and dedicated can wield morar to its fullest extent. The brothers want to be accepted by the Hooded, a powerful group that protects the kingdom, but to do so, they must train diligently to master morar and that’s not an easy feat.
When I first started reading this book, I was worried that it was going to fall into the YA chosen one trope. There are issues in the kingdom and due to unforeseen circumstances, Damon and Cyril are the ones that have to try and make things right. It would have been easy for the authors to have made the brothers overly talented and perfect, the chosen ones. Damon and Cyril could have picked up on morar use easily and been the typical heroes that we’ve seen repeatedly… but this book is different. Everything DOESN’T come easily to the main characters. They have to work and work hard to succeed. I love that and think it shows creativity on the authors part.
The book as a whole is very creative. It has a detailed magic system that makes sense, a story line that flows well, interesting characters and plenty of twists. I do have two minor complaints, however. One, the time period isn’t really referenced or explained, that I’m aware of. Knowing the time period isn’t crucial to the overall story but it’s just a detail that would have added to the immersion. Two, I would have liked there to be a bit more character depth. A few of the characters didn’t seem fully fleshed out but I’m sure that will be developed in the next two books. As I said, these are just minor complaints and nothing that can’t be fixed later in the series.
I recommend "Stand" for any young adult, fantasy fans. It was a clean read and would be appropriate for most readers.
For my full review and other reviews, go to https://thebookandbeautyblog.com/
December 30, 2019
Originally published on my blog Yours A-fiction-ately : (https://yoursafictionately.wordpress....)
Plot : 4/5
Characters : 3.5/5
Writing : 4/5
OVERALL RATING : 4/5
Genre : Fiction, Historical Fiction, Supernatural
Age Recommended: 12 yrs and up
Date of Release: December 14th, 2019
“Be someone who makes a real positive difference, even if it costs something great.”
The Kingdom of Regostia is protected by a powerful group known as the Hooded. Whether it’s reconnaissance, strategy, or combat, the Hooded have trained to be able to tackle every issue that the kingdom faces. But what they’re most known for is their use of morar, an energy that can be shaped to allow the Hooded to complete superhuman feats.
Living in the capital, Damon Red has always lived in his brother Ander’s shadow. Ander is an internationally known, twice decorated war hero and the strongest Hooded in the kingdom. Damon struggles to compete in minor league tournaments and can barely get the girl of his dreams to notice him. He wants nothing to do with the Hooded because he knows he can never live up to his brother.
But, when Ander tries to kill the king in the dead of night, the shadow Damon has lived in suddenly changes. He’s no longer the younger brother of the greatest man in the kingdom; he’s the brother of a traitor. And when no one can produce Ander’s motive, Damon must also come to terms with the fact that his brother was not the man he thought he was.
In order to restore his reputation, Damon sets out to join the Hooded. Along the way, he hopes to find out why Ander really did what he did. To become a powerful Hooded, he must make new friends, new enemies, and learn what it means to protect the things he cares about. When he finds the truth, will it turn his life on its head again?
Stand (Hooded#1) is a great blend of Historical Fiction and supernatural elements. As the synopsis mentions, the story takes place in the Kingdom of Regostia and revolves around Damon who lives in the capital city- Corstia.
Damon along with his brother Cyril dreams of winning the minor league tournaments. Damon however, has his own selfish motives to achieve this victory. They are: him creating his own name instead of being known just by his elder brother, impressing the girl he likes and lastly prove to his elder brother that he is better without being a part of the Hooded. The story takes turn when Ander is caught as a traitor and Damon’s dreams collapse.
In terms of the plot, the book was definitely way out of the ordinary ones. The plot was very interesting and gripping. The pacing of the story however, seemed pretty hurried at times. Like, despite the plot being so great, it could not shine as much as it could have if, the pacing was a bit slower and involved more of the scenes which were a bit more light weighted as the reader could grasp the heavier bits more easily. The fast pacing of the plot ended up preventing the character development as well. Another aspect of the book which I think made the plot lose out it’s importance was the fact that the synopsis gave away a little too much of the information already. The synopsis is basically the first fifty pages of the book.
The characters were well developed through the course of the story. Damon’s character was not quite perfect but it was not full of flaws too. He was a neutral character whose traits developed and changed (a bit too quick) in the book. Ander’s character was developed a bit slower than Damon which was really nice. Similarly, Cyril too was portrayed as a well thought of a character. Alena’s character was given a lot of attention in the beginning of the book but by the end, it was overshadowed by others. Similarly, I was expecting Melody’s character to grow into something more but sadly, that did not happen as well. Other characters, in fact, seemed more developed and well thought of.
“If you see something that’s wrong with the world, don’t turn your back on it, okay?”
When it comes to the writing, I would say that it was actually good. The writing style did help the plot to shine and grow. It was quite gripping and did keep me hooked till the end of the book!
I would genuinely recommend this book to the fans of fantasy and supernatural mixed with great amount of mysteries and politics!
Plot : 4/5
Characters : 3.5/5
Writing : 4/5
OVERALL RATING : 4/5
Genre : Fiction, Historical Fiction, Supernatural
Age Recommended: 12 yrs and up
Date of Release: December 14th, 2019
“Be someone who makes a real positive difference, even if it costs something great.”
The Kingdom of Regostia is protected by a powerful group known as the Hooded. Whether it’s reconnaissance, strategy, or combat, the Hooded have trained to be able to tackle every issue that the kingdom faces. But what they’re most known for is their use of morar, an energy that can be shaped to allow the Hooded to complete superhuman feats.
Living in the capital, Damon Red has always lived in his brother Ander’s shadow. Ander is an internationally known, twice decorated war hero and the strongest Hooded in the kingdom. Damon struggles to compete in minor league tournaments and can barely get the girl of his dreams to notice him. He wants nothing to do with the Hooded because he knows he can never live up to his brother.
But, when Ander tries to kill the king in the dead of night, the shadow Damon has lived in suddenly changes. He’s no longer the younger brother of the greatest man in the kingdom; he’s the brother of a traitor. And when no one can produce Ander’s motive, Damon must also come to terms with the fact that his brother was not the man he thought he was.
In order to restore his reputation, Damon sets out to join the Hooded. Along the way, he hopes to find out why Ander really did what he did. To become a powerful Hooded, he must make new friends, new enemies, and learn what it means to protect the things he cares about. When he finds the truth, will it turn his life on its head again?
Stand (Hooded#1) is a great blend of Historical Fiction and supernatural elements. As the synopsis mentions, the story takes place in the Kingdom of Regostia and revolves around Damon who lives in the capital city- Corstia.
Damon along with his brother Cyril dreams of winning the minor league tournaments. Damon however, has his own selfish motives to achieve this victory. They are: him creating his own name instead of being known just by his elder brother, impressing the girl he likes and lastly prove to his elder brother that he is better without being a part of the Hooded. The story takes turn when Ander is caught as a traitor and Damon’s dreams collapse.
In terms of the plot, the book was definitely way out of the ordinary ones. The plot was very interesting and gripping. The pacing of the story however, seemed pretty hurried at times. Like, despite the plot being so great, it could not shine as much as it could have if, the pacing was a bit slower and involved more of the scenes which were a bit more light weighted as the reader could grasp the heavier bits more easily. The fast pacing of the plot ended up preventing the character development as well. Another aspect of the book which I think made the plot lose out it’s importance was the fact that the synopsis gave away a little too much of the information already. The synopsis is basically the first fifty pages of the book.
The characters were well developed through the course of the story. Damon’s character was not quite perfect but it was not full of flaws too. He was a neutral character whose traits developed and changed (a bit too quick) in the book. Ander’s character was developed a bit slower than Damon which was really nice. Similarly, Cyril too was portrayed as a well thought of a character. Alena’s character was given a lot of attention in the beginning of the book but by the end, it was overshadowed by others. Similarly, I was expecting Melody’s character to grow into something more but sadly, that did not happen as well. Other characters, in fact, seemed more developed and well thought of.
“If you see something that’s wrong with the world, don’t turn your back on it, okay?”
When it comes to the writing, I would say that it was actually good. The writing style did help the plot to shine and grow. It was quite gripping and did keep me hooked till the end of the book!
I would genuinely recommend this book to the fans of fantasy and supernatural mixed with great amount of mysteries and politics!
May 28, 2020
“If you see something wrong with the world don’t turn your back on it. It sounds so simple but you’d be amazed at how many people wake up every day and complacently ignore so many evils.”
-Francis Booker and Michael Ragusa, Stand (The Hooded, Book 1)
———————————
3/5 stars for The Hooded: Stand
~
I’ve had this ebook sitting on my phone for quite some time—-school prevented me from reading it for an embarrassingly long time (I’ve had it since January to review🙈). With how long I had to wait, plus the promise of assassin rings and a world inspired by Ancient Rome, I really wanted to like it more than I did.
Stand is pretty fast-paced, especially considering it’s under 300 pages, filled with lots of action and good twists. The fight scenes were pretty cool! I started out not understanding morar (the world’s magic) that well, but the fight scenes definitely helped. However mastering the Art of the silent hand and the flow of morar, which are connected to major plot points, is still a bit over my head. Even though Cyril Red, the main character Damon’s brother, doesn’t get a ton of his own page time/perspective I really like his character and growth and would like to see more of him. I think a big part of why I enjoyed Stand is that spy/assassin stuff has been really appealing to me lately, so the whole concept of The Hooded and kingdoms having elite protective forces was really cool.
~
Unfortunately for the Ancient Rome inspiration, the worldbuilding is kind of weak. Aside from a city on a hill, a slave state, and fighting tournaments, I wasn’t seeing much of that influence. I didn’t feel like I really understood the culture of Regostia, even though a lot of time is spent in its capital city of Corstia. In general I just didn’t get a strong sense of place, and I felt like a lot of what was happening and being said could have easily taken place in almost any other fantasy setting and still make sense.
~
There were also lots of big passages in time. I get not wanting to do a ton of training montages but I felt like because of the skips, we were missing out on key aspects of character development. There was a fair amount of telling, not showing, in in the changing of Damon’s mindset, and his biggest development towards the end felt sudden. The villains fell flat for me; one of them didn’t have very convincing motivations, and the other was revealed in one of those cliche info dumps where they tell the heroes everything because they will kill them anyway and not have a chance to reveal the secret. Although there some good twists in Stand, this was one I didn’t particularly care for, at least in its execution. It was kind of cheesy and not as shocking as I think it was supposed to be because we haven’t seen much of the character on the page, we don’t know much about them.
~
Stand ends on a cliffhanger and definitely leaves some questions for the sequel to answer. Particularly, I hope the other book(s) delve into the history and origins of the hooded, especially if everything Damon + Cyril know is a lie, as well as more about their family. I think it also offers more opportunity for stronger worldbuilding and character development. Overall it was a fun, adventurous read.
March 10, 2025
Excellent Storytelling
Good character development with the characters fleshing out their maturity as they experience new things and gain capability as they train.
Good character development with the characters fleshing out their maturity as they experience new things and gain capability as they train.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews