First-time Read Friday

Every weeks inches me closer to warm weather. This week has been freezing. All the nice weather we were having spoiled me. BUT get this! It's suppose to be around 88 degrees Sunday! WOO HOO and I'll be hosting book club for the 3rd try! I'm so excited:) Looking forward to a road trip to Richmond with Jenn and Trya next week. The warmer months ahead promise lots of fun times and surprises and I can't wait. In between all of the recent baking I've been doing this is what I read.....

BOOK TOUR:
Protector (Anniversary of the Veil Book 1) 
Vanna Smythe

BLURB:

Kiyarran always wanted to be a Protector of the Realm. Untold magic and forbidden love for Princess Issiyanna awaken inside him once his wish comes true. Now the Priesthood that rules the realm from the shadows see Kiyarran's extraordinary skill as a threat.
Issiyanna is needed for a reaction on the other side of the Veil--a man-forged barrier separating the world in half. A Beacon and Answer gave up their lives to Don the Veil 1,000 years ago. Issiyanna is a Beacon needed to renew the Veil.
Issiyanna is abducted by a group of Keepers from across the Veil, and Kiyarran follows to save her.
Will he choose to bring her back, or run from all he knows to follow her across the Veil? Will Kiyarran fulfill his duty as a Protector, or allow his love for Issiyanna to guide his future path?
Magic, loyalty, childhood friendship, greed, and love all clash as Kiyarran is forced to make his decision.

REVIEW:
This book is the first so it had lots of what I like to call "world building". I'll admit that I was having a hard time putting the pieces together in the beginning. I couldn't wrap my brain around the good guys and the bad guys and what was the going from one side of the veil to the other. I'm special so most people got it the first time but you know me! Once I got all the who's and why's straight it was a good love story. It's not often that I read a "knight in shining armour" falls for the princess kinda story. Most of the time it's a supernatural falling for a human. But as in all stories there's always a decision to to be made. To follow your love or not to follow (que The Clash, Should I say or Should I Go). All and all, it's a fascinating world that Vanna Smythe has created.

I give this book 3 chocolate dipped strawberries and a vast selection of tiara's because every princess needs them.

PEACE

AUTHOR BIO:
Vanna Smythe is on a quest to become a (bestselling) fantasy author. Right now, it promises to be a dangerous quest, full of questionable, powerful magnates, laced with pitfalls of obligation, and dreams. So it is good that she does not mean to quest thus alone. To keep her company along the way, she has enlisted the help of an incredible cast of characters. For the moment, they are a confident boy who must learn many things anew, a girl who would like nothing more than to live in endless summer, four who wish things were different, and one who will do all to keep things the same.

As she travels with them, they are slowly reveling their world, and who they are, to her, challenging her to look beyond what is easy to see. These characters may be from a different time, a time long ago, a time that never was, but they could all be here today, forming a part of your inner circle of friends.

Trying to understand them better, her blog will feature an array of posts on the way of life in the Middle Ages. Vanna has lived in European cities, which have sprung from former medieval towns, for most of her life. She has visited many more such cities. Maybe this is why she feels such kinship with her cast of characters. She hopes you will grow to love them also.