Year 1: Renegade

Year 1: Renegade
A supernatural academy book for teens

by Tamara Hart Heiner

Unlike the teenagers who have just arrived at the Guardian Angel Academy, Jez has not just completed her life on earth. She is a transfer student, wingless and bound by chains. While her instructors think she is trying to learn how to become a Guardian, she is actually on a mission from her master.

This book is difficult to review without spoilers, but I will do my best. I really enjoyed watching Jez grow throughout the book. In addition to her book knowledge, she learned about relationships and emotions.

The story begins a little slow, with a lot of worldbuilding information, but after the first chapter it really picks up. The book could also have used one more proofreading pass, as I found numerous typographical and grammatical errors. However, most of the time they were not enough to detract from the overall story.

This story centers around relationships and I liked watching Jez's growth. While I felt her story with Iblis was well-developed, the relationship with Maalik felt unfinished. Without getting into spoiler territory, she keeps a big secret from him and, while I am assuming this secret will be explored more in future books, I felt she should have told him before the end of this book.

There were also relationships with two other characters that felt incomplete. Kerubiel was an interesting character who seemed important to Jez's initial transition to GAA. However, by the middle of the book, he begins to feel like an afterthought, appearing haphazardly and ultimately disappearing. Jez promised him something. What became of that promise? For that matter, what became of Kerubiel? What does it mean that he is a shade?

The other character I would have liked to have seen more developed was Jerahmeel. While he was full of anger about his situation, we don't really get to see if he was moving beyond that anger or letting it fester. I also got the impression there was a romance budding between him and another angel. I hope to see that developed more in the next book. Like Kerubiel, Jez promises something to Jerahmeel. But, I couldn't be sure whether he agreed to be on her side.

Overall, however, I found the story intriguing and engaging and look forward to reading more from this series. I would rate this story four quills and place it on my middle shelf.