Review: Guard in the Garden by Z.S. Diamanti

Blurb:

Embark on a wholesome journey of healing and self-discovery. A cozy fantasy tale of forging new friendships and overcoming fears. A quiet quest of family bonds and budding romance.

From dragon fire to garden flowers …

Felton Holdum spent his entire life training to become one of Galium’s elite dwarven warriors. When a bloody battle leaves him injured, he has no choice but to move into his eccentric twin aunts’ quaint home in the town’s quiet Garome District.

With his life of military service seemingly over, the captain of the city guard gives Felton his only chance at a fresh start in the new life he never wanted.

But when a human woman barges through his front door, the grumpy dwarf starts to wonder if there is more to life than war. The sunshine woman invites him to visit her garden, where Felton gains a new nemesis and a new purpose in life.

Take a walk through the garden and see what magic awaits.

Come enjoy the hospitality of the whimsical Garome District. Meet new friends as you sample new breads at the bakery, play a game of Castle Brick at the tavern, and taste homemade pies during the annual pie baking contest at the Fall Festival.

“Virgin River meets The Hobbit” in this heartwarming, feel-good fantasy.

Review:

As a military brat, I’d like to say thank you to Z.S. Diamanti for serving in the USAF.This novel, first and foremost, helps contextualise what those with PTSD from war go through, it’s a veterans novel. And that shows. Through and through. Now, besides the more than well placed moments of reliving trauma that the main character goes through, there’s more in the book. 

To sell this book to those who served… I’d give them these lines:

“Felton Holdum was a warrior. Until he wasn’t. Lost of the one job he was good at, he is bereft of work and so starts working for the city guard.”,

all while carefully dragging out a much, much longer list of reasons as to why this book should be read, asking with my eyes if they’d like to know more. Since, well, my description says nothing of Holdums character, nor the journey he goes through.

To start off, who is Felton Holdum? A member of a special dwarven unit that flies gargoyles, who, during a battle for the city he lives in, he is wounded by a dragon tossing his gargoyle and him into the mountain. As a character, he is loyal, ready to fight for his kingdom, and proud to be a dwarven warrior. But that clashes with his new reality as a crippled dwarf with a cane to help him walk. So he goes on a journey within his quaint city as part of the city guard and meets wonderful people.

From there, we have the plot. It’s a great opening, then shenanigans involving a tortoise tormenting Felton with its mere presence and a human woman causing him grief, and a wonderful end. The shenanigans in between were a great showcase of the journey a veteran of war has getting over the traumatic event of losing his place as a warrior, going through various stages of grief at various points and time. A well done tome indeed.

Aside from that, there’s the world building. It’s within Finlestia, a world already well known to those who’ve read the Stone & Sky series. For those who have not read that series, don’t fret, there’s a map. It’s basically a world with elves, humans, dwarfs, gnomes, orcs, goblins, dragons and more and magic too. A very simplistic building block to start but it’s fleshed out with in depth lore, chaotic characters of woe and lo and behold, dragons being dragons. This novel has more cooking in it. And for that I want a recipe book or something. But I digress. Aside from that, it fleshes out the city that Felton is in a bit more than the spot it got in the original series, and it’ll keep growing from there in later books.

Now, in all fairness, if I had to gripe about one thing, I wish there was more to the ending, it to go on for even longer than it did just to see where the story would go with Felton and his new adventures. That’s my own opinion though, so you’d have to read the novel to either agree or disagree with it. 

As always, thank you for reading this review, I hope I’ve done the book justice, and I hope I’ve helped nudge you towards your next read. If not, don’t fret, we have a plethora of reviews to sift through for whatever catches your fancy. If you’re feeling adventurous, here’s a random link that’ll lead you to a review for a novel in one of many categories, it might suit what you’re looking for, it might not. It’s all in perspective.

Wherever you are reading this, have a good morning, good noon and afternoon, good evening and good night!