The Protectors: Book 1 in the Protectors Saga by P.M. Dooling

Title:  The Protectors: Book 1 in the Protectors Saga

Author:  P.M. Dooling

Genre:  Young Adult/Fantasy   

Format:  Kindle

Publisher: Self-published

Avery Kimball lives a normal life; school, boys, homework and family consume her time. But that all changes when she discovers her and her four closest friends are actually the Protectors, reborn warriors from another planet. And they have a destiny to fulfill, a destiny that will take them away from their safe, comfortable lives and change everything they know. Now they must leave their homes and relearn everything they have forgotten, including how to fight and who they really are. But can Avery overcome her doubts and fears to become the warrior she once was?

I found The Protectors to be a surprisingly original story, filled with excitement and adventure. I enjoyed the strong female leads in this story; it’s refreshing to read a story with women who are tough, yet vulnerable at the same time. I wish Dooling had built the relationship among the five girls a bit more, rather than predominately focusing on the friendship between Avery and Jade. I really wanted to learn more about the other girls.  Hopefully that will be something that is expanded on in the next book. I was also completely fascinated with the world the author created. Dooling has an amazing ability to make you feel as if you are actually in the world she is describing; her descriptions are that vivid. She makes the world of Orcatia sound absolutely beautiful. Dooling’s fight scenes are also very well-written; it is obvious she put a lot of time and effort into making sure they were properly choreographed, almost like a movie. The fight scenes were my favorite part of the book.

The only real issues I had with The Protectors were some editing issues—there were some capitalization and punctuation errors, as well as some wordy sentences. As a future English teacher, sometimes those mistakes really jump out at me. But I also understand that not every error can be found, especially when self-publishing a book. There were also a few spots in which Dooling’s vivid descriptions went on for a bit too long, causing me to lose interest and skip ahead to get to the action. Again, this is something that can be fixed with the help of an editor.  I believe Dooling has a very promising future as an author, especially if she continues to write about Avery and the other Protectors.

*The Protectors was provided by the author, in exchange for my honest review*