Review: Guardian of Eden

Title:  Guardian of Eden
Author:  Leslie DuBois
Genre:  Drama
Publisher:  Little Prince Publishing
Release Date:  April 4, 2011
File Size/Pages:  316 kb/250 pgs
Source:  Bought
Challenge(s):  Personal A-Z Challenge; eBook Challenge

My Rating:  5/5

Summary:  What would you do if you had one chance to kill the man who raped your twelve-year-old sister? No Judge. No Jury. No witnesses. Seventeen-year-old child prodigy Garrett Anthony has to answer that question. As he holds a gun to the head of his sister’s rapist, he flashes back to his traumatic past: five-years-old in a foster home, seven-years-old stealing food to survive, and sixteen-years-old visiting his black father in prison for the first time. After years of fighting to secure a stable life for him and his half-sister, he finally has a scholarship to a prestigious Washington DC private school and the love of a Virginia senator’s daughter. But this new found and tenuous happiness begins to unravel once he reveals the family secret which is the catalyst to the painful decision he must make. Can he take the life of someone else and continue to live with himself?

Review:  As soon as this novel starts we are thrown into a ton of action; the book begins with Garrett, a 17-year-old African-American young man, bringing his 12-year-old, bloody sister into the hospital.  We are also introduced to Garrett's girlfriend, Maddie, who is 16-years-old, Caucasian, and whose father is a Senator.  After Garrett finds out his sister's diagnosis, the story backtracks and walk us through Garrett's past; from the time he first met his birth mother, when he met Maddie, and it even shows us his life after his sister diagnosis.  Garrett and Eden's kinship was too cute, and I really enjoyed that aspect of the book.  Overall, I really enjoyed this book to the point where I couldn't put it down…I was literally procrastinating my homework to finish this book, and it was well worth the procrastination!!  Another thing I loved about this book was that there was an Epilogue included; the epilogue takes place five years after the huge event (which I will not reveal) and the ending will LITERALLY knock you off your feet.  I was so shocked, but then again I wouldn't expect anything less than a shocking ending from a Leslie DuBois story.  This was an excellent read!!