"Eden" by Janelle Stalder

I must say that it took me a couple of days to finish reading this novel, even though it was only 195 pages long. The reason was the slow beginning, which almost made me put the book down for good. That first day, when I picked up the book, I only got to chapter 4.  It was a tedious read, to say the least.
But, then yesterday, I turned on the kindle and decided to brace myself and just do this. And what do you know - I was pleasantly surprised to finally see the story moving forward.
"Eden" is a novel about a world parallel to ours, where people still live in medieval times. They use bows, swords and axes to fight. And fight they must, because a war between two brothers - two princes - has been boiling up for ten years.
Amidst this war is when Aiden - an ordinary fifteen year old boy from Canada - is pulled out of our world and into Eden, because he's supposed to be a legendary warrior. But Aiden is a lanky boy, who has no special skill, and he highly doubts this legendary warrior crap. That is, until unusual things start to happen to him.
While in Eden, he is trained to rise to his full potential. There he meets Elisa - the most skilled archer in the High King's Army, who he falls in love with. He also makes friends with Wolf (Elisa's betrothed) and Logan - two fierce warriors who train him in the arts of fighting and riding a horse.
All goes well until news come that Callum, the High King's brother, has started marching south from the mountains, raiding and burning every village in his path. This is when the war becomes more real to Aiden, and once again he begins doubting himself. Would he meet his friends' expectations? Was he really that legendary warrior? And would he survive?
Then suddenly, we're transferred to take a peak at the enemy. It's there we meet Callum, whose army has just raided and burned another village. He also took a girl by the name of Rose, as a prisoner. Not that she was important, she was just some villager's daughter. But Callum felt her important to him. Which is why he claimed her as his own, thus ensuring that none of his men would touch her. As it happened, he didn't touch her either. In the course of their travels, Callum slowly develops feelings for Rose, and to be honest, my heart broke for him, when he had to let her go, to set her free...

I'd never thought I'd say this, but my most favorite character turned out to be Callum. He was the person with the deepest personality. He was cruel, he was sweet, he was careful and unsure. And I loved him for it all.

With that said, I think it's safe to announce that I liked this book. Sure, it needed some improvement (grammar-wise and character development-wise), but nonetheless it was a good read. I recommend it to anyone who likes the fantasy/urban genres. I easily give it 3.5 stars.

Favorite quotes:

“You’re quite a tiny thing, aren’t you?” the Captain said, regarding him from head to toe.
Aiden wondered if he was expected to actually answer that. - Turk

“I have to go … do … laundry,” he explained weakly. Nodding his head at each of them, he
turned and left the room. - Wolf

I have to say that I laughed when I read that last one :)