Cadáin's Watch by Daniella Bova

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Adult, Christian
Genre: Dystopia
Content: Strong Language


Michelle and Jason escaped the wreckage of their beloved hometown and are determined to live free. Though they are hunted by the totalitarian bureaucracy, they vow to resist oppression no matter the cost.

Cadain's Watch is a Christian dystopia set in our world. I must admit that I don't read a lot of dystopian novels so I'm probably not the best audience for this book, but I did end up enjoying it a good bit. This is also the third book in a trilogy and though I wasn't lost at all story-wise, I did feel a certain disconnect from the characters that I don't think would have been the case had I read the first two books.

There is a pretty large cast of characters here, but the story line mainly revolves around Michelle and Jason who are in hiding, with Michelle's brother Brad being a very close second. While the story revolves around both Jason and Michelle I felt like Michelle didn't really get enough page time. I really would have liked it better if she and a couple of the other women in the book had been more actively involved in things instead of being sort of background characters for most of the book, but this is the third book in the series and that may have happened in the previous two.

The story got a bit wordy and slightly repetitive at times. I also personally would have preferred less cursing, name calling, and smoking in the book as those things don't appeal to me, but for the most part the writing was pretty solid, and the characters were interesting. There are a lot of nostalgic type things from the 70s and 80s in this book, from cars to music to cologne. GTOs, Firebirds, Led Zepplin, Springsteen, Drakkar Noir (sorry but that cologne reminds me of a jerk I dated once. I never want to smell it again! Haha.) And a few that are older than that, like Elvis. I enjoyed this stuff to a point. I felt like it would have been nice to include some more modern things in the mix as well since we are talking about the not so distant future from where we are now, but I did think the author included most of these things in the story in a way that felt right. She was good at writing the male characters and the things they liked and were interested in; better I think than she was at writing the female ones at times

This being a Christian novel, it involves a lot of prayer and church, and even an angel. I liked the addition of the angel, Cadain to the story, but I would have liked it even better if he had taken a more active part in the events that were going on instead of mostly giving warnings. I think I was expecting something more like Castiel from Supernatural, without Castiel's flaws of course. But that's just a personal preference, probably stemming from my love of urban fantasy. There was one part however, where Cadain did get more involved and it was pretty darn good. That was one of my favorite parts of the book.

I tend to stay away from dystopian novels because they can be dark and depressing, but that is also the thing that worked in this book's favor. I think the author did a great job of conveying that feel in this story. For the most part this is a tense story with everyone wondering if they will be caught and how they are going to survive what the world has turned into. Jason is just a regular person trying to do what is right amidst the chaos that the world has become. Sometimes what is right isn't always clear in the situations he and his friends and family find themselves in. While I didn't always like the way they handled things I could understand what they were going through, and I would never want to have to be in their shoes. Some of the things that happen in this book are truly terrifying and I wouldn't want to live in that world. The bad guys-and girls-in this book were very evil and a few of them were even demon possessed. There is a certain one in this book that for some reason I kept picturing as a cross between Ursula the sea witch and a certain politician that will go unnamed here. I have to giggle to myself a little every time I think of that.

If you like Christian fiction that features the Catholic religion and dystopian fiction you might like this one. The biggest downside of the book for me was that it was very message heavy and I tend to like a more subtle hand with that sort of thing.

Thanks to the author Daniella Bova for giving me a copy of this book to review.



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