I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Guild of Tokens by Jon Auerbach Published by ARC Worlds Publishing on June 25, 2019
ISBN: 9781734799002
Genres: Urban, Fantasy, Fantasy & Magic, Magical Realism
Pages: 420
Format: eBook
Source: Publisher
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She wants to level up her humdrum existence. But her next quest could spell life or death.
Jen Jacobs's nights are spent traversing a strange city finding hidden objects, slaying dragons, and tangling with a host of fellow adventurers. And her days are spent counting down the seconds until she can return to the grind and continue racking up tokens and leveling up.
Except Jen isn't playing a video game.
It's all real and happening right in New York City.
After a particularly harrowing quest pairs her up with Beatrice Taylor, a no-nonsense and ambitious mentor, Jen hopes she's on the path to becoming a big-time player. But as she dives deeper into the game's hidden agenda, she realizes Beatrice has her sights set on the Guild, the centuries-old organization that runs the Questing game. And the quests Jen loves are about to put both of them in grave danger.
Will Jen survive the game before powerful forces cut her real life short? Guild of Tokens is a thrilling new twist on conventional urban fantasy. If you like determined heroines, gritty cityscapes, and vampire-free adventures, then you'll love Jon Auerbach's rollercoaster tale.
Guild Of Tokens. An urban fantasy that gives you everything you didn’t know you were craving. A plot that warrants its highly ambitious execution, Auerbach has created a world that chews you up and spits you back out with his rich and vibrant world building. It certainly didn’t take long to be transported into the world of questing, tokens and mystique. I typically know if a book is going to be for me within a few chapters, but it was even shorter with Guild Of Tokens. Auerbach quick paced prose keeps the dramatic stimulus rocketing forward.
We meet our protagonist, Jen, sick and fed up with life. Dissatisfied with her lot in life. She’s searching for more. Needing something that will give her a sense of excitement. Jen’s coding job isn’t what you would call exciting. Her boyfriend is a long-distance tool. He doesn’t treat her right and some, okay a LOT, of his actions are highly questionable. Jen’s friends are self-absorbed, bitchy females that can’t see beyond their own fakeness. You immediately get a sense of why she is sick of this monotonous life. When a spam email keeps reappearing in her inbox could this be the key to leaving that life behind?
The Guild Of Tokens is highly engaging and often humorous. You get a real feel for his love and affection for his characters. They are close to his heart – an obvious outpouring of love. Jen is introduced to a world she didn’t know existed. Just how could magic exist without there being any evidence of it ? was she just blind to it or was it protected and only given glimpses to the chosen few?
Quests, tokens and a strange council was beyond anything she expected to encounter when she opened those emails all those months ago. The crux of the story is just that – falling into the unknown.
I enjoyed Guild Of Tokens so much because of the realism I felt whilst immersing myself within its pages. It’s not outwit the realms of possibility that this could be possible. The narrative engaged with me on such a personal level – its tone was assured. A story about assertiveness, responsibility and power and was effortlessly expressive. I also picked up on a feministic feel to the writing – we didn’t have the girl propping up the hero she was one in her own right. It came full circle and complimented the elements perfectly and it was spellbinding.
Guild Of Tokens is one of those rarities – it grips you and will not let go until the very end. It’s an entirely fresh and addicting tale. The originality and the attention to detail had me hooked. Auerbach has written something worth the temporal investment. Read it now!
Huge thanks once again to The Storytellers On Tour for another incredible blog tour.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jon Auerbach’s love of fantasy began at the tender age of six, when his parents bought him the classic 1977 animated version of The Hobbit (the less said about the recent trilogy, the better). His passion for sci-fi developed from nights watching Star Trek: The Next Generation and from his dad’s old paperback copies of Foundation and I, Robot.
Jon writes in both genres and hopes to pass on his stories to the next generation, including his kids, who have their own copy of The Hobbit that they lovingly call “the Bilbo book.”