Before I move on to the review of Jack Templar and the Monster Academy I want to remind everyone of the danger involved with this series of books.  While they are enjoyable, they are also extreme dangerous to your own personal health.  That is correct.  Reading this second Jack Templar book will, without a doubt, mark your position for every monster roaming the universe.  If you are over fourteen-years-old, you are monster bait.  As a refresher, here is the warning attached to book one.  It applies to this review as well.

If you have this book in your hands, I assume you are already a monster hunter or in training to become one.  I hope my story helps you in the many fights ahead.  However, if you are not a monster hunter . . . PUT THIS BOOK DOWN IMMEDIATELY.  I’m serious.  This story was never meant to become public.  When I heard that some copies were making it into the hands of non-hunters, I was outraged.  I’ve destroyed hundreds of these illegal copies but I can’t be sure I’ve found them all.  The fact that you’ve read this far is proof of that.  This isn’t a game.  This is real.  So read the next part very carefully

 If you open this book, the monsters will sense it.  They will be attracted to you like sharks tracking blood in the water.  Whether you like it or not, you will be dragged into this world of monsters just as I was.  You will have no choice but to become a hunter.  Trust me, you’re not ready for this.  The monsters are everywhere and you won’t stand a chance without proper training.  I beg you, don’t read this book.  And if you do . . . don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Well you have read the warning, now I ask you to stop reading this, go to the sidebar, and find a review of a pleasant and safe book.  Jack Templar may only be a fourteen-year-old geeky boy, but he has changed in ways unimaginable.  He has muscles and strength like the Hulk.  To boys that may sound great (okay, to some girls, too), but it was not great for Jack and it would not be great for you.  Please re-read Stripes for All Types or A Place for Turtles, NOW!, before you lose an ear or maybe your life.  Kid Lit Reviews will not be held responsible if you continue on and then are attacked.  You Have Been WARNED!

Book 1, Jack Templar, Monster Hunter is a finalist for 2012 Book of the Year Award (children’s), by ForeWord Reviews./

Jack Templar and the Monster Hunter Academy will be released on April 3, 2013.

This is about a week away.  To celebrate the release of book two, Jack is having a virtual book tour from April 4 to 18.  I do not have the tour schedule, but a quick Google will surely bring it up.  Thanks to Jeff Gunhus, Jack Templar’s transcriptionist, Kid Lit Reviews received an advanced copy.  My review is my opinion.  Please balance my thoughts with others by checking out some of the stops on Jack’s book tour.  If I should come across the schedule, I will post it at the end of this review.  You will need to be brave to get that far down this post, but it is possible.  Good luck my dear readers.  If I never hear from you again I will pray the monsters made your death swift and painless.  God speed.

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The Templar Chronicles, Book 2: The Monster Academy 

by Jeff Gunhus

Seven Guns Press

5 Dead Creaches

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From Website:  After barely surviving the onslaught of monsters that tried to kill him the day before his fourteenth birthday, Jack Templar leaves his hometown on a quest to rescue his father and discover the truth about his past. Joined by his friends Will and T-Rex, and led by Eva, the mysterious one-handed monster hunter, Jack sets out for the Monster Hunter Academy where he hopes to find answers to his questions. Little does he suspect that the Academy is filled with dangers of its own, many of them more terrifying than anything he’s faced so far.

First Sentence:  I leaned up against the ship’s rusty railing, barely able to catch my breath.

Young Jack Templar, and his best-friends Will and T-Rex, set sail on a cargo ship for France with Eva, a monster hunter and Monster Academy instructor. No one knows Jack, Will or T-Rex’s whereabouts, and no one left behind will notice . . . much.  Jack is learning more about fighting monsters with Eva his personal trainer.  It’s a good thing seeing that the entire ship’s crew was attacked shortly before docking in France. Daniel, another instructor, has an ego larger than the academy gate, and a fierce dislike for Jack, whom he calls “Jack Smith,” oh, and an intense crush on Eva.  Jack is jealous.

Running the Monster Academy is Master Aquinas, an ancient woman with the strength of many men.  She lives in the Templar Tree, a large tree with multiple layers of floors built into its tree-trunk-sized limbs.  T-Rex, not much good in a fight, asks Aquinas if he could be a Ratling.  Ratlings are monster hunters now disgraced.  Ratlings left the training, were permanently disabled during training, or simply quit.  Ratlings are the cooks, the cleaners, and any other chore deemed beneath the hunters.  T-Rex was in heaven and got along great with Bocha, the Top Ratling.  Jack and Will slept in a dorm for hunters, ate all their meals outdoors—served up by the Ratlings—then trained in the open, visible by anyone in the Templar Tree.

Daniel refused to give Jack a break and orders every trainee to do the same.  When Master Aquinas left for a few days, Daniel rigs a trial so that the two facing off are Jack and Daniel.  Daniel then made the trial hard, and extremely dangerous.  For Jack, the trial was a moral dilemma.  Who will win and will the other die?

The second Jack Templar book is better than the first, which was an exciting, adventurous, well-written book, with strong characters, interesting twists, and a good plot that had me turning pages as fast as I could.  Because I stupidly read the first book I needed to read the second, hoping for some help in defeating the monsters that have approached me since last December third when I turned the first page of Jack Templar, Monster Hunter.  Unless you read that book, avoid this new book.  Why Jack wrote a second book after warning everyone to leave the first alone is anyone’s guess.

Jack’s second book will have you on the edge of your chair several times.  He must face off with Tiberon, the largest, meanest, strongest, and most vengeful werewolf in Ren Lucre’s groups of monsters.  Remember Lucre?  He is back, this time getting ready to wage a war bigger than either world war, maybe even put together.  The man is certifiable, yet Jack is willing—wants to—take him on, hoping to rescue his father.  While these monster hunters are the best fighters around, with strong muscles and undeterred determination, they are also impetuous, and often simply stupid, making bad decisions based on their emotions instead of their brain.

If brave enough . . . If strong enough . . . If determined enough . . . kids will enjoy Jack Templar Monster Academy.  Parents, please do not let your fourteen-years-old child read this book, to themselves or aloud.  This is no joke; monsters will appear at your doorstep insisting to dine . . . ON YOU!  They will not wait for an invitation.  So please, no children fourteen or older.

It is too bad monsters have cursed this book.  I enjoyed it once I could ignore the shadows outside my window.  The characters are wonderful.  Master Aquinas is a frail looking old woman who uses a cane to steady herself.  But anger her and Aquinas can be as strong as Superman, with the ability to somehow know what is on your mind.  Daniel is the hunter who thinks he is invincible and has a dangerous infatuation with Eva.  He gave Jack a hard time from the moment they met.  The twists Jack has placed in strategic paragraphs will have you reeling with delight.  But, this is only if you read this second book.  If you read the first, I highly recommend you continue learning how to defend yourself.  Knowledge is power.  Everyone read at your own risk.  IF danger is your thing, Jack Templar, Monster Academy is the book for you.

For those who think they can defeat Tiberon, here is the review for Jack Templar, Monster Hunter; book one in the Jack Templar series.  Good luck!

Read an excerpt.

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The Templar Chronicles, Book 2: The Monster Academy 

Jeff Gunhus    website1    website2    facebook     twitter: @JTMonsterHunter
Seven Guns Press
Released on April 3, 2013
ISBN:  978-0-9884259-1
Pages
Ages:  8 to 12
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Copyright © 2013 by Seven Guns Press, used with permission
Text:  Copyright © 2013 by Jeff Gunhus
Cover Design:  Eric Gunhus

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