Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I gave this book 4 stars. I enjoyed this book a lot, it was fun, snarky, and intriguing. Alex is a 14 year old living with his mother when one day a man named Durant arrives at his house and explains that he is not actually human. He takes Alex back to Fios Academy, a boarding school filled with various Creatures.

Alex was a fun protagonist and his witty/snarky personality shines throughout the story. He and all of his friends are well developed and I fully enjoyed each of them. The story felt a tad rushed, sometimes a chapter would end and then suddenly they would be onto the next thing. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

My only quibble with the book was the language, and that’s just my personal preference. There is a lot of cursing in this book, it felt like it was on about every other page. Sometimes it just felt a little unnecessary and with so much of it sometimes it would take me out of the story.

That being said, I really enjoyed this book. I definitely got some Percy Jackson at Hogwarts vibes. I plan on continuing in this series and I would definitely recommend this book.

My review is currently up on GoodReads and has been posted on Instagram on 12/14/2019

His lungs burns as he gets to breathe.he can feel them behind him hunting like a dog.he is trapped in human form unable to fly as a crow or make it to water.

I thought this one sounded promising. The world within the world/regular kid finds out he's magical trope has been done - many times I still often enjoy this type of story, and the Creature angle sounded just novel enough to grab my attention. Plus I liked the cover. When I started reading, I realized it was short - which I also thought seemed promising, since my one complaint about stories in genres that are often-visited like this one is the authors try to layer on details in the attempt to make their stories longer and differentiate them from the others out there.

All of which is a long way of saying that I was looking forward to this one. Then I started reading it. Sigh.

All of the things that I thought had potential fell flat for me. The book felt like I was reading any of 17 others, frankly all of which are better written. This one isn't labeled an ARC, yet it read like something that had never been edited - by the author OR an editor - and I found that off-putting from the beginning. A few typos in an ARC I can handle. Mistake after mistake, from grammar to missing words, in a supposedly finished book, on the other hand, I cannot. This one felt cobbled together, and that coupled with surprisingly uninteresting characters and plot cover meant that I struggled from the beginning and ultimately couldn't finish it.

Great addition to the YA genre. Lovers of Percy Jackson will enjoy this series. Likeable characters . thoroughly Enjoyable. Can’t wait for next chapter.

Solid 4/5 stars!

Not gonna lie, I wasn't expecting to end up enjoying this as much as I did. I'm a huge fanatic when is comes to supernatural/paranormal books, but for some reason this one made me a bit nervous. For the most part, the synopsis does a really good job of telling you what's in store without giving anything away. I will say, I thought that the first quarter of the book felt much more of a middle grade read to me. After that quarter though, it starts to mature a bit more and go into what I would personally consider to be YA. Alex is 14 years old here, so it's not much of a surprise that the book felt somewhere in the middle. The world-building in this is actually crazy good! I loved getting to learn more about the world, as well as learning more about the Scion and the Creatures that exist. Character development was well done, but there were a few issues I had from time to time. The main one being part of a twist (which I obvs can't reveal) that fell flat for me. I wasn't connected enough with all the characters in order for it to shock me. Despite that, the characters are quite relatable and I had a fun time hearing their banter. Some of their word choices made me feel a bit weird -such as "Boss- even though they make sense. That's more of a nitpick on my end though. Overall, this is a short book that has a fun storyline with excellent world-building and lovable characters. While I wouldn't classify it as MG, it can definitely be read by the those in the higher ages of MG. The ending does a great job of being conclusive while also leaving enough questions and room for the sequel. I actually look forward to the sequel and plan to read it whenever that releases!

Honestly, this was a great book. Excellent world building and it kept moving. Wonderful characters and Kara is my favorite by far, but we won't discuss why. Author J. Adrian Ruth never got us bogged down in 1000 words where 200 would do just fine. Now for my few not so happy remarks. I am volunteering to be your proofreader because Author, you are in dire need of one. Letters (-s, -d and at one point an -ly) left off completely. Misagamist was used instead of misogynist. A few punctuation errors, very few, finishes that out. I would keep stumbling over these errors which interrupted the flow of the story. I want to be immersed in a story and that won't happen with these bobbles. The other concern I have is the kids' swearing. They just haven't gotten the rhythm of it yet. I think they just need one or 2 less swear words per sentence, depending on its' length, and they'll get good lol. Now, I enjoyed this book so much that I am doing the toddler-is-getting-a-cookie happy dance waiting for "Change or Die." Thank you Author Ruth for a truly great story! P.S. pssst need some more clues as to what he is. I am dying here🤔😩😞😕 lol

Wow! Great story. Really enjoyed seeing Alex learn about the different Creatures and to navigate a new world. Cannot wait for the next one.

I received this book from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I thought this book was surprisingly good. I was a little worried when I realized this was more like a middle grade book. The main character Alex is only 14, but the first scene had me hooked. It started with a person running through the woods from someone trying to kill him. I think while the characters are on the younger side any age would enjoy reading this.
Join or Die reminds me a lot of Harry Potter, it has a young boy who finds out he is something more than he thought and then ends up going to a new school with other kids like him. He has to learn about himself and his new heritage..
So this story follows Alex who finds out that he is a creature. What kind? no one will know until he actually shifts. A friend of his father comes to find out if Alex will be changing in to a creature, when he finds out that he will Alex is taken to a special school on the other side of the Veil where most of the creatures live full time, especially the ones who can't pass for human.
One of my favorite parts in the story is when Alex and his friends enter into a school wide scavenger hunt..

So I would recommend this book for anyone who enjoyed Harry Potter, or like paranormal creatures like vampires, elves dragons, shifters and much more. I will absolutely be reading the next book in the series when it's released..

I really like the concept and the world the author built here. The way the different breeds of Creatures come about make the possibilities endless. Hopefully, we're looking at a long series here.

My only complaint comes towards the correctness of the writing and the lack of editing, which as I read seemed like a first draft that was typed by a voice-recognition program rather than the author herself. The mistakes were pretty easily identifiable so I never really got lost but often found myself going back to make sense of the sentence because a verb typed in the past tense should have been in the present or vice versa, or a word was out of context because it has a like sound to another (like slight and slide). I was considering not taking this into account when reviewing and rating the read but it just happens too often. Also, sometimes the narrative became repetitive, though not so many times.

All that said, I really enjoyed this read and look forward to reading the revised version and will be expecting the second book in the series.

This one was a pleasant surprise! It’s a Young Adult fantasy book, about supernatural beings named ‘Creatures’, who live alongside humans, both in the mortal realm and in an Otherworld realm. The story revolves around Alex Ayers, a 14 year old boy who discovers that his absent father is really a powerful Creature, a dragon shifter to be precise, and he will soon change to become a Creature - although nobody knows exactly which type of Creature he’ll be yet....

Alex is whisked away to a school in another realm, Fios Academy, as Creatures who go through their change are unsafe to be around humans. He needs to learn all about this new world, and his place within it, which is actually a pretty important one. He’s a candidate for the next Scion, who basically rules Creatures and stops the rampant interbreed wars that used to take place. He is one of two remaining candidates left at Fios, he discovers that the candidates are being hunted and killed by anarchists who wish to see the end of the Scion. The other candidate, Raina, is a distant cousin to Alex, and is already hostile towards him as she knows they need to battle each other eventually to become Scion.

Alex needs to find allies and form his ‘ciorcal’ (Celtic for ‘circle’) to ensure he survives long enough to compete for the post of Scion. He meets Elvy, a boy who thought he would be an elf but in fact became a vampire - and has been rejected by his former eleven friends, Yoshi, a Japanese American boy who, like Alex, has no idea that there was another world - his mother is a ‘Yuki-onna’, and as they are always female, she took his twin sister Imma and left him with his human father, Win, a werewolf shifter and spell caster, Kara, a Valkyrie and beserker and Mano, a taciturn older boy who gradually becomes enmeshed in the group.

Alex deals with betrayal, politics, life threatening danger and the return of his estranged father, as he navigates his first year at Fios.

There is a lot of great stuff about this book, and I’m looking forward to reading more in the series as they’re released. The world building is pretty good, and the characters are likeable. There’s still some mystery about certain things, which means that the reader will be hanging on for the follow ups, a big battle is on the horizon for us to look forward to, and people to root for.

The only real issues I have are that some of the relationships seemed to happen too quickly, and a few things seem to have been skipped which may be important. For example, Alex’s dad was attacked and injured, but it wasn’t really explained how he was attacked. The intimation of his injuries seemed to become a fact that everyone seemed to know, without explicitly telling the audience. The relationships seemed too ‘insta-friendship’ - which is a nice change from ‘insta-love’, but still not the most believable - with Alex having best friends within hours of arrival at Fios. Now I’m going to guess that the author is going for the ‘he has something magnetic and very leader-y about him’ that inspires such quick relationships, but it’s not always the best writing.

An issue some people may have if their teens plan to read this book is the language. It doesn’t bother me, but I’m an adult and swearing doesn’t bother me anyway, but I’d imagine some parents don’t want their 14 year olds reading the ‘f bomb’ in a YA book. Seems a tad out of place.

All in all though it’s a great start - and hopefully by the time it’s released the grammatical errors and editing mistakes will be fixed from the ARC version - and definitely makes me interested to read more!

Despite the blurb making it seem like an all-new thing, the book was full of clichéd tropes, all of which I've seen in spades before in movies and books. I feel especially bad saying this since it is the author's first novel, it seems. But I don't think this book was for me.

The world-building was nice, and I wish we got to see more of the world the author built in the novel. There's sequels coming to this book, however, which might fix this, for those who want to continue with the series.

There were an incredible number of typos in the book, <s>but I think I got an ARC, not the actual book</s> no, I got the actual book, since nowhere in my copy does it mention "Advanced Reading Copy", and I get thanked a bunch of times for purchasing the book. Wow. Please get a final proofread done before the book comes out in January.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review.

I liked the concept I just unfortunately didn’t like the book. I also think the cover needs a little more work. With the story it could have a very eye catching cover.

I could not get into this book.
I read other reviews where people said the book seems rushed, because it was so short.
But for me it dragged,

I just was not interested in the story, which is too bad, because this seems like the kind of book I would like.

There's a few grammatical and wording issues in here but overall what a fantastic book. Think this will appeal to fans of Harry potter. Alex is a great character; I loved that we hear his thoughts throughout as it adds to the story so much. The introduction to eachnof his new friends is well done and by the end I was already itching to read the next in the series.

This book was received as an ARC from BooksGoSocial in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

What if you woke up one day to a dragon shifter that tells you that you will eventually morph into a creature and they need you to save their kingdom before you get killed That is the case for Alex as he is visited by a dragon shifter and is told exactly that. While now surviving his new school, Alex forms a mini-army of misfits including a vampire, class gossip, werewolf, and Valkyrie and they must band together to save themselves before they get killed and Alex transforms into a creature that is unknown to him. This book would be perfect for everyone to read during Halloween season to get in the mood or for someone you likes a scary thriller year round.

We will consider adding this title to our YA collection at the library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

this book had a lot of potential but it just fall flat nothing made any since everything felt rushed (its a very short book)

I loved Join or Die and am ready for the second book!
There's a great range of all sorts of Creatures in this story and Alex, the main character, has a wicked sense of humor. He collects some unique friends in his new school and has to solve some mysteries as he's new to all this supernatural stuff. But since his dad is one of the Creatures and has a connection to a very powerful being, he soon finds himself in the middle of a fight he has to win...
This was a great read and fans of supernatural YA books will love this one.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this start to another fun book series.

Alex is just a 14 year old kid living an ordinary life with his single mum...until one day, a stranger shows up. The stranger tells Alex that like his father before him, he isn’t human. Alex is soon whisked away to a school for Creatures and has to start rethinking everything he thought he knew about the world.

As a story about a variety of creatures, including both the familiar such as vampires and the less well known, this is the kind of story I may have eaten up as a kid/young teen. There’s a variety of characters, powers and conflicts to explore within what is quite a short book.

Is this a new favourite as now an adult? No.
Would I recommend it to that younger age group? Definitely.

It’s not necessarily the freshest story concept out there, and the story is very quickly paced, but it’s an easy read and a good time nonetheless.

(3.5/5)

Holy creature feature,!! This book blew me away. I’d say it rivals Harry Potter. No seriously, I want the second book. If I have a proper review it would spoil it all. Because you just can’t talk Babur the book without diving in the deep end of FIOS. I love love love this book. The charcters are bad ass!! Whew I’m ready for book 2.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange of an honest review.

Join or Die is a very peculiar book. Alex's life, a 14 years old from Las Vegas, is turn upside down one day when a friend, Durant, of his absentee father came into his house and revealed to him the most weird truth: he's a Creature, a magical being, his father is a dragon and Durant is one too.
Since during puberty every Creature went through the Change, transforming them into what really are (vampire, dragon and so on),Alex is forced to give up his old life and to go to the Fios Academy, a sort of Hogwarts for magical creatures. There he will learn more about his powers and this new world and how to use the glamour to walk among mortals. He's forced to give up his life to protect his mother and friend, Carlos, pushed into a new world and school.
Not only that. Durant told Alex there were two different dimension, the mortal and the creatures' one and that the Creatures' world is protected and ruled by the Scion and his ciorcal (Gaelic word for circle, a group of trusted friends and allies). Years ago the Scion was attacked, some members killed and a sort of truce was set: The new Scion would step down in 5/10 years time and the Fios Academy will prepare Scion candidates. Without knowing anything about this world, Alex became a candidate, pushed into a new reality.
Helped by his roomate Elvy, a vampire, who shown him around, Alex is forced to adapt to all this and to the game of politics, creating his own ciorcal, surronding himself with peculiar friends.
Elvy, vampire/elf mix, shunned by other elves since he went through the Change and become a vampire, a sensible and smart character.
Yoshi, raised by his father and abandoned by his mother and twin, he's funny and boisterous and he didn't yet Change.
Win, a magic werewolf, the strategist and Kara, the half Valkyrie and half Berserker. His ciorcal collided, during the book, with Raina's one, a distant cousin of Alex, another Scion's candidate. While Alex learned to navigate school and politics, making friends and building his ciorcal, a killer is hunting Scion candidates and, between lessons, books, discoveries and hunts, Alex and his friends have to protect themselves and try to survive.

I really liked this book. It's a quick reading and sometimes a bit rushed, I'd loved to know more extensively about the other Creatures, Breed, more descriptions and stories. Like the main character, the reader is pushed into a new world, without knowing anything and it was exhilarating getting to know more about Fios Academy and Alex's friends. I could see how Alex is divided by his mortal world, his missing his mother and Carlo and normality and the new, dangerous and exciting one. I loved reading about his friends, I loved Elvy and his identity crisis and how Win and the others convinced him to do what he love. Yoshi was such a cute and gossipy one and I'd love to know more about Kara, a real hurricane. I enjoyed reading about the hunt, it was so funny and I loved the riddles and clues, so exciting!
The real identity of the killer didn't surprised me so much, but I wish it would have been better placed and explained, above all the reasons behind it,since it was left a big hanging. I loved reading about Durant and Alex's father, so mysterious and peculiar and to discover Raina's character.
I'd love to know more about this world and its characters. This book was a quick and funny reading,
I recommend it to anyone who wants to be shoved into a new world and reality, surrounded by furred characters, icy touchs, mysterious riddles and politics.
Above all, a book about friendships and to love and trust one other.