Scorched by Mari Mancusi

I like dragons. Dragons can be pretty cool. I realized today, though, that I really don't seem to read a lot of stuff with dragons. Yes, there's the Song of Ice and Fire series and I did start the Temeraire series way back there (need to get back on board with that) but that's all that really comes to mind right now. Imagine my surprise then when I discovered that Mari Mancusi had started a modern dragon series :)

Trinity is used to her grandfather's increasingly madcap schemes, but he's the only family she has left. When he spends the last of their money on a dragon's egg, though, she thinks their time together may soon be at an end. How on earth could he have been scammed into buying a dragon's egg? Then armed men claiming to be from Homeland Security arrive with their eye on taking said egg and Trinity begins to wonder if her grandfather may have been onto something after all. But the real kicker is when a boy who says he comes from two hundred years in the future starts to tell Trinity a story. A story about a girl and an egg and a dragon apocalypse.

It's a little bit like Terminator meets Reign of Fire except that the Reign of Fire pieces are all sort of off screen. I really liked Scorched but then again I've really liked everything I've read by Mancusi so far.

My one issue with the book was how quickly it progressed. The reader is pushed into the action almost immediately with very little set up. I did think that there was enough explanation and development spread out through the story that by the end I felt the overall book worked on all levels - plot and story development, getting to know the characters and their motiviations, etc.

I also liked the wrinkle here between the Dracken and the dragon hunters and whether or not either side  is truly good or bad. This is the first in a series so I'm sure we'll get more on this front to come but for this first outing it's an interesting conundrum as far as deciding which side to root for.

Rating: 4/5