Don’t leave me here... It starts with a whisper. At first Trinity thinks she’s going crazy. It wouldn’t be a big surprise—her grandpa firmly believes there’s a genuine dragon egg in their dusty little West Texas town. But this voice is real, and it’s begging for her protection. Even if no one else can hear it...
Connor
He’s come from a future scorched by dragonfire. His mission: Find the girl. Destroy the egg. Save the world.
Caleb
He’s everything his twin brother Connor hates: cocky, undisciplined, and obsessed with saving dragons.
Trinity has no idea which brother to believe. All she has to go by is the voice in her head—a dragon that won’t be tamed.
I had a good friend gush to me about this book. And the second I heard "dragons" I was in. Seriously, there aren't enough books about dragons out there. I got off to a bit of a rough start, when I had to adjust to what the story actually was and not what I was expecting, but this book feels like it actually has a rhythm to it, so it's easy - and almost comforting - to read. I had a few let downs, but let's be honest - it's kind of hard not to love a book about dragons. Seriously.
You know how the dragons in How to Train Your Dragon are like cats? Well, in Scorched, they're like puppies. They're loyal and demanding, totally playful and easily let down. I love that each dragon has a personality and it's so endearing how Trinity and Emmy bond. There's even a short glimpse of the story through the dragon's point of view and it turns out they have their own history and memories as well. They're blamed for bringing out the apocalypse (cool concept), but we soon realize that it's humans manipulation and treatment of them that actually leads to a burned and dangerous world. Long story short - these dragons are just pure awesome. And I want one.
I was totally expecting this book to be epic fantasy, but it's actually contemporary/futuristic which threw me for a loop. We're actually looking at apocalypse, high technology and time-traveling rather than kingdoms and medieval weapons. That took a couple chapters to wrap my head around, but it is a cool idea to bring dragons into contemporary society. It's also a unique way to write an apocalyptic (kind of - I mean the apocalypse isn't actually happening at the present, but there is apocalypse) novel.
A few things did let me down and kept me from totally freaking out about this book. The first is, sadly, the love triangle. I'm not even going to lie - I'm all for good love triangles - but I didn't feel strongly toward either dude and I didn't really feel like Trinity did either. She just kind of happened to go for whichever brother was there. That said, I'm totally team Caleb - their relationship is the most intense, but it's still underwhelming. (And okay, this book isn't about the romance. Fine. But if you're going to have an element of romance at least make it as awesome as the rest of the book.)
Also, I felt like everyone was just too quick to believe what they were told. Trinity is told so many times that some other person was lying and she would just instantly believe it. She just seemed too easily molded into whatever belief system was presented to her. Same with Caleb and Connor - both at some point found out something they strongly believed in was a lie and they just changed their way of thinking. No resistance. I just wanted them to have the conviction to stand their ground and/or at least demonstrate that they could think for themselves (more than they did).
So ultimately I have mixed feelings about this book. It's actually pretty awesome, I just got a little hung up on some of the things that fell short. But really, I just want a pet dragon and I'll probably keep reading this series because I feel like I've bonded with Emmy. And because I always need more dragons in my life. Preferably real life - so someone get on finding some dragon eggs!
