Scorched (Scorched, #1)

by Mari Mancusi

[Ashley]

Nose Graze — Young Adult book reviews

4.5 Stars

I LOVED Scorched! Most of all, I adored the story. That's what rocked this book. I mean, dragons? DRAGONS!! YES! DRAGONS! There were just so many elements that appealed to me. The dragons (duh), the idea of a "chosen one", the time travel, the apocalypse, the goal to save the world.. all of it! It's the recipe for an awesome fantasy book.

Another thing I adored about Scorched was how the author wove fantasy and science fiction together. On the one hand, we have dragons and "The Nether" (a place where dead and unborn dragons live.. almost like a virtual reality world). That's fantasy. But we also have time travel and cool gadgets from the future. I thought the combination was really unique, and I loved reading a dragon book that actually takes place in present day (rather than in a pure medieval-ish fantasy world).

There were only two things I didn't like about Scorched. First, I didn't like the "almost-romance". Trinity has "moments" with both Connor and Caleb. She never starts dating either of them, but she randomly kisses both of them (sometimes on more than one occasion). So they weren't dating, it wasn't truly a romance, but she had intense "moments" with both of them... and I didn't like it. I think because it just felt so out of sync with the story and completely unnecessary. Also, she kissed them both like hours after meeting them. At first I thought it was an annoying insta-love-y triangle, but neither relationship ever developed, so it turned out okay, but it still felt unnecessary and awkward.

And on a similar note, I kept getting Connor and Caleb mixed up. I was okay with them at the beginning, but as the story went on their roles and behaviours blurred, and I forgot which one was which lol. I blame the fact that their personalities were so similar, they're twins, and they both have names that start with "C".

Secondly, I wish there were more dragons! The first half of the book was before the egg even hatched, and then in the second half we only got bits and pieces of actual dragons. I absolutely LOVED the scenes with dragons, but that's why I wish there were more of them! I kind of wanted actual dragon riding, dragon wars, and things like that. But since the dragon only just hatches in Scorched, we don't really get any of that (we get stories about that, but it doesn't actually happen).

But, I'm pretty sure that Scorched is a series (at least I hope so, based on that ending), and I'm really looking forward to reading the next book! I foresee epic dragon training sessions, dragon flying, dragon wars, and ALL THINGS DRAGONS! Bring it on, Mari, I'm so ready!

The Verdict: