Friday, November 2, 2012

FLYING BLIND by Deborah Cooke



The Dragon Diaries, Book 1
New American Library
June 7th, 2011
978-0-451-23388-2
Young adult, paranormal
Paperback
Reviewed by Dawn (love2read28@gmail.com)
Obtained by Publisher


Zoë Sorensson is as normal as she can get except when she is told she is also very special for she is a dragon shifter with special powers…but Zoë has no idea what those powers are so she is sent to a boot camp where nothing is as it seems. When Zoë finds out that the boot camp is just a front to destroy the Pyr, the dragon shifters, she knows she has to master her missing powers like now or else the Pyr will be eliminated forever, Zoë included.

I love Deborah Cooke’s Dragonfire novels and was intrigued to see she was doing a spin-off series centered on young adults. I wasn’t sure what I was going to get in all reality. Maybe a watered down version of her Dragonfire books but when I started FLYING BLIND, I was captivated by Zoë and the entire world of the pyr that she lives under. This is an author who took her beloved adult series world and made it her own in the young adult genre in The Dragon Diaries. The story is intriguing, filled with teenage drama, mysteries and an amazing cast of characters that steal your heart. By midway through FLYING BLIND, I could not put it down. I needed to know what would happen next for Zoë and her friends as well as the pyr.

What I loved the best about the introduction into the young adult spin-off was some of the adult characters had their own stories in the Dragonfire Series and I was thrilled to see them pop up, giving advice and helping guide Zoë and her friends. Lots of suspense, action-adventure and a bit of a romance that was unexpected. Zoe, for all intent and purposes, is still a teenager and one I loved completely. She was a perfect heroine to enjoy-strong and with just the right amount of vulnerability to make her human and there is a lot to her character that readers will enjoy immensely. This isn’t your average young adult book, that’s for sure. The writing was tight, story flowed smoothly and the characters were written so realistically, I expected to see them walking down the street or soaring above in the skies in their dragon forms.

FLYING BLIND is a wonderful way to be introduced into the Dragonfire world for new readers of this author to enjoying a pick-me-up while loyal readers wait for the next book in either her adult Dragonfire series or the Dragon Diaries series. This had the right amount of drama, action, suspense, humor and more that will please both adult fans and her new young adult fans. Deborah Cooke delivers one heck of a high octane ride in FLYING BLIND. Are you ready to explore the world of the pyr?

 

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