Review: Scorched by Mari Mancusi

This is a review for Scorched by Mari Mancusi.  The book is the first in a new YA Fantasy series. Yes, yes, I know that I don't read YA. But come on, do see the cover of this book?  Its got a dragon on it!  And the girl gets her very own dragon, that hatches from an egg. Seriously, how could I pass it up. I looked at it hoping for more Fantasy based than YA, though as it turns out, I was wrong.

The set up is that Trinity is a sixteen year old girl who comes to live with her eccentric grandfather after her mother kills herself one Christmas Day several years prior.  The grandfather owns and operates a small museum and spends money on outlandish exhibitions, just like the one that get him a gold toned "egg". Trinity, meanwhile has to be the voice of reason and figure out where and how they are going to get the money to pay the bills and keep the museum running.  Little does she realize that the "egg" is real and that one day it will hatch an actual dragon bonded to her alone. To her, her grandfather is basically being delusional and she gets very frustrated and yells at him.

Of course, as this is YA, there has to be a love triangle.  (Isn't that like, a rule somewhere?) So we have the boy who is sent from the future to kill her and the boy sent from the future to help her.  And they are brothers. Twins, actually. Add in the military and government types trying to kidnap her and the egg, getting separated from her grandfather and there is quite a bit of action in the book.

Overall, it was a good read.  It had a fairly tight storyline, the action moved pretty good, the bad guys honestly thought they were good guys, so I kept flipping back and forth over who she should believe in. Most of the time I was fairly engaged.  I guess I was hoping for a character more along the lines of Mennolly from the Pern series or similar Fantasy genres. I didn't see that with Trinity. I think I would have enjoyed this more if it had been set as a NA book rather than YA. Since the story didn't blow me away, I probably won't pick up the next books in the series. But if you like YA and Fantasy, this would probably be a great book for you. I gave it 3 stars, mostly because the Fantasy and Action aspects were well done. Additionally the hardback has a beautiful binding with the flames and a textured close up of the dragon. The dust jacket is almost superfluous.

Trinity
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.

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