Book Review: Scorched by Mari Mancusi

Scorched by Mari Mancusi is a young adult novel that has more twists than I expected. Sixteen-year-old Trinity Brown is used to her grandfather's crazy stories and has spent a good amount of time trying to make their home a permanent one. When he spent money he should not have on a treasure, she did not believe that it could be a real dragon's egg. Only when soldiers trying to steal it and a strange boy who tells her the world as she knows it will be wiped out in a fiery dragon war does she start to believe. Meanwhile, there is a voice whispering to Trinity, calling to her, telling her what to do...the dragon inside her egg is not ready to give up without a fight.

Scorched took me a while to get into, manly because of the fact that the point of view jumps between different points of view. Connor comes from the future, on a mission to stop the egg in Trinity's possession from hatching, and in turn preventing the dragon wars that destroyed the world that he knows. Trinity lost her mother to suicide and is just trying to have a stable home, all of which pales in comparison to the idea of the world being destroyed. Caleb is Connor's brother and working on his own mission to save the world and the dragons. The story is made more complicated by others from the future including plots and betrayals that will change the way all three teens view the world, the future, and each other. My main disappointment here is that Mancusi went for the love triangle, with twins no less. I saw it coming and shook my head and sighed. However, the twists and turns of the story, the development of Trinity's character, and the reveal of the dragon's possible fate all kept me reading. I am interested to see where the story goes from here- because while that is a certain level of resolution there is also a promise of more to come.

I would recommend Scorched to young adult, new adult, and adult readers that are looking for something a little different It is not a perfect book, but it was entertaining and interesting with a good deal of world and character building that leaves me curious to see what will happen in the book(s) to come.