Review: Scorched by Mari Mancusi

September 6, 2013 3.5 stars, Book Review 12 ★★★½

Scorched

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.

​​

Scorched digs its claws into quite a few pots. Time travel, futuristic gadgets, genetic tampering, a girl with a tragic past, two love interests, and dragons. That doesn’t even cover the other things I could babble off. Dragons to me, off course, being the most important.

Trinity gets herself mixed up into quite the tangle with these twin brothers Caleb and Connor. The brothers are on opposing sides of two factions that have traveled back in time from the future. Both believing they are going to be the one to prevent the Dragon Apocalypse, be either festering or saving a dragon egg that Trinity is destined to bond with.

If you read much young adult fiction and have read the book description, then you really have to expect there is going to be a love triangle. I mean come on, one girl, and twin brothers? Whether it works here I think will widely vary on a reader by reader basis. I’m not a huge fan of triangles, but I’m a realist in the sense that I can totally see the temptation and pull of liking two boys at once. Heck, that happens to a lot of people. I thought it was nicely done in Scorched and I think young girls will like the twins and the sibling rivalry between them.

While I liked Trinity, I thought some of her behavior didn’t always jive. The tragic past was a tad over played but I understand why it was done that way and I rolled with it. There were both pros and cons to her behavior and I couldn’t help thinking about what I might have done instead if I were in her spot. I think this is the biggest reason why I’m so much on the middle of the fence with Scorched. Plus there were a few things I could totally see coming.

The one major part that I didn’t find feasible, and that I don’t believe to count as a spoiler because you learn it at the very beginning of the book, is fact that Connor is the only one sent from his faction to the future. Why send a teenager alone – especially when the opposing faction sends three people? My reasoning powers just cant come up with justifications here so it bugged me.

I love the land of the Nether where unborn and dead dragons live. It was a neat way to tie things together and I loved that aspect of things. With an equal mix of science fiction and fantasy, I am curious to see where Mancusi takes these characters.

Scorched

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• A copy was provided by the publisher for an honest review. Quotes are from an unpublished edition of this title and are subject to change. All opinions expressed are my own. Please note that this post also contains affiliate links. To view our full Blog Policy, click here.

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Tabitha (Pabkins)

When I'm in the zone I can flip book pages faster than the eye can see - screaming "More Input!" I'm a book, yarn, & art supply hoarding goblin who loves to draw, make toys and craft all sorts of creepy cute things. My current habit is to listen to audio books while I'm arting it up!
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12 Responses to “Review: Scorched by Mari Mancusi”

    • Tabitha the Pabkins

      It really IS trying for quite a mix. For the most part I think it works but then I also wasn’t blown away by it. I think it has a lot of promise so I will pick up the next one.

    • Tabitha the Pabkins

      Yes exactly! But I’m sure we’ll find out later. I really do love the dragons too. I think she did good by making too much time spent in the Nether detrimental to a person’s health.

  4. BookLady

    Scorched sounds like an interesting book. I love reading about dragons and I think the cover is fantastic. Great review. Thanks for sharing.

    • Tabitha the Pabkins

      The cover really is fantastic! I LOVE the art. I hope you love it. I’m a huge dragon lover – my baby is even a dragon baby (born in the year of the dragon)

  5. Jaime Lester

    I love dragons. I have heard mixed things about this one, but I still think I would like to give it a shot.

  6. Shannon M.

    I fell in love from the first moment I saw the cover of this book. Yep. HUGE Dragon Fan! Now I’m a little skeptical. Still, I ordered my copy and it’s currently nestled on my shelf. I didn’t realize there was so much going on (like what you mentioned above). However, your mention of the land of Nether is enough to restore my confidence in the book! I’ll have to let you know what I thought 🙂
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