"Nancy Drew goes fantasy"

Jennifer Scales has problems being a half-breed. She knows no one quite like her as her father is a were-dragon and her mother is a beaststalker; two natural enemies. She has the skills of both. That unique duality is not very helpful when it comes to school or the boy next door whom she likes, but his parents refuse to allow them to mingle because of her dragon blood.

Life is tough enough with a mother who wants to kill her father-in-law, but to have both parents compete for your training time is too much for a teen. Worse someone is stalking her and her family; she plans to uncover the culprit and prevent him from causing harm though she finds his tricks irritating. Alas what can you do when you are Jennifer Scales, who already has solved the riddle of the Incarnation of the Ancient Furnace?

The second Jennifer Scales teen fantasy is a delightful story starring an intelligent affable individual with all the teenage angst expected of a high school student plus pressure from her antecedents to choose a side as she is the battleground between two adversarial species. The cast makes the tale fun to read especially when the heroine's paternal grandfather and her mother war about Jennifer as if she is not standing next to them. Young adult readers will appreciate Jennifer's latest amateur sleuth investigation and her improving skills since she searched for the Ancient Furnace as she uncovers who is trying to harm her family and why; the truth is quite a shocker in this sort of Nancy Drew goes fantasy thriller.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted May 18, 2007