Blethering About Books: Flying Blind (The Dragon Diaries Book 1) by Deborah Cooke

Out today - 31st October 2011

Zoë Sorensson is perfectly normal, except she's been told she's destined for great things. Zoë's the one female dragon shapeshifter of her kind. But Zoë is at the bottom of the class when it comes to being Pyr and her powers are AWOL, so she's sent to a Pyr boot camp.

Zoë quickly realizes that she has to master her powers yesterday, because the Pyr are in danger and boot camp is a trap. The Mages want to eliminate all shifters and the Pyr are next in line-unless Zoë and her friends can work together and save their own kind.

There be dragons here!

So, it has been a wee while since I have read a dragon book and I am happy to say that this wasn't a disappointment.

We have mages, dragon shifters, plots and spells.

I was thrown straight into the story and given no opportunity to get bored or draw breath. But what I liked most was that because we are being told the story by Zoe there is no iffy-but-y-ing to get to the dragon aspect of the story.

Flying Blind is set in the year 2024 but right now this doesn't seem to have much of a bearing on the story line the only bit of technology is that everyone seems to have something that sounds like an i-pad.

Zoe is a real and likable teen character who faced everything that was leveled at her in the way she thought was best. It was refreshing to have a character not complaining constantly about wanting to be normal. Zoe wanted to be a dragon and live up to the expectations of those around her. I loved that!

The twists and turns were at times surprising. Just when I was starting to think everything was settling down and allys and enemies had all been sorted it blew up in my face - that definitely kept me reading.

One problem that I had was that I would have liked there to have been more description. I couldn't see clearly what was going on - especially with the transformations.

Also on a character stand I didn't really like the other teens who were meant to be Zoe's friends. I understand that they couldn't really help their actions as they were under a spell but they seem to be too easily manipulated by it - surely they could have put up some kind of a fight. And they were also trying to pressure and bully Zoe into doing things she wasn't capable of.

And last but not least Zoe's parents - I am beginning to think that I have a serious issue with parental figures in books. (What do you mean I'm projecting?). Zoe has problems getting her powers to work and has not been able to transform until she gets angry at a girl who was picking on her best friend and part transforms in front of her. Her parents aren't very happy with this. Now that got me angry. Her mother did the whole 'what were you thinking' thing and then her dad did the let-her-stew thing. This really irritated me. In fact, no one in this book seemed to be fully supportive of Zoe other than the basic stranger who appears on the scene.

Rant over.

All in all a fun read - despite the character thing. I am looking forward to the second book to see how all of the characters grow and develop.