BLOG TOUR: Slayers: Friends and Traitors by C.J. Hill

SLAYERS: FRIENDS AND TRAITORS

Slayers #2

by C.J. Hill

Feiwel and Friends, 2013

ISBN: 9781250024619

YA Fantasy

Grades 7 and up

Reviewed from ARC received from publisher in return for honest review.

All opinions expressed are solely my own.

ABOUT THE BOOK

In C.J. Hill's action-packed sequel to Slayers, the group of teens known as Slayers have been betrayed—but they won’t give up without a fight.

Tori’s got a problem. She thought she’d have one more summer to train as a dragon Slayer, but time has run out. When Tori hears the horrifying sound of dragon eggs hatching, she knows the Slayers are in trouble. In less than a year, the dragons will be fully grown and completely lethal. The Slayers are well-prepared, but their group is still not complete, and Tori is determined to track down Ryker—the mysterious missing Slayer.

What Tori doesn’t bargain for, however, is the surprising truth about her powers. She isn’t just a Slayer, she’s part Dragon Lord, too. How can Tori fight to save her friends when half of her is programmed to protect dragons? And with a possible traitor in their midst, the Slayers will be divided in more ways than they ever imagined.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

CJ Hill is a pen name for a YA author who is best known for writing romantic comedies. (Slayers will be her 18th published book.) Her writing has shifted away from the romantic comedy genre, so her editor thought a pen name would be a good idea. (New books will include: dangerous dragons, time travel to dystopian worlds, and flesh-eating beetles.) Since the publisher refused to let her have the pseudonym : The Artist Formerly Referred to as Princess, she chose a name to honor her mother. CJ Hill was her mother's pen name, or at least it would have been if her mother had published. Her mother wrote a few children's books and a middle grade novel but was taken by cancer before she had fully learned the craft.

(Most writers' first novels aren't publishable. CJ Junior's first novel wasn't, but somehow was published anyway. Now, even though it is out of print, it remains forever available on Amazon, where it taunts her with its badness. This was another good reason to use a pen name.)

CJ Hill has five children, three of whom like her on any given day depending on who is in trouble. She has lived in Arizona for the last half of her life, but is still in desert denial and hopes that one day her garden will grow silver bells and cockle shells or maybe just tomatoes.

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REVIEW

Dragons, special powers, friendship and betrayal, whew, what a ride.  Quite an exciting read with enough twists and turns to satisfy the most discerning reader. The characters are interesting with a variety of complex motivations and decisions. I have to say that I'm not particularly a fan of love triangles or betrayal of friends whatever the reason and I can't say as I enjoyed it here, but the story is compelling and left me with a mixture of feelings about what happened.  I appreciated  the lack of bad language and sexual situations, that seems to be hard to find in young adult books these days. But this series shows that you can have a compelling story, interesting characters, and a great series without all that other stuff.  There is violence, which is to be expected considering the plot line deals with dragons and a plot to take over the world. A good series for young adult fantasy lovers who love excitement with plenty of drama but without the sex and the swearing.

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