Review: Flying Blind by Deborah Cooke

FlyingBlindFlying Blind
(The Dragon Diaries Trilogy, #1)
By: Deborah Cooke
Publisher: NAL
Published: June 7, 2011
Genre: YA Fantasy
Rating:

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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.

 

My Thoughts…

Zoë is not your average dragon shifter. You see, there’s no such thing as female dragons. That is, unless you are the wyvern. The most special dragon of all. She’s supposed to have these amazing powers that will help save/protect all of the pyr. The only problem is, she has yet to exhibit any powers or even shift. Being a late-bloomer has never been as embarrassing or as dangerous as it has now.

The characters of this story didn’t jive with me. Zoë was a very VERY difficult character to like. She’s highly immature. She is off in lala land the majority of the book. Everything revolved around her and her feelings. It didn’t help that she was majorly insecure about not only who she was as a person but as a dragon as well, and the book is all in her POV. Then we have the secondary characters of the story. All these “friends” of hers that were supposed to be extremely close due to them growing up together. Except when a spell of doubt is cast upon them, they immediately turn on Zoë, and I don’t mean just verbally either. You’d think for a group of friends who were supposed to be as close as they were, that they’d have a bit more of a connection than that. Instead, it takes a complete stranger to recognize the signs and help Zoë out.

What really drew me into this book was the whole prophecy, Zoë’s legacy, and if I’m being completely honest here, dragon sifters. I was hoping for a lot of dragon awesomeness. I mean, Zoë’s getting her powers, learning who she is as a dragon, and going off to boot camp to hone her skills. Except the story turned into more of an episode of Big Brother. A group of teens living in a cabin in the middle of nowhere, isolated from everyone, competing to win an exclusive prize. It just wasn’t what I thought it would be.

In the end this series is just not for me. Which is sad considering I bought all the books from the adult dragon series the author wrote. Apparently the kids from this series are the children from her adult series. I had planned to read those first but got a bit too impatient to read Flying Blind and only read the fist book in the adult series, Kiss of Fire. I don’t think I missed anything by doing so though since the other series is a paranormal romance meant for adults and this is meant for teens. However, the author doesn’t overly explain the world she’s created. It’s implied that you know a lot of what’s going on with the more intricate details of the pyr. Which, considering most YA readers are not going to read her adult series to get the background story, it lacked a lot of world/character development. Even though I only read the first book, I was still left a little lost on some things. Maybe they are answered within the remaining books of the trilogy? Who knows. All I know is that I won’t be continuing with this series.

2 Thoughts on “Review: Flying Blind by Deborah Cooke

  1. Awww I got excited when I saw dragon, but not so much for the immature 🙁 Hope your next read is awesome!!

  2. I’ve enjoyed the adult ones I’ve read of hers but never finished that series. One day maybe. This one sounds like an easy skip for me. I cannot deal with the immature characters.

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