Seraph of Sorrow

This is an excellent, well written book that gives the backstories of the main characters in the previous three books of the Jennifer Scales series. It answers questions that I had as to why things happened the way they did in the other books and gives insight into the motivation of the characters. It is strong on character development and complements the rest of the series well. But because it is dependent on the other three books, I would not recommend it to anyone until they have read the first three.

This book was not as sprited as the other 3 books. It did answer alot of questions even to ones that had not been asked. The ending was very good and I hope that this means that there will be another because they left us hanging on what will happen to everyone in the town. And what about Skip, Andi, and Susan.

4th book in the Jennifer Scales series co-written by husband/wife team Anthony Alongi and Maryjanice Davidson, initially targeted to a YA audience. Unlike the prior 3 books, this 4th book is somewhat darker and doesn't stick to just following Jennifer Scales, the 15 year-old half-breed dragon/beaststalker who is an ambassador, trying to create peace between the dragons, arachnids and beaststalkers; all who are enemies. Picking up where the last book ended, the story moves forward, but in small pieces. It's split up into sections, telling the story from the point of view of a number of different people (dragons, arachnids and beaststalkers) starting with each at the age of 15. It takes us through their perspective of the events taking place in the prior books as well as events that took place before the first book. We learn what events shaped their lives, what and why they've become the people they have. Each person showcased brings us to the present and carries the story forward just slightly beyond where the prior person brought us. I found it very aggravating to get to the present, experiencing something new, and then beginning all over again with the growth of yet another character. By the time you finish the book, you have a much better perspective of the entire picture, from many different angles - and I can honestly say at that point, I liked the book. If asked while I was in the middle of it, I couldn't have said that. There is an actual story to this book beyond going back and learning everyone's histories, and the authors do a good job of interweaving people and events together. But because most of the book is missing Jennifer's voice, we also seem to be missing MJD's witty observations and sarcasm that were prevalent in the prior books.