Raising Dragons by Bryan Davis

Billy and his family are rather normal, but when a crazy man starts to hunt them. Billy learns he had been lied to his whole life. His dad really is a dragon, forced to change into human form to avoid getting killed by slayers that will forever hunt him and his offspring. While Billy and his family are running from a maniac guy with a sword, Billy is trying to learn how to trust his family again and learn the truth.
Bonnie is a loner; living in the foster care system sure doesn’t help. She can’t trust anyone, because telling the wrong person the truth might get her killed. Living like life is normal is hard, but with her strange condition it is next to impossible to make friends and live a common life.

Together they will fight for their lives and discover that they have to rely on each other to survive.

I thought the characters were descent, maybe to cut and paste for my taste. Bonnie is a orphan who is looking for a place to fit in. Billy a middle of the road guy between cool and dorky that likes to draw and hang with his best friend, Walter. I would have liked a bit more diversity and distinction between them. The fact that all the characters fit into stereo-type cut outs society uses to describe people was boring, since people are not cut and paste in real life. 
As for the villain I think that he was flat. He was described as insane, that fits him to a tea. We never understand why he has such a hatred for the dragons, just that he does. I have read many books and feel this villain was one of the weakest I have ever read.

The plot was alright, it had a good opening chapter and kept the pace up for the rest of the book. There were a couple lags but since the book is 371 pages long it was paced well enough to keep me interested. The book is based off of King Arthur mythology, just with a twist. dragons are real, and living in the modern world. I liked this idea, and feel that in the long run Davis pulled it off very well.

One of my biggest down falls is with Billy and Bonnie’s romance thing. I say “thing” because their ages aren’t given in the book but from the way they act they aren’t old enough to be dating or seriously thinking of marriage. For some reason they both fall in love with each other in the book during battles and running from the bad guys. I feel with the stress they were going through, falling into each others arms isn’t a good way to have their friendship go. It was very unrealistic, and came off corny. 

Raising Dragons is a good book for fantasy lovers and younger readers, not bad but not great.

C+

Thank you to Living Ink books for providing me with this review copy.

I Know Why the Angels Dance by Bryan Davis

Her first funeral, 12 year old Tabitha doesn't know how to handle  her great grandmother’s, Nana, death. She knows she should be happy because her great grandmother is in heaven, but shouldn't she also be sad?

To help her remember Nana Tabitha is given Deborah, a family heirloom doll.  Going home she starts to have strange dreams and when her closest friend, Rose, starts to appear in these nightmares she fears for Rose's eternal life.
relaxed and had fun through the entire book, it made the book  feel stiff and formal. The rest of the characters were fine. With the exception of her father and Phil, I kept getting mixed up with since they’re so alike.
When I picked up this book I wasn't expecting a thing. I have read fantasy by Bryan Davis and was interested to see how he would do a fiction novel.

I have my normal qualms with the characters in this book, many, but not all, were near perfect. One thing kept appearing odd to me, Tabitha is a perfect angel. For a 12 year old she acted like a 16+
year old. She used big words, had large passages of the Bible memorized, never self-centered, polite, Ect. Now I know many great 12 year olds and all of them goof off at times. Tabitha never really 
For plot I felt this was Davis' best work, it reminded me of "Tilly" by Frank Peretti. The main plot was easy to follow while the subplots were meaningful. I was pulled into the families lives, pondered about the Biblical views the book covered and was moved as I saw how it would end. Though it was overall predictable I like that it stayed on target and was well paced.

I have read many of Davis' works and feel this is his best writing. Though I wasn’t in tears it moved me and kept me interested till the bitter-sweet end.

B+

Masters & Slayers by Bryan Davis

Thanks to Living Ink Books for giving me this book to review. 

Masters & Slayers is about a young-man, it is also the story of a young-woman. Together they will travel to another world to search for his missing brother who left months ago, they will search for her mother's killer after he has been loose for years. They will look for a lost population, stolen by dragons to be their slaves. Though this book is based about searching it has a lot more to it. 

I was expecting a lot from this book by Bryan Davis. I had never read one of his adult books and was ready for a grand adventure. Sadly though I had my hopes too high.

Davis starts out in a tournament ring and after the first paragraph I almost put the book down.
What he did in the first paragraph set what the rest of the book would be like. He was going to make the main character perfect and then the female characters wimps. Sadly I was right, Adrian Masters, the main character would be just like all of Davis' others. Perfect, he can’t make a mistake. I understand where Davis comes from but I just don't like it.  Everyone falls so I got tired of Adrian always making the right choice.
Mean while, Marcelle the main female character couldn’t do anything right. She is a warrior whom I grew to like. I was disappointed when I noticed that Davis would build her up to be a clever fighter, then he would throw her back down by having her make a mistake, or lose the fight, it was always her fault. She is a warrior but Davis made her seem like an inferior weakling. I do fencing so that irritated me, a lot.
While the other main female was manipulative impulsive, conniving, and self centered.

The plot was slow, an A-typical love triangle, a corrupt government, an underground group. For me the biggest problem was the beginning, like I said above Davis’ opening chapter was ok. Then he spent the next 100 pages filling you in on the characters background, I felt like he was forcing them on us. Telling us everything we would need to know for the rest of the book, if he would have taught us throughout the book it would have been an easier start and not overwhelm me so much. After the first 100 pages though it did pick up.

Now I will give Davis a pat on the back, I understood all that was going on. Davis kept things more down to earth then he normally does but still kept his “different spirit” feel throughout.
I also have to say this book is the best cover art Bryan Davis has ever had! I love the cover.

Davis doesn't write a lot of adult books, and to me this book was a lot like his teen books, just a bit more intense.  It was good but not excellent. 

C

Starlighter by Bryan Davis

Once long ago there was a land, this land was inhabited by dragons. One day a mighty dragon realized that their race was slowly dieing. He learned that he needed to find a new land or slaves to mine for a very important gas, so he, and the rest of his race could live. He searched and found a land that had humans, he took a few of them back to his world to work for him.
The story of Starlighter is about the people taken by the dragon and the people left behind.

I was disappointed with this book. After reading over 10 of Bryan Davis’s other books this one just seemed to blend in with the rest. The land had the same feel as any of his other series, even though it was different. The only way I can describe the world is Star Wars crossed with Rome.

I think I am finally learning why I don't like Bryan Davis’s books, the characters. They are either flat or perfect. The best fighter in he world, the honorable gentleman, the kind hearted girl that studies everything dutifully. Now I will admit that I am not perfect, so reading about these perfect people bore me. I mean even the liar never lied. I know everything will turn out right in the end so why do I care what happens to them now? It will all be okay. Since the characters are already near perfect not a lot of character development is open, which I feel hurt the plot.
With dragons, there is a point were everyone will say, they are too human. I found it in this book. Please don't get me wrong I love smart dragons just this is overboard for me. The dragon made a debate, the dragon bowed, the dragon is kind hearted. Ummmmm okey... Great! More people, just they are in dragon bodies.

The plot is unique, just like all of Bryan Davis’s plots. The finger, the romance, portals, mind bending puzzles, odd creatures, ‘twas very Davis style.

Now this book is good if you just want something entertaining to read, but I won’t go out and buy it.

C+