Here’s another young adult book my friend lent to me, so I’ll give a conservative parent’s review on it.  The first book is called Eon, and the second and last is called Eona.  They were written by Alison Goodman, and although they tell the story of one person, the books are completely different in their stories.  I will keep this review limited to Eon and will type a separate review for Eona.

Although this book is considered to be fantasy, there did not seem to be much fantasy until the end.  In fact, the first half of the book mostly describes the rules and procedures of the fictional empire that has an Asian resemblance.  I was tempted to put the book down for good about halfway through, but it was the only one I had brought to the pool with me.  I continued to read it, and it eventually got better.  I even enjoyed the ending. Once you get past the first half of the book, the action begins, and there is a lot of bloodshed and death by sword. There is war and fighting and images of a baby being slaughtered. Most of the characters in this book have had a hard life due to slavery, and this is not a book filled with much happiness.

As for sexual content, Eon is a teenage girl posing as a young boy, and romance is not a consideration for her. However, she does pose as a eunuch (a male with his manly removed), and there is a hint at a romance between a eunuch man and a trans woman named Lady Dela. Lady Dela and the eunuch are both main characters in the story and are strong friends with Eon. Gender crossing is an important part of this book.

As for religious matter, they prayed to their ancestors, considered the imperial family as gods, and relied on the dragons to save the world from natural disasters.

Overall, I thought the first half of the book as drudgery to get through, but I enjoyed the second half filled with action and battles. I won’t say it was a great read, but I will say I enjoyed Eona much more than Eon. I’ve also done a review on Eona.

Since this is a young adult book, I will give a conservative parent’s review of Tiger’s Curse, written by Colleen Houck.  Although I don’t remember any foul language in the book, there were some steamy kisses, as this is a romance between an older teenage girl and a young prince that has spent over three hundred years living as a white tiger.

I loved how most of the events took place in India, and the author did a great job of describing the exotic food and scenery.  The book played out like Indiana Jones in that they were on an adventurous quest to stop the prince’s curse, and the series is made up of caves and temples in India.  As for the religious element of the books, the temples are filled with various gods and goddesses from India.

Overall, the story was fun, the romance was sweet, and I enjoyed the various scenes described.  However, I did have trouble accepting that two men from India having spent over three hundred years as tigers could speak English without any problems.  I can get over that though and continue with the story.

The romance was strong, but my friend and I both think the love dilemma is somewhat weak.  Obviously, there has to be a struggle in the romance, we just don’t like what they disagree on. Because of that and the way the book ended, I doubt I’ll read the next book in the series. I just wasn’t into it. However, Tiger’s Curse is supposed to come out as a movie in 2015, and I will definitely watch the movie. I expect it to be fun and adventurous with great scenery.

The holiday weekend is the perfect time to spend with friends, and my girlfriend and I stopped by a bookstore and did some browsing with the six children we have between us.  We browsed the teen fiction section, and I eventually chose Dragonswood by Janet Lee Carey as a light read.  This was my first time reading this author, and because this book is considered teen fiction, I will give a conservative parent’s view of it.  I consider it to be a clean fantasy romance.  Although there were three mild curse words, the romantic part of the book has an old world element to it.  It appears that the characters held Christian beliefs, and the society believed in waiting until after marriage to have intimate relations.  With that being said, there were no heated scenes, and the author kept her young audience in mind.

As for the writing, it flowed naturally and was an interesting read.  My only complaint is that there were too many hints throughout the book, and although the main character was clueless about some things, I had the ending figured out midway through.  The book was fun but not filled with suspense, and it did not keep me guessing.  However, I did enjoy the book filled with humans, dragons, and fairies.

Although you don’t have to read her other book called Dragon’s Keep to understand this one, it is a book based on events that happened many years prior to Dragonswood, and it might be an interesting read also.