NaNoWriMo Idea #1

Title: Wake the Dragon

Genre: fantasy

Protagonist: Ember Grace, the only female dragon hunter. She met her first dragon when she was seven and after her sister was killed by a dragon she vowed to kill as many as she could. Ember takes the loss hard, its what shapes her into the person she is today. Ember, a dragon hatchling abandoned by her dragon mother had her dragon flame stolen making her human. She is adopted by her mother's handmaidens and raised in the human world. Her mother, the Dragon Sun Goddess, fearing war in The Summerlands took her daughter to the human world to keep her safe.

Other Main Character: Lennox, Crown Prince of Clan Darrow, blooded son of Dragon Queen of Fire and Light, Avery.  The Dragon Queen Avery. Her handmaidens Lily and Ivy.

Antagonist: The Danvers clan and their hired gun, the White Dragon Cain, and the Guardian council. While they have the simple mandate of keeping the Fae hidden from humans the new Blackstaff is less forgiving. She wants all the Fae eradicated. Even human sympathizers.

Setting: I want to set this in a real city, but then I don't want to research a real city. I mean we have enough stories based in New York and L.A so my top choices are Philly and Boston, but I'm a southern girl so I have no idea what they do up north. Might have to noodle this awhile longer.

Plot: Ember Grace is the best dragon hunter the Guardian Council has ever seen. Her capture rate is 96%. Its her job to capture rogue dragons that threaten the Troll Accords. Fae and humans have a strict treaty to prevent a war between the races. Fae stay hidden and humans leave fae alone.

She is sent on the trail of a particular vicious dragon who is leaving the bodies of mutilated women all over the city. Ember tracks the dragon to his den where she is attacked and left for dead. Lennox, the Dragon Crown Prince saves her life with his dragon’s kiss. The kiss reawakens her dragon’s flame and they are mated. Dragons mate for life.

This throws the dragon clans in upheaval. Lennox was promised Nia Danvers. Now Ember must navigate the political backlash from his choice while she learns about being a dragon, a princess, learning to love Lennox, and still hunting for her killer.

The killer is a black dragon of the exiled Dermott clan, contracted by the Danvers clan to kill the queen, and Ember as the Dragon Goddesses daughter (though that is the plot for another book in the series).

Point of View: This is either going to be first person from Ember's point of view or its going to be third person from the plot's point of view.

Story Notes: Still trying to decide if I want to make this an urban fantasy book or just a fantasy book and set it in a fictional world. I'm getting better at world building and such so I may try my hand at it again. 

White Authors writing Black Characters

If you don't know by now I am a black woman. Seriously go check out my About Me page. There is a big picture of me live and in living color. I love being black and I wouldn't change it for anything in the world. Yes there are a lot of things that I would change in a heartbeat about the state of blacks in America, but that is for another post.

I love reading if you didn't know that either. I'm fantasy hound. I love all things fantasy. Well I'm starting to get into horror a little bit but I'm not sure it falls under fantasy. As you can imagine there isn't a lot of characters of color in fantasy books. Let alone people of color writing fantasy books. I hope to change that with my books.

Since there aren't a lot of black authors writing fantasy it has fallen to white people to try and include black people in their books. Well some of them are trying. Now don't misunderstand me I am in no way saying that white can't write characters of color. Hell I have white characters in my books, not a lot mind you but some. My question is are they writing black characters?

My bone on contention is on their portrayal of black characters. Their black characters are as shallow as a kiddie pool during a hot Texas day. They are all working off the same cheat sheet that was created in the 1950s.

They are working from basic Black Character Archetypes that rarely vary or change. Its almost as if they believe that black people are incapable of straying from these archetypes. That we can't evolve.  Or they are just being lazy. Not taking the time to research, interact with, observe black people in our natural environments.

Here is are just a few of the most basic character archetypes that are used for the basis of black characters in literature.  

1. Mamie 
This is a black female character that is used to be the mother figure in the tale. She is affectionate, compassionate, she is used as the foil for other mothers or mother figures. She is usually an older, often overweight woman. I mean if she is going to be your mother she can't me sexy right. Soccer moms are not sexy. They have cheese doodles in their hair and they drive space shuttle mom vans.


And since she is black she has to be fat because most of us are fat.

She helps the title characters navigate the turmoil that is their lives. There advice and comfort is often sought, but is never heeded.

Though she is black she is as close to white as can be in her mannerisms. After all the white characters have to feel comfortable coming to her. She most often lives in the burbs with 2.5 children, a dotting husband.


Notable Characters: Claire Washburn from Womens' Murder club mysteries by James Patterson. Mammy from Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

2. Sex Kitten

Here is a woman that has no moral compass when it comes to her sex life. She enjoys it and she will have it with you, your best friend and your husband if she has half the chance. She is every white man's fantasy. Carmel colored skin (because dark skinned women aren't the sex kittens), long black hair that is permed and silky to the touch.

She loves her role as the sex kitten and will even turn down offers to take her away from all her troubles because this is all she knows. She sometimes is an actual working girl but most often she just enjoys sex. Where as Samantha was Sex and the City was applauded for her sexual escapades, the Black Sex Kitten is the butt of all jokes. She is the woman to hide your men from and turn your nose up at. She is the woman to compare your sexual knowledge against. If she knows it, its bad, if you don't do it you're a good girl.



3. Tall, dark and psycho

This man's name is Dangerous, with a capital D. He comes from a broken home. A single mother with his father either in jail, dead or just a deadbeat. He is most often the oldest child of many. He never finished school and he fall in with a bad element, went to juvie and or jail and just can't seem to get his life in order.

Possibly because he is just a rotten apple to the core. He is the man our mothers warned us about. He gets off on hurting people. Especially women. He is the nightmare the KKK is still trying to protect white women from.

Something is misfiring in his brain and there aren't any redeeming qualities for this man. He should be put down and put down hard as soon as possible.

Sometimes this man is giving some redeeming qualities because he is the bad boy love interest of the white female lead. Because just like the white man craves a black sex kitten, the white woman craves her Mandingo. He is used as the foil for the white male lead when he makes a move on the FMC. She has to have someone to choose from. I mean she can't just have one man interested in her.

Notable Characters: Blade in Blade comics by Marv Wolfman, Mustafa from the Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlene Harris, Jamal from the Nikki Glass series by Jenna Black, Ranger from Stephanie Plum mysteries by Janet Evanovich (he is not black but only because in an Italian girl dating a black guy in Jersey is liable to cause WWIII, so is his Cuban which is close enough), Zayvon Jones from Allie Beckstorm novels by Devon Monk, Tom Robinson from To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

4. Ghetto Fabulous or the Hood Rat

This can be a man but most often its a female. She is uneducated and likes it that way. She is a finger popping, neck rolling, bubble gum chewing ghetto queen and proud of it. She too comes from a broken home. She was either molested as a child or a former or current prostitute. She too has a bust moral compass. She will do anything that profits her. She is loyal to her family and her hood and she will protect it to the detriment of all else. She has two or more children with two or more baby daddies. She is unmarried and always on the lookout for another baby daddy or a sugar daddy to keep her in her Dolce and Gabana sunglasses. She can be a good mother when she puts her mind to it, but she is more concerned with securing a steady income from her various schemes than she is in being a good mom.

She is the ghetto tour guide for the white leads. I mean they have to delve into the underbelly of society from time to time. They can't be expected to navigate that alone. Hood Rat to the rescue.

Notable Characters: Lula from Stephanie Plum mysteries by Janet Evanovich,

5. Fat Chick

She is the comic relief. Her wit is razor sharp and she can reduce a man to a thumb sucking, sniffling baby in 2.5 seconds. She is smart, she is sassy. She has to be. She takes the brunt of all the jokes and scorn in the book. She is the ugly girl that allows the main white character to shine even more than she should.

She is either completely incompetent at everything. That way the white character is the only star in the system, or she is the sidekick who knows everything but feeds it to the white main character that way she once again is the only star, but a smart star. 

Book Babblings

Finger Lickin' Fifteen by Janet Evanovich 

The Nitty Gritty: Stephanie Plum is up to her elbows in cleaver wielding murders, wanger waving skips, and stick bbq sauce in her 15th installment.

After Lula witnesses the murder of a celebrity chef her life is in danger. Plum to the rescue. Between working her actual job as a bond enforcement agent, being Lula's body guard and helping Ranger with his little security problem Plum is in need of a hunk of birthday cake in the worst way.

Opening Line: "When I was a kid, I was afraid of spiders and vegetables."

The Good: Ranger's flirtatious nature gives me heart palpitations in the worst way. I might not be so bad if I had a husband, but since I'm single a girl has to get her kicks somehow right?

Grandma Mazur is without a doubt the coolest woman over the age of 75. She is grabbing life by the balls and refusing to let go. She isn't afraid to put herself out there to simple test the waters. Even when crazed maniacs stab her in the middle of broad daylight she manages to keep her wits enough to wonder if she can show off her wound at the funeral home for her 15 minutes of fame. Whereas Stephanie panics when the 7-11 is out of Snickers.

I actually like Joe Morelli. Here is a man that makes no apologies for the man that he is. He is an Italian stallions that likes his meatball subs, beer, and sex. Sometimes not that in that order either. He doesn't let Stephanie push him around to get her way. He doesn't change to make her happy. I like that.

The Bad: Wow, we are at book 15 people. Book 15. And Plum is still the exact same person she was on One for The Money. Nothing has changed for her, nothing has improved. I mean I can now read the jacket on each book and predict the ending without reading a single word.

Stephanie will find a dead body or one will be dropped off at her apartment. I mean everyone break into her apartment right. Then there will be some cursing a shooting by Lula. Copious amounts of chicken from Cluck in a Bucket, some laughable apprehension scenes, sexual tension with Ranger, sex with Morelli, mounds of poo from Bob and miraculously Stephanie will somehow save the day.

This woman defies logic. She eats at least four cakes per book, buckets and buckets of chicken, lamb, ham, fries, cokes, tastykakes, peanut butter and olive sandwiches, and doesn't gain a pound. I mean I am impressed.

Whereas Lula, the lovable comic relief seems to get bigger as the series progresses. Yet she eats the same amount of food Stephanie does. In fact in this book Plum has the gaul to suggest that Lula goes on a diet. As if Stephanie is the healthiest person in the world.

I mean I don't know about anyone else but I am sick of Stephanie's life. She doesn't have any marketable skill set. She can't cook, she can't clean, she works in a job that requires her to carry a gun and in fact she has been in situations that could have been avoidable is she had bee carrying yet she keeps her gun in a cookie jar as if that makes it acceptable.

We are at book 15 and she is still mystified at the fact that she sucks at her job. I don't understand why she keeps letting her skips out of her sight to use the bathroom, or lock up the house, or check the thermostat. We all know what's going to happen yet Stephanie falls for the same trick over and over again. I'm starting to think Rex is the smart one in that relationship. At least he doesn't pretend that he's not running on his wheel.

Speaking of Rex he is the hamster that just won't die. The average lifespan for a hamster is 3 years on a good day. Rex was alive before the series started. Wherever she got that hamster they need to give us the secret to eternal life.

Stephanie is afraid of everything. Yet she does nothing to overcome that fear. She keeps walking into the same traps, the same bad situations, over and over again. I could set my menstrual cycle by it.

And I am getting sick of her and the triangle sex, maybe its love thing. I could see this from an 18, but Plum is well over 30. There has to come a point in your life when you grow the hell up and put on your big girl panties. Ranger does not want to date her, he does not want to marry her he has made the clear time and time again yet Plum is still struggling with her attraction to him. Yes he is gorgeous and a wonderful lay, but that's as far as anything goes with Ranger and Plum has said that she wants more. However when presented with more with Morelli she balks.

She wants to keep her apartment. I've seen cell blocks with more personality than her place. Its constantly getting broken into, dead bodies dropped off, crazed killers on the fire escape yet she wants to keep it. Morelli wants more with her but she wants to keep playing these games.

If I were Morelli and Ranger I would tell her to go eat a birthday cake and then take a flying leap into the Hudson. Both of them deserve more.

Final Thoughts: I just can't keep going with this series. Jackass 3D had more character development than this series.

Book Babblings

One for the Money by Janet Evanovich

The Nitty Gritty: Stephanie Plum is an out of work lingerie buyer. Hocking her furniture for hamster food is as low as hse is willing to go. When her mother mentions that her cousin Vinny (yes I realize the inside joke) is hiring Stephanie is reluctant to take the job.

When $10,000 and the prospect of getting even with Joe Morelli is dangled in front of her she can't resist getting in the bounty hunter game.

Well she should have read the job description because she is ill prepared when the great Trenton boxer Benito Ramirez starts stalking her and leaving half dead hookers on her fire escape.

To top of it Morelli might be innocent or he might just be a really good kisser. Plum can't decide which one, but she does want that ten grand. A girl needs furniture in her life.

Opening Line: "There are some men who enter a woman's life and screw it up forever."

I've seen this books laying around the library for years. Even during the semi-annual book sale I've bought a couple of them. Hey when you can get all the books you can squeeze into a plastic shopping bag for $3 you grab anything that looks interesting. I actually had Two for the Dough and Three to Get Deadly for nearly a year before I decided to sit down and actually read the books. So I started at the beginning.

The Good: First I love Grandma Mazur. She is funny as all get out just because she can be. When she shot that chicken I had tears streaming down my face. Anytime you can make a old person cool you got my vote.

Is it bad that I sort of want to meet Morelli in the flesh? Not sure if its to slap him or kiss him, but I wouldn't mind a sit down with the man. He walks a fine line between charming and revolting.

I can't remember the last time I laughed so much reading a mystery. True be told I'm not well versed in the genre. I've read James Patterson, Dan Brown and John Grisham, but that's about it. Mystery just isn't my bad, sorry. I'm a fantasy nerd. Sue me. The book itself wasn't laugh out funny, but there were certainly funny parts. Yeah I know the guy getting blown up in the car wasn't supposed to be funny but Stephanie running around without any eyebrows is pretty darned funny.

Living in the south I can understand how certainly parts of the county seem like foreign countries and I love how Evanovich sets up Trenton as something to be avoided because only Trenton should spend any amount of time in Trenton. I know Evanovich isn't a fantasy writer but I love her world building. Even if she is using a real place.

I'm still debating whether or not I like Stephanie. She just doesn't seem to have a back bone most of the time, but she does face down her fears like a champ. She's just so much of a girly girl that I find her annoying at times and other times I'm applauding her gall. Locking up a man in a refrigerated truck to collect his bounty took balls and I like that.

The Bad: Obviously this book is old school. It was written in 1994 so all the car phone references, chicks and grandmas running around with spandex shorts are slight irritating. I grew up in the 80s and 90s and don't remember women wearing that much spandex.

Ok and the whole tunnel job in daddy's garage was a tad gross. I mean come on what six year old is playing that filthy game. And if I ever caught my child doing anything remotely like that I would beat their tails till the chickens came home to roost.

I really hate that the big bad black guy had to be the villain in this book. I mean come on this book is set in Jersey why couldn't Guido be the bad guy? Yeah I know that is just as bad as a black guy being the villain but forgive me for being partial.

The plot was a bit sluggish and half of it could have been cut out. She could have lost 100 pages and the book still could have been good

My Final Thoughts: Well this was a great introduction to the Plumeverse and I think I will continue the series.

Book Babblings

Dime Store Magic by Kelley Armstrong 

The Nitty Gritty: Reeling from the loss of her mother and the loss of a powerful black witch Paige Winterbourne has taken on the task of raising Savannah and running the American Coven.

Paige's life is a balancing act. An act that she believes that she is doing well. Until the woman responsible for her mother's death send her custody paperwork. Outraged Paige plans to get at the half demon alone.

Till Leah confesses they have the backing of Savannah's father behind them. Paige enlists the help of a human lawyer who winds up as fertilizer all over main street and Paige is the suspect.

Opening Line: "Todd adjusted his leather power seat and smiled." 

The Good: I actually like Lucas. He is long suffering, sweet, intelligent and for the most part honest. I have to admit that I am partial to nerds and Lucas is a glasses wearing nerd who happens to be a lawyer. That is beyond sexy to me. Lucas is opened-minded and hard working. He is one of the best male protagonists in the fantasy genre that I've read. He was the star of the book for me. Its saving grace.

The Bad: I hate Savannah. I hate her with a white hot passion that I didn't know existed. I mean I like Bella Swan from Twilight more than Savannah. She snotty, condescending, cocky, mean, a total brat. Everything I hate for a child to be.

Here is a kid that should lucky someone wants to put up with her. Instead she abuses the generosity afforded to her. She abuses the magic that she had been entrusted with. Without a thought or care for the consequences to her actions. She just doesn't care who she hurts to get what she wants. In one scene she unleashes a confusion spell that gets Paige slapped around like a rag doll and Lucas stabbed. Does she even act like she is sorry? Nope. Does Paige or Lucas punish her? Nope. They just talk about it among themselves and they move on. Her little tantrum at the end of the book just did it for me.

This chick needs a padded room and a straight jacket and I would be too happy to supply both.

I don't know if I like Paige. She is so flighty. Not in the fact that she can't sit still but in the fact that she is scared of everything. Freaks out about everything, and is just so...I can't even keep going. Paige is so stuck in her ways she can't even see that Lucas wanted to help her from the beginning.

And of course I'm still trying to come to terms with white authors having interracial dating/hook ups/marriages with characters of color. Especially when those characters of color are the only splash of color in a book. Its really frustrating for me because its just like they are including these characters just to include them. They aren't taking the time to understand said characters ethnic and racial background before they throw a white girl at them.

Honestly this book could have lost 150 pages and still have been boring. It was a book about a supernatural custody battle in the middle of a Tampax commercial. It was a simple plot that she tried to make interesting with all the little twists and turns when frankly she should have come up with a different, better plot.

My hope for the series: So I am still trying to find something that I like about Armstrong's female protagonists. I can't stand Elena and I'm starting to not like Paige, but I really like the concept of the series. So I'm hoping the females get better.

Many Bloody Returns

If you don't know already I am in love with vampires. Above all other mythical creatures in fact. Sure elves are sexy. Something about those pointy ears do turn me on, but vampires have my heart. I actually think I fell in love with them when I saw Dracula with Gary Oldman for the first time. Admittedly he was scary as hell in that film and I never, ever want to meet Dracula I did fall in love with vampire lore.

Here is a small list of my favorite vampires.

Black Dagger Brotherhood 

These warriors take the top spot because not only are they all drop dead gorgeous and incredible sexy they are the defenders of their race. The love hard and fight with fury. There is something about a male that knows what he is and accepts it that is admirably. Too often I run into vampire series with vamps who either hate who they are and mop left and right or they are total brutes trying to drain the human world dry. The fact that vampires can only drink from other vampires is nice. It takes the fear out vampires being among. Well just a little bit. The Brotherhood has no qualms about killing humans if they threaten or get in the way of the Brotherhood or the vampire race.

The story is told from the point of the view of the men. Well there are chapters that feature their shellans (wives) but the plots are about the evolution of the brothers. I like that.

Each male is a tortured soul. Damaged beyond all reason. Zdasist was kidnapped as a baby and made a blood slave. Raped till he had no soul Bella was able to bring him back from the brink of destruction. Vishous was turned over into the hands of the Bloodletter and his warrior camp. Rhage pissed off the Scribe Virgin and she cursed him. Wrath had to endure the slaughter of his family while he had been powerless to do anything. Butch watched his sister get into the car of her rapist and killers. Phury had to live without his twin for a hundred years only to find a hollowed out body where Zadaist used to be on top of fighting against his own raging drug addiction. Tohrment had to deal with the suicide of a woman he went through hell to rescue only to turn around and deal with the murder of his shellan and unborn young. John Matthews was born in the bathroom stall of a bus station without a voice only to be raped by a human in a dirty stairwell. Qhuinn born with one blue eye and one green eye in a world where a wrinkled shirt earns you a lifetime of scorn. Blaylock, the perfect male and the perfect son, except for the fact that he is gay.

Nothing nice and rosy for these males, and yet over the course of the series each of them finds the capacity to love and be loved. While kicking a lot of tail and taking names.

Blade Series 

Though Blade is a comic book hero I love him to death. First of all there aren't that many black superheroes to choose from so Blade holds a special place in my heart.

Blade is one sexy vampire. Well daywalker as they like to call him. I love his devotion to the cause. It is all consuming for him. His everything. His reason for living. There is not compromising with him. If you drink blood to live you have to die. And I love that the vampires in this series like being vampires. No one is crying about living forever.

Blade, born after a vampire attacked his mother was gifted with all the strengths of the vampires and none of their weaknesses. Well except for the thirst which he quenches with a serum. He is super strong, self healing, extremely fast, ages at a slower rate and he isn't allergic to silver and garlic and can walk in daylight. Which makes hunting vampires all the easier.

Southern Vampire Series

I love the fact that the vampires live out in the open. I think that it one of the biggest things that I love about the series. These vampires are a proper cultural and subculture. Its not just a gang of blood thirty animals running around. They have structure, rules, rituals and customs. I do think having kings and queens then sheriffs is a bit confusing, but not to the point where its distracting.

In the beginning I did like Sookie though she is only a human, but as the series has progress I've grown to really hate her. I think Harris really lost Sookie's voice somewhere between Dead in the Family and Dead Reckoning. Good thing this post isn't about her. Its about the vampires.

Each vampire is a very different creature. Sure they are all blood sucking predators. We know that, but they are still different from one another. Eric is one of the oldest in the series. He was turned before the known world was created. His surname is Northman for a reason. The vamp started life out as a Viking. Bill Compton was turned during the Civil War, Pam was an aristocrat during Victorian times. It gives each vampire a personality.

House of Night

I started off really liking this series. Anything that has women on top is good for me. I liked this series in spite of its protagonist. I just couldn't keep reading it. Its like the never ending story. There has been 11 books so far and the story arc is till going. I just can't keeping reading through Zoey's eyes anymore. She is one of the most annoying characters ever, and that is saying something since I read all four Twilight books.

The reason I like these vampires is one because its a matriarchal system. The women are on top. They run things and have all the power. The men do what they do best. Look good and beat up things.

In this series no one is born a vampire or turned. you either have the vampire gene or you don't. Even then there isn't a guarantee that you will survive the change over to become a vampire. And the goddess Nyx is the start of all vampires. I love the inclusion of the mythical in this series.

I tip my hat to the Casts for the inclusion of characters of color. We need more of that in the fantasy genre and I love that vampires are getting the color treatment.

The Dresden Files 

I love Harry Dresden. Absolutely love him. What's more I love the supernatural creatures in the Dresdenverse. Since this is a vampire post we will focus on the vampires in the Dresdenverse.

No two vampires are alike. There are several different courts of vampires each with their own powers and abilities. White court vampires suck on the emotions of their victims. Some white vampires suck on sexual tension, others suck on the fear. Little is know about Jade court vampires. They seemed to be highly secretive and cult like. Red court vampires wear skin suits to look more human, but when they are feeding their true selves are reveled and there is nothing sexy about it.

Butcher created this awesome world of magic, fae, demons, shifters and the like to delight and titillate his readers. I wholly appreciate his efforts and I look forward to many bloody returns from Harry Dresden.

The Vampire Chronicles

Who can say they love vampires without loving Louis de Pointe du Lac. The vampiric son of the infamous Lestat. Usually I hate vampires how hate being vampires. I mean you either like who you are or you end it all and save us listening to you whine, but I love Louie. I mean I think he was my first vampire crush to be sure.

Louie though looking to die was turned against his will. He wanted to die not live forever. Especially living on the blood of the living. What I liked most was his fatherly instincts toward Claudia. Though he was responsible for her death, its a better way to die than she would have gotten with the plague. He takes responsibility for her in a way that any father would have. Lestat was more concerned with turning her into the perfect killer. Louie just wants her to be happy. Her death scene tore at my heart.

With Rice we get back to the quintessential vampire. Tall, dark and deadly. These vampires aren't looking to mainstream or come out of the coffin. They like living in the night, pretending to be human while draining the world dry. They suave predators that I am sure many men and women would love to be lying under as they died. When I think of the classic vampire I think of Anne Rice. 

Book Babblings

Spy Camp by Stuart Gibbs 

The Nitty Gritty: Ben "Smokescreen" Ripley has survived his first year at Spy School. a super secret facility tasked with educating America's future CIA operatives.

Smokescreen has planned a summer to end all summers. Basically he just wants to hang out with his best friend, play video games and dream about Erica Hale till his little heart bursts.

Too bad SPYDER is still trying to recruit Ben and he has to go to spy camp. The thought of spy camp doesn't not bode well for Ben, but he would rather be surrounded by woods, mosquitos and he fellow spies when SPYDER comes a knocking. At least he knows Erica will be there to thwart their plans again, and maybe this time he can be rewarded with a rare Hale smile from the spy.

Opening Line: "On the very last day os soy school, my plans for a normal, uneventful summer were completely derailed by the delivery of two letters."



The Good: I love Ben. Its awesome being inside his head. To me he is the only "real" spy in this tale. Meaning he isn't very good at it. Which you would expect from a 13 year old! If this were a fantasy or even a sci-fi book I could maybe believe that 16 year olds could dismantle nukes in under 30 seconds, but this is just a middle grades book and its hard for me to swallow sometimes. Maybe if these kids were Eureka experiments or something I could take it, but they aren't. Ben is just a regular kid that is scared of his own shadow half of the time. I like that.

Ben's growth from one book to the next tis great. We might have expected him to give 007 a run for his money in Spy Camp, but instead he has improved a little bit. He's not ready for the CIA yet, but he is better than he was when we last saw him. His character development is great and believable.

I do like that we see a kink in Erica's armor. Even if its so predictable my mom could have seen it coming. Its good to see her ruffled. It shows her age just a tad. That's a good thing.

The Bad: My suspension of belief is getting quite the workout with this series. Not only are we to believe that a group of kids make better spies than actual CIA agents, but we are also to believe that said kids are capable of repeatedly thwarting this evil organization again and again. something the actual CIA has failed to do for decades.

I am glad that one of the principles in this story is a girl. A girl no doubt that is hailed as the best spy at school. I just wish that she wasn't the typical warrior girl archetype. Erica Hale is a great spy, but that's all she really is. She doesn't have any friends, nor any functioning relationships. The men in her life are either paranoid to the point of keeping their distance, a evil double agent content on torturing her or a bumbling oaf that couldn't spy on his sleeping grandmother. Right now Erica seems flat. She isn't growing or learning a valuable lesson and this is the second book. There needs to be somewhere for her to go.

My Hope for the Series: Gibbs has grabbed my attention. I care what happens to Ben, but my feelings can go cold very quickly. I want him to get to the point in the next installment before my attention wanders.