The Secret of the Dread Forest by Gillian Summers Book Review

Genre: Modern Fantasy

Age: 12+

Gender: Female

Pages: 280

Publication Year: 2009

Plot: 5/5

Description: 5/5

Characters: 4/5

Developed: 4/5

Fast Paced: 5/5

Cover: 3/3

Final Score: 26/28

Percentage: 93%

Grade: A-

    Modern fantasy is not my favorite genre, but if I had to choose one book series of this genre that I would consider my favorite it would be this one. I had trouble when I first started reading it because I read the first two around two years ago, but I finally started remembering. The plot of this one is pretty good. Keelie the half elf goes to live in the Dread Forest with her father and grandmother. When she gets there she gets the heart breaking news that Sean the elf hottie, is getting married away so he can breed. The Dread is failing, so humans can get inside to forest, and guess what that doesn't make the trees very happy or healthy. So Keelie has to fight to save the Dread. While she is at it she meets a vampire like thing named Jake, has to take care of her demanding treeling named Alora,and make sure her crazy cat gardian doesn't get taken away. Isn't that a awesome plot? The description in the book is pretty good, but I don't have much to comment on it, but I liked how they described Alora the bratty treeling. I gave it a 4/5 for chracters. It would of gotten a 5/5 but one thing was bothering me. Even though I have nothing against vampires, I didn't like how they called Jake a vampire. I think they should of called him something else more creative and just compared him to a vampire, since he didn't really suck blood, that is pretty much all that is wrong about the characters. I love the main character Keelie, she just seems so real. Even though she is a magical half elf with awesome powers, she still just seems so real. Her character is not perfect, she makes mistakes, but she has a good heart. The side characters are pretty cool too. I thought it was funny how fake Sean's betrothed was. I gave the develped section a 4/5 too because I think some things they should have lingered on longer. Like the grand finally of the novel. I also didn't think they played out Elia dad turning into a "vampire" as much as they could. I think they should of explained how Niriel was a good guy then all of a sudden he was a bad guy, it puzzled me for a little bit. They could of also developed to love between Elia nd Jake more. The book was very fast paced so I gave it a 5/5. I absolutely love the cover art, on this book. I love the cover art on the whole book series, so I had to give it a 3/3. So In all this book was pretty good, but my picky grading system brought it down to a A-. If you like all the popular books that are coming out today the combine fantasy and romance and is looking for something kind of the same, but different in a good way, read this book!