MaryJanice Davidson & Anthony Alongi, The Silver Moon Elm

The Silver Moon Elm

MaryJanice Davidson, Anthony Alongi

Berkley, Jun 2007, $9.99

ISBN: 0425215261

High school student Jennifer Scales knows how tough a mixed racial heritage can be on a teen. On her maternal side, Jennifer descends from powerful beaststalkers; on her paternal side, she comes from powerful were-dragons. That blending would prove difficult for anyone in spite of the obvious love between her parents, but beaststalkers have always hunted were-dragons and were-dragons have always attacked beaststalkers.

Jennifer wishes everyone would learn to get along. With that in mind she visits her father's clan only to have Xavier Longtail the elder dragon informs her that she is crazy going against the natural order of life and death. Her former boyfriend Skip the were-arachnid gives her a necklace and takes her to a movie where she dozes. Afterward, she finds her family vanished with no record of their existence as the were-arachnid mages cast an eradication spell; she lives because the necklace caused the spell to skip her. Jennifer needs to restore the old order before the new order finds her.

This terrific dark teen fantasy scales stratospheric heights with an exciting story line that takes a deep look at couples and their offspring. Unlike Jennifer Scales and the Messenger of Light in which the heroine plays Nancy Drew in fantasyland, THE SILVER MOON ELM is a pure fantasy quest as Jennifer is at her best risking her life to bring back her non-existent loved ones.

Harriet Klausner