The Dragon’s Tooth

The Dragon's Tooth (Ashtown Burials, #1)Ashtown Burials Trilogy #1

N.D. Wilson

496 pages for experienced fantasy readers ready for an exciting ride

Are you interested in totally original fantasy?  Do you look forward to reading something where you’ll be wondering about every action and questioning every motive?   Are you looking for something that will keep you on edge, wondering?  The Dragon’s Tooth is for you.

The Smith children live at and run the Archer Hotel.  They’ve been there since the accident forced them to sell their California home, left their mother is in a coma and their father dead. Daniel, Cyrus and Antigone work each day to get by.  They are struggling to survive, hopeful they might, just maybe, get their life back and then Billy Bones comes to The Archer.  He is a tatooed man who demands to stay in Cyrus’ room , incredibly knows nosy  Old Mrs. Eldridge (the only person who stays at The Archer) and possesses powers to re-electrify things long broken.  The strangeness quickly intensifies to include fire, kidnapping, transfer of magic keys  and death.  Readers are caught in a swirl of questions – how and why and what…oh my!

With the magic keys and the power they hold, Cy and Antigone are swept into a quest they don’t understand.  They begin a wild and dangerous flight through devastating destruction, frightening mazes  and complex connections to undestand what it means to be part of The Order of Brendan… what it means to be part of the Smith family.  There are many secrets to uncover and exciting questions to answer.

I finished reading with more questions.  I can’t wait for the next part of the trilogy. There is a lot I don’t understand.  Characters I thought I could like and trust – I shouldn’t have.  Characters I didn’t understand actually pay attention to had more to do with the Smiths than I thought.  And some things like quick water and whip spiders were both amazing and awful at the same time.  I really like the Smiths – I want them to uncover their role in this world.  I want Daniel to be released.  And mostly I want to know if their parents are actually out of their lives forever, or just waiting for the right time to return.

Fantasies are like that, but this isn’t like any other fantasy so I am not sure at all.  The Dragon’s Tooth is dark and exciting.  There is a lot of evil swirling around and it is hard to know how good will prevail.  I have no idea how that will happen.  And that’s what makes this a great book to read and explore.

As you read, you might want to make note of the characters as they come.  I wish I had. In fact, I will read it again to do just that because I want to begin the second book fully able to understand and relish the characters and action as it develops. This book has a lot of exciting twists and turn.  It’s an amazing challenge!  Hope you’ll take it!