Strange the Dreamer - Laini Taylor
Laini Taylor writes YA romantic-fantasy. That's what she does and she is very good at it, having a clear style and a distinctive fantasy worldview of her own. On that basis, you can hardly criticise her latest novel Strange the Dreamer for being another well-written teen romantic-fantasy that is very much within that style, or at least that's the case for the opening setting-the-scene installment in the first part of a new two-part series. On the other hand, there is much that feels formulaic about Strange the Dreamer , the book seeming to go through the motions and meeting expectations without generating any real sense of conflict or danger and without even having any real heart of its own. But it's early days yet. In book one of the new series we are introduced to Lazlo Strange. Lazlo is an orphan (well, obviously since it is a fantasy - mysterious origins and 'special' qualities no doubt to be later revealed), an orphan of the wars in the kingdom of Zosma, broug...