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Title: Destruction
Series: The December People #1
Author: Sharon Bayliss
Genre/Age Range: Contemporary, Fantasy, Adult
Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press
Release Date: April 14th 2014
Source: Review copy
Synopsis
David Vandergraff wants to be a good man. He goes to church every Sunday, keeps his lawn trim and green, and loves his wife and kids more than anything. Unfortunately, being a dark wizard isn't a choice.
Eleven years ago, David's secret second family went missing. When his two lost children are finally found, he learns they suffered years of unthinkable abuse. Ready to make things right, David brings the kids home even though it could mean losing the wife he can't imagine living without.
Keeping his life together becomes harder when the new children claim to be dark wizards. David believes they use this fantasy to cope with their trauma. Until, David's wife admits a secret of her own - she is a dark wizard too, as is David, and all of their children.
Now, David must parent two hurting children from a dark world he doesn't understand and keep his family from falling apart. All while dealing with the realization that everyone he loves, including himself, may be evil.
Destruction combines contemporary and fantasy into a novel that is unlike any I've read. One of the things that intrigued me the most about this family was that they're dark wizards who want to be good. Reading this novel wouldn't have been the same if they wanted to embrace their dark side because that would have been expected.
David is a character who made me feel sad, angry, and hopeful at the same time. Sad because he's lost time with two of his children and finds out they've been abused for years. Angry because he was selfish in maintaining two relationships at the same time resulting in two separate families that are now brought together as one. Sometimes I thought he couldn't have bungled a decision any more than he did while other times he handled things in a way that showed how much he cared.
The secret that David's wife, Amanda, reveals goes further than you think, and it is a shocking twist. The plot of Destruction is rich with interesting conflicts that kept me hooked to see how they'd be resolved - if David and Amanda could work through their issues to save their marriage, how David's two children would integrate into his family with Amanda, and how the family would deal with being dark wizards.
Everything about this family was interesting, and there was a lot of drama between the parents and between the siblings. Destruction begins as a contemporary, and I almost forgot that it was also fantasy so it was a surprise when the subtle magical hints that were dropped along the way ended up being more than they first seemed. I had a blast reading Destruction and look forward to seeing where the next book takes me.
My Rating:
Sharon Bayliss is the author of The December People Series and The Charge. When she's not writing, she enjoys living happily-ever-after with her husband and two young sons. She can be found eating Tex-Mex on patios, wearing flip-flops, and playing in the mud (which she calls gardening). She only practices magic in emergencies.
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