Trance by Kelly Meding

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Okay, I rarely read a book that totally enthralls me. I was lucky enough to get a copy of the e-Arc through a program with the publisher since the official release date is 10/25/2011. Though I am a huge fan of X-Men I don't read comics or many superhero stories. Trance is a good story with so many twists and turns that I knew this morning that regardless to how many pages left for me to read I would be finishing this book today. I had to know the answer to the mystery.

Trance is a great book and I have already recommended it to my online bookclub and posted about it to Twitter. My biggest fear was that when I was only 1/4 through the book I began raving on Twitter. What if I changed my mind after further reading? What if the author did not continue with the same writing style or somehow the story got lost? There are some things that kept striking me about the story that led me to write to Kelly Meding and ask a few questions. I will not go into the conversation because the results could possibly spoil the book for other readers. Suffice it to say that I had to stop and figure out what was keeping me glued to the book. Was it the story itself? At one point in the story I realized that it was the depth of the characters the author had described that I liked. Possibly I am just a different kind of reader and reviewer but, I cannot tell you how much Trance's response to the results of part of the Ranger's investigation resonated with me. This scene in the book and a few others showed the gift that Kelly Meding has with characterization. I did love the different superhero gifts Gage, Renee, Marco, Theresa (Trance), William, and Evan displayed.

The other Rangers have stories that it looks like will be the subjects of the future installments in the series. So much was found and lost in this book that it was heartbreaking even without having gotten to know some of the 12 Ranger children as they tried to reunite. Trance demonstrates that a person can still find their place in the world even after multiple mis-steps. This story does have some romance in it which anyone who reads my reviews knows is not really my thing. What is nice about this story is the way the story is told. It feels like a coming of age that was interrupted and continued much later. I cannot say the ending was what I would call happily ever after. I would call it satisfying and it left me looking forward to the next installment, The Changeling.

Review can also be seen at http://ladytechiesbookmusings.blogspot.c...