Dancing With the Moon (The Dragon's Tear Chronicle, 1)

Rating:
Summary: Let the dance continue
Review: The first book in an intriguing vampire/fantasy trilogy tips its hat to Charles Dickens, Anne Rice, Bram Stoker, Lemony Snicket, and Harry Potter, but this time Harry's counterpart is Amy, a mentally disabled but suspiciously wise (of course) 13-year-old girl, whose special magic is a boundless optimism and who dreams of dancing with the moon. Mental disability, a topic no one likes to think about, gets a mature treatment in contemporary literature. David Conlin McLeod combines this with a riveting, action-packed, well-planned-out vampire blood war, a romance between two sympathetic vampires, and the tender portrayal of a girl's relationship with her vampire grandmother. The riveting surprise cliffhanger ending makes us, like Amy, eager to continue the dance with the moon.