Competitions : Book Two of The Blending

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Summary: This isn't Convergence but its worth a read
Review: Don't believe that this book is bad! It happens to be really entertaining and light hearted.-At first. Pace is kept really good and steady. As well as introducing you to new characters. While new characters are slightly too typical Delin and Kambil are gifts to characacter development. The repition of mastery tests are annoying, but better then the repitions in Convergence. So read this book, but don't expect things to heat up yet. That only really happens in Challenges and the beginning of Betrayals.

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Summary: Green talented plot developer, needs help with her style.
Review: I am frustrated that I like this book, because now I am compelled to finish the trilogy. Sharon Green has a talent for creating engaging characters and an intriguing plot, but her style tends to be tedious. Green attempts to narrate the story from each characters' point of view without success. Each character repeats details of their experiences which are excruciatingly similar. By the climax of this story, readers can easily predict the actions of each character. If Green changed her narrative stance to a more omniscient narrator, perhaps the telling would be less tedious.

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Summary: I want more!
Review: I bought the entire series at once, so I spent a good 2-3 days reading them straight. I love the entire series. I had read Far Side of Forever and Hellhound Magic in the library and loved them, so when I saw this series I eagerly read them all. Now only if her older books weren't so hard to find and the upcoming series come out now! If you loved this series, check out some of her other books, especially if you can find them!

Rating:
Summary: I can only explain my thoughts in one word "EXCELLENT".
Review: I give this book a 10, it was excellent. Sharon Green can really make her characters relate to the person reading. My favorite part in this specific book was the many views it had shown. Showing how all the characters felt, but still telling it in first person, and in third. I have read various books in this type but none was quite like this book. I seem to be drawn to this book, and I have to drag myself away in order to do my school work. The conection between all of them were astonishing. It is killing me to wait for the next book! I can't wait, it attracted me the moment I opened the novel. CAN'T WAIT FOR THE NEXT!!!

Rating:
Summary: Competitions: Book Two of the Blending
Review: I love this author. Sharon Green writes a wonderful fantasy story. I would recommend all of her books to anyone, if you like fantasy.

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Summary: I do so hate re-reading the same thing, over and over again.
Review: I was shocked at just how awful this book is. Each chapter is basically one of the five main characters going through some trial--and the next four chapters are how the other characters have done exactly the same thing. Awful. A bore. Hard to get through. It was like trudging through a book of Organic Chemistry. Now, I love Sharon Green. I adored her Mida series and I /love/ the Warrior Within. This woman can write. Each chapter is well written--Just, I can not comprehend why she felt she had to right the exact same thing over, in five different ways?

Rating:
Summary: A Decent Read, And Yet....
Review: If you've ever read something that had an appalling number of flaws (particularly in characterization and pacing), romances that could come straight out of a bad dime store novel, villains who fit every stereotype you could imagine, repetition galore, flatness abundant... and liked it *anyway*, then you can understand what I mean when I say that I enjoyed this book almost despite itself.

Sharon Green really must be a marvelous artist. Her main characters are winsome and intriguing; her magical system, like the society she has built, is fascinating. The ideas behind this particular book are interesting in their own right: the heroes and heroines (as well as villains and villainesses) must each face tests of their elemental gifts that will lead to rich rewards if they win and certain destruction if they fail. All the while, they're keeping an eye out for the machinations of the unscrupulous testing authority. It's a very compelling premise, particularly for readers who enjoy stories involving elemental magic and its practice.

It's just a shame that Green has chosen the method she has of presenting her world. While some of the characters' relationships with each other are touching, one pairing seems to have no solid basis for existance and a second had me wanting to throw the book across the room in disgust. (It did get better later, though.) The dialogue is simply regrettable at some points--mostly made so by the one-dimensional nature of the villains... who almost all happen to be noble, and/or the parental figures of the protagonists. I simply cannot believe that everyone except our heroes is evil, ambitious, and by and large essentially *stupid*, but that's what we're expected to swallow. There were also small details that made me sigh; the animal 'friends' seemed like something straight out of Snow White, which at least was fitting with a set of protagonists who are innocent, selfless, beautiful and/or handsome, virtuous, powerful... the list goes on.

However, I did enjoy _Competitions_, and have found the series difficult to put down despite its shortcomings. I would tentatively recommend this book and this series to anyone who is fond of the fantasy genre and can put up with the negative aspects mentioned above for the sake of a truly (if puzzlingly) intriguing tale.

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Summary: Thrills . . . spills . . . chills . . . and steamy romance!
Review: Sounds like an ad for a cable channel ... or maybe the army. Well, it should! Once again, Sharon Green has graced her readers with an excellent tale, full of suspense, magic, and wonderfully-developed characters. In this second book of The Blending, we are given more information about the conspiracy facing our heroes and heroines. We also learn to appreciate them even more as they are placed in direct contrast with their opposites on the nobility's opposing blending. Oh, and did I mention romance? It's all in there. Few authors have managed to capture my attention so consistently with strong characterization, enthralling plots, humor, and in this case, a wonderful point-of-view stance. At this rate, the third book promises to leave us hanging on the edges of our collective seats

Rating:
Summary: The 2nd book in an excellent fantasy series
Review: The excellence continues in this second book of the Blending. We are introduced to the main Blending opposing our five members of the prophesied Blending. The contrast between the two is clearly seen. The members of the enemy Blending are all members of the nobility of the empire, and are generally cruel, self-centered and ambitious, each looking on the others with envy and hate, and only helping and cooperating with each other to the extent that it furthers their own self-interest. Most if not all of the rest of the nobles who run the testing authority have similar characteristics, and none of them can recognize let alone appreciate the good characteristics of genuine friendship, generosity, caring, and morality possessed by the members of the prophesied Blending and the power it gives them to overcome obstacles. There is much afoot that is yet unexplained. It seems that someone or something connected with the prophesy is helping our Blending in very subtle ways that neither they nor anyone else recognizes. There may also be a different power interacting with the enemy Blending, but this is only a guess on my part to explain the strange events that their leader has gone through. It seems the third book of the Blending is to open with a corrupt faction in the testing authority attempting to take control of the five members of the prophesied Blending by means of a drug that was unknowingly given them. It will be quite interesting to see what happens next. [e-mail] (Ron Ebert)

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable, light reading despite a predictable plot
Review: This book followed the same pattern as the first, making it very predictable for the most part. Also, the squabbling between characters seems almost contrived, as if a plot device to keep them apart, such as you see in badly written romance novels. That said, some of the ideas about the competition were fresh enough to keep me reading and look for more.