Rating: 
Summary: Not enough meat on the bones
Review: I bought this book last spring because I wanted to read something by someone I had never heard of and because Tom Canty is one of my favourite cover artists. I ended up getting the remaining four books in the series from the library because I wanted to know what happened, but I personally wouldn't recommend buying them.This book, and the series, seems to have been designed around its structure. In the world in question, there are five major magical talents -- thus there are five main characters, five books in the series and so forth. While Green does a good job delineating the characters, she is less successful varying their experiences. Throughout the series it seems that she has applied one experiential template to every character; the tests and challenges they face are so infuriatingly similar that you could get a pretty good idea of the entire books by reading a fifth of it. Likewise, while they all have fears and flaws that are sensitively described, there is something very much the same about all of them and the characters' reactions to them. By the end it doesn't really matter whether the difficulty comes from family or from business associates or what. A great deal of the plot seems to rely on miscommunication between the characters. While this is believable at the onset, it becomes less so as the story progresses until I, at least, just wanted to hurt someone. To me it seemed like Green went out of her way to make people stupider than any adult has a right to be. The first book starts with a cutesy narration that continues between every chapter. It appears less and less often as the book and the series progress, but I could have done without it entirely. The strength of the book/series comes when Green stops treating her characters as individuals and focuses on how they function as a unit, "Blending" in her terminology. Unfortunately this happens all too seldom to keep the story interesting to a thoughtful reader. I'd suggest that if you want to read an author who dwells on the subjects' personal problems but can still handle a moving plot, you turn to Mercedes Lackey instead.
Rating: 
Summary: Lack of depth... but still enjoyable.
Review: Note: This is a review of the entire series. With that said, The Blending. Where to start? Let's start with the good things. The characters were very likeable people. Even the villains were likeable in that they were good villains. Everybody gets time to tell his or her piece of the story, so the story isn't limited to the view of only one character (though Tamrissa Domon, Fire magic, is the one writing this). The magic was very cool. I liked how people didn't necessarily have powers for fighting (say, like in Sailor Moon) but instead commanded the elements to make their lives easier. It was sort of like their version of modern conveniences. Never once in the story was there a lack of challenges, twists and turns to keep the characters and the reader busy. Most of the main characters have someone coming after them to bring them back to their former lives (poor Lorand. He got gypped there) and they would have to come up with new ways to escape, test their new powers, or test their growth as people. If they'd been a little younger, I'd call it a coming of age story. I rather like the creation of new names and titles. I think it gives fantasy novels a certain flare to give the characters fantasy vocabulary. I liked Dom and Dama in the place of Mr. And Mrs./Miss. But... there's a character named Hat. I just can't get over that, it makes me scream laughing. Now the bad. After reading this series, the following words will drive you to murderous rage: Puredan, blond, bathhouse, tea. I don't mean this as a discrimination against blonds. I like blonds. But this thing is, the five main characters are all blond (yeah, yeah cover picture. Ignore it) and they mention someone's blondness on almost every page of the book. It's like Flowers in the Attic in that way. As for bathhouses and tea, whenever they're sitting around, they're drinking tea. I can think of only one scene in book one that involved booze and frankly it was on of my favorite parts. And they take baths all the time. In detail. Furthermore, while the characters are likeable, they have a bit of one-dimensional... ness to them. The good guys are almost pure good. They don't have a shred of malice in them, and some of them went through some pretty painful stuff. The villains are all pure evil; the nobility are all peasant-hating, uppity jerks. It's rather stereotypical. Even the romance is a little flat. Tamrissa and Vallant are quite cute together, but you will get to a point where you want them to shut up and stop fighting. Rion and Naran remind me strongly of Fredric Henry and Catherine Barkley in A Farewell to Arms. They don't use each other's names... just "love." The writing will remind you of a Mary Sue fanfic at times. Like when the same thing happens to all five people in five different chapters. The fireball gets tiring REALLY fast. If you got rid of some of the useless events and dialogue (like the bathhouse scenes... I hate repetition of dialogue), you could have reduced the five books to a trilogy. All in all, though, the story was cool and not nearly as shallow as it seemed once you discovered the corruption that lies right under the surface of Gan Garee and indeed the whole empire. Book five brings everything to satisfying fruition after endless testing and trials and revelations. It's good, fun, sometimes fluffy reading. If anything, you'll probably keep reading to see people get what's coming to them. I finished the whole series in about a week and a half. If a kid you know is making the transition from young adult to adult books, this would be great for them. I give The Blending four stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Bogus!
Review: When I first bought this, I was excited to possibly find another fantasy series....but....this was one of the worst books I have ever read! Actually, I can't even say I read it because I never finished it. Not finishing a book is rare for me, and usually when I start reading a book and I'm not fond of the story, I WILL try to read a little more to give it a chance. But "Convergence" starts the same story over again, five times--each one told by a different pathetic character. "Tamrissa", the "in-between" narrator, was so annoying it made me sick. Once the characters began to (sort of) get along, I just put the book down--I couldn't stand it any more. How can fictitious characters be so irritating?
Rating:
Summary: Simple and repetitive but a good light read
Review: Despite the fact that Sharon Green's characters are simplistic and one-dimensional and the plot is simplistic and repetitive you can still enjoy this book. Basically, 5 characters come together from different stereotypical backgrounds and have to pass remarkably similar tasks that are repetitively described in detail. The characters also interact socially and fall in love or become friends. Each character also has a problem from their background that comes back to haunt them later. Despite many flaws the book still manages to be an interesting enough read, provided you skim parts of it, to be worth picking up. However, I wouldn't buy it because it isn't worth reading over again.
Rating: 
Summary: Oddly addictive
Review: This Blending series is oddly addictive, despite the stilted dialogue and repetitive plot. My friends and I kept buying them to find out what happens next - and then phoning each other up to laugh over some of the writing. (For example, in book 3, one of the characters says that "My love remains the same, but the boring insect of doubt eats away at the heart of that love...") Still, we kept buying them. Maybe it's the magic system, which we found interesting. Anyways, if you like light fantasy, you may enjoy this series (but you may feel a little guilty about doing so!).
Rating:
Summary: Great light Fantasy Reading
Review: Sharon Green's "The Blending" was a pretty good book if you're into light Fantasy. Do not expect complex characters, plot or a well-developed world because you won't find that here. However if you only have a couple hours and want to read an amusing and emotionally-engaging Fantasy, this book will work. After reading it I am planning on buying the other books, although my preferences lean towards sprawling worlds and epic adventures more in line with, Brooks, Jordan, Willams and Modessitt, sometimes I just want to curl up in a ball and skim through something in a short space of time. The character's although one-dimensional are likeable, the villians (also one-dimensional) are odious, there's minimal sex, and plenty of good old-fashioned romance, as well as the basic five elemental magic set-up. You won't love it. But you'll like it. And if you are tired of chasing 20 different characters through a gigantic world and just want a straightforward story, this book is for you!
Rating:
Summary: some good, some bad
Review: I've just finished reading this book, and I'll probably read the rest of the series. It's an engaging book, very easy to read, and enjoyable if you don't take it too seriously, but there are some very definite problems. For one thing, it's very repetitive. I can only hope that Sharon Green can manage to tell the story coherently in her subsequent books without retelling every plot point five times. The five main characters are sympathetic and likeable, but they also feel very similar to me. Another point against the characters is that there is very little middle ground. The main characters are victimized to the point of wanting them to quit whining and get on with it already, and the "bad" characters have no sympathy whatsoever. The only other thing I didn't like was the fact that it got a bit preachy at times. Overall, I'm not sorry I read it. It was a good bit of light reading, and I look forward to reading the next books.
Rating:
Summary: Convergence
Review: I must say I found it very interesting, its starts out showing you the lives of these five ppL and then elaborates onto there beginning of a hopeful new and improved life. The idea seems so well thought out, the way this kingdom works and as you read mysteries become so clear that you want to reread it and understand it for the second time, almost like watching the movie sixth sense twice and really understanding the small things. I enjoyed it throughoughly, but i must say, that unless you want a series that you just simply finish and forget about, dont read this one. I have almost finished the first series of the blending, and from what ive heard of the blending enthroned im not so sure of what is to be. Its so frustrating that when a problem is solved, be it a group problem, or simply social life, you can tell that it hasnt really been, and something will happen to throw everything out of whack. But I loved the first two, the third is ok, but impending doom is shown...
Rating:
Summary: One story, five viewpoints
Review: This was an irritating book to read. Beside the fact that all the good people are kind and intelligent and beautiful and filled with humility because of one unlikely quirk, we see the same basic story told from five different perspectives. When the five haven't met yet it's a readable concept, but once they meet in the city, it makes for four incredibly boring chapters out of every five. The author has a good idea for a plot but reading the same thing over and over again bogs it down quite a bit. I will admit that I read the two subsequent books in the hope that this was a single trilogy (because I do like the plot) but after three books you're only halfway through the story and I doubt if I'll go on.
Rating:
Summary: mmmm....no
Review: Forgive me, readers, for I have sinned: I've a judged a book by it's cover. The cover is remarkable, by the way, but I don't recommend the book. The initial idea for the setting and the characters themselves are pretty interesting, but it just drags out and gets really, really boring. No, we DON'T want to hear about the fireball for the umpteenth time. I think the entire series would have been vastly improved if all the material was condensed into one book with five parts, instead of the five book set. The plot is slow, and while Green is wickedly funny and the covers are, well, amazing, the book's not worth it. One star for the setting, which is intriguing, one star for the cover, and one star for a good effort--but not good enough.
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