Published synopsis:
A Season of Transformation is a young adult fantasy/ romance novel set in the contemporary world. It is the story of five young people drawn together to complete a Quest, to protect their town from destruction. In order to defeat the story’s villain, Maxvale, the five virtual strangers must come together and not only forge a bond of trust but become proficient with the ‘abilities’ temporarily bestowed upon them.In the midst of the lead up to the battle each of the young people has their own personal struggles they are trying to deal with. Lucas, an adopted and bitter teenager struggles to become the person he wants to be whilst developing feelings for Makenna, a rich kid who doesn’t like his attitude. Bonnie is a ‘gothic’ that is dealing with an alcoholic father, Ben the school nerd and Adam the class clown are trying to break free from their high school stereotypes. Can these five teens put their differences aside to defeat Maxvale and save their town?
Review:
A Season of Transformation is a modern day Breakfast Club with a paranormal twist. And the story is better for it. When a disenchanted teen, a privileged girl, a shy and lonely goth girl, a geek and a class clown are each given a supernatural ability and told to work together to be strong enough to fight what’s coming, it takes more than practice to make it happen. Each of them needs to confront the issues in their lives that will affect their confidence in themselves to win the battle. As they each face life’s challenges, they find they have more in common than they ever thought, and their prejudices slowly slide away. In their own ways, they become better people. Not just for the team, but for themselves as well.Jayne Fordham did an excellent job in A Season of Transformation of capturing the thought processes and actions of each of the teenagers. The characters were believable, and in their own ways, very charming. The book has an undercurrent of attraction between several of the kids, but before romance occurs, the characters demand respect and kindness from each other – an important message in YA fiction, paranormal or not.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was engaging and kept me turning the pages to see what was going to happen next. A back door was left open for a possible sequel, and if there is one, I will definitely be reading it. The one thing that holds me back from giving the book five stars, though, is the transitions. Within each chapter, there are time jumps and changes between which character is currently narrating. All of these are appropriate for the book, but there is nothing that cues the reader into the fact that a switch is going to occur. This affected the flow of the book. A simple fix for this could have been an extra space between paragraphs that transition, or even a symbol of some sort between paragraphs. Other than that, I have no complaints. This book deserves four and a half stars!
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