Sapphire Magic: Breaking Glass, by John Booth

While Glass has loved being a Dees and helping protect the Blood and the Source, there is a part of her that longs to know more of life outside the Granger family home.  So, when she gets an opportunity to venture into the world she takes it, and in the process becomes more in touch with her own humanity.  She winds up entangled in a dangerous situation with evil men who will harm the Grangers, and finds that she must chose between her old life as a Dees and her new life as a teenage human girl.

If all of the sentences in my very general summary sound like gibberish, there is a very good reason.  This book is the second in the Magic Series by John Booth, and it is absolutely imperative that one read book 1 in order to understand any of what is going on in book 2.  So if you are new to this series, stop reading this review and go read book 1.  You will thank me for it.

Oh, you are back (or you never left)? Brilliant.  Then I can fully discuss how much I loved the second book in this series.  In the first book, we get a feel for the situation, the major players, and try to imagine this magical world.  This book builds upon all the expectations set up in the first book, and really gives us a new perspective on the Grangers and the Dees.  Obviously, this book centers around Glass, and her special role in the protection of the Source.  We see Glass really grow as a character.  She becomes more than just a mystical, magical being, and we see her take human form, with human emotions and desires.  I found it a bit sad watching her struggle with the two distinct sides of her nature.  Duality of mankind is always a little heartbreaking.  And the choice Glass makes in the end, while I think it the right choice, makes me ache for her a little.  I wonder how this will affect her role in the future books.  

The Granger children, for the majority of the book, play a minor role in the action this time.  We see more of the Dees coming together to protect the house and its inhabitants, and I kind of loved how much the Dees kicked bad guy butt in this book.  The plot is fact paced and I found it hard to put the book down, even when I was in desperate need of sleep.

Yet another fine showing by John Booth.  I look forward to the next book in the series, and I think many fans of fantasy fiction will feel the same way.

I received a review copy courtesy of the author.

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