Review – Friends and Traitors (Slayers, Book 2) by CJ Hill (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal
Length: 400 pages
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Release Date: October 15, 2013
ISBN-13: 978-1250024619
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book in the Slayers series
Source: Borrowed from Library
Rating: 4/5 stars

This is the sequel to Slayers and it has been a long wait for this book (Slayers released in 2011). It was an excellent follow-up to that story. There is a lot of action, some teen drama, and some awesome twists and turns.

Dragon Camp is wrapping up for the summer. All the campers are off to lead their normal teenage lives, that is until Tori hears the dragon eggs hatch. Then Dirk convinces her it is just a trick being played by Overdrake to make her think they hatched. Tori is unsure what to think, but if the eggs are hatched the Slayers have less than a year to train together to defeat them. This makes Tori determined to find the final member of their group, Ryker Davis. Little do they know that Ryker has been training in secret on his own.

I really enjoyed Slayers when it was released in 2011. This book did a great job of continuing the storyline about a bunch of teenagers who find out they have Dragon slaying powers and have to save the world from the evil Overdrake.

Tori has gotten a lot better about using her abilities but she still doesn’t want to be a team captain, she doesn’t feel like she is ready for it yet. Her and Jesse still have a relationship going on, but Jesse is unwilling to bend the rules and pretty much puts things on hold between them.

There is a love triangle going on between Tori, Dirk, and Jesse which started in the first book. Dirk is basically willing to stay in contact with Tori and is her pair as far as Slayer abilities go. So Tori and Dirk get a lot closer in this book. Jesse is unwilling to break the rule about Slayers not contacting each other outside of Dragon Camp, so he is out of a large portion of the story. The romance never takes over the story but is in the background and dealt with in a realistic way.

The story switches mainly between Tori and Dirk’s viewpoints. We get to learn a lot more about Dirk and his family in this book, it makes him a much more sympathetic character to read about. I enjoyed hearing from both points of view.

There are a couple of really massive and fantastic action scenes in this book between the Slayers and Overdrake’s men. The book ends with another fantastic fight between the Slayers and a dragon (just like the first book did).

There also a couple big twists in this book, one of which is disclosed in the backcopy…which is that Tori figures out she is not a Slayer at all but a Dragon Lord. This is something Dirk has suspected for some time.

This book is very aptly named. By the end Tori and her fellow Slayers have been betrayed by one of their own and are struggling to figure out who the traitors are and who are their friends.

I felt like the story didn’t make a ton of progress and I also felt like it was very similar to the story we read in the first book. However I really do enjoy the Slayers and their unique powers. I also love the battles between the Slayers and the Dragons.

Overall this was a great continuation of the series. I think if you liked the first book in the series you will enjoy this one too. The story is a unique blend of dragon fighting, superhero-like powers, and politics. It’s very different from a lot of other YA paranormal books out there. Recommended if you like paranormal YA especially with dragons!

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
– 100 Books in a Year Reading Challenge