Review on Bentwhistle the Dragon #1 A Threat from the Past

Peter Bentwhistle seems like an ordinary man. He works as head of security for a company called Cropptech, he plays for a hockey team at the weekend, and enjoys spending time with his friends. However, Peter is hiding a huge secret. He is a dragon! Disguising himself in human form, Peter spends the majority of his time living on the Earth's surface with the humans, helping to guide them through life and influencing them to do the right thing. Everything is going to plan, that is until Manson arrives at Cropptech. Peter can't quite put his finger on it, but he knows that there is something not quite right about Manson. As things go from bad to worse, with the boss becoming mysteriously ill, and unneeded armed security being installed at the Cropptech facility under Manson's command, Peter, along with his two dragon friends, Richie and Tank, must find a way to overthrow Manson and restore Cropptech to it's former glory.

As soon as I was sent a request to review this book, I was immediately excited to read it. Dragons! Who doesn't get excited over dragons? I had high expectations for this book, and I was not disappointed. This story was both exciting and original, showing dragons in a completely unique perspective, with them protecting humankind rather than trying to destroy it. I found it interesting that Peter was living a double life, one on the Earths surface among the humans, and one underground with his fellow dragons. The story features a number of different sports, and although I was not too keen on reading about the hockey matches, I was hooked on the dragon sport of Laminium Ball. I do not enjoy watching or playing sports, so I was not able to fully understand Peter's love for playing hockey, but I found myself wanting to attend a Laminium Ball match. This sport is definitely up there with my favourite magical sports, just behind Quidditch.

 The only thing I was able to criticize about this book is that I was able to guess one of the big reveals near the end of the book quite early on, and therefore was not surprised when it happened. I thought that it was too obvious, although other readers may not have made the connection as early on as I did. I loved the climax of the novel, and when it came down to around the last one hundred pages, I could not put it down and read on well into the night. The character development for the main three characters was well written, and I loved that we got to know about Tank and Richie's thoughts and feelings, not just Peter's. The writing style is simple and easy to understand, so children will have no problem reading this book. If you are a fan of Harry Potter or The Hobbit, then this book is definitely for you.


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