Review: Songs of Thunder by J.L. Bryan

"A rock & roll fairy tale.
Jason plays guitar in a teenage garage band called the Assorted Zebras, but they have no fans, no gigs, and they're going nowhere. Even worse, Jason has a crush on their lead singer, but she doesn't seem interested in him at all.
Then Jason steals instruments from the fairy world. Soon the band is enchanting crowds, and Jason is a step closer to the girl of his dreams, but the new gear is brimming with dangerous and destructive magic they can't control.
Their shortcut to success has cost a troupe of innocent fairies their livelihood and turned Jason and his band into enemies of the powerful Queen Mab, who sends hunters to track them down, including one of the most dangerous creatures in Faerie...a small unicorn named Buttercake.”

Songs of Thunder is the first book in J.L. Bryan’s Fairy Metal Thunder series.  The members of the Assorted Zebras (AWESOME band name by the way) have all the makings of a rockstar without an audience. So if you had the opportunity to steal some magical instruments which could help your band succeed wouldn’t you? Jason does, but little does he know the danger he’s placing himself, his band mates and anyone who comes into contact with his music. There are much more to these instruments than meets the eye.

In this book, mini portals lead from our world to the world of Fairy. Thanks to a little goblin Grizlemor (also really cool name)  we find that there are not only doors to the other side, but mini rings of mushrooms that can draw children in by music. J.L. Bryan did a great job of twirling the worlds together in a refreshing way.

Who doesn’t love a bit of innocent, awkward teenage romance? Reminding us how pure we all were when our first loves came along, that’s what Jason’s love for Erin helps us reminisce. Did I mention I really want to know more about what’s going on with this Mrs. Dullihan? Because I do.

Directed towards a much younger audience than The Paranormals Trilogy, Mr. Bryan has given us a story of music, magic and teenage love that’s perfect for middle and high school students.

My Rating for this Book:

Although this book was a bit young for my general tastes, for the audience Song of Thunder was directed to I think the book was great. The whole time I was reading it I wanted to go to my younger brother-in-law and be like, “Dude, I know you don’t like to read, but read this, you’ll love it!”. So keep that in mind when you pick this one up.

Sidenote: Meg is always yelling at me because I don’t give younger books a chance. She says it’s all about the storyline, not just the audience, and although I tend to disagree with most of the things she says, she wasn’t too far off.