Husband and wife team Anthony Alongi and MaryJanice Davidson have taken a unique approach to the latest in the Jennifer Scales series. Instead of getting a flowing story with a beginning, middle and end, the reader is treated to six different stories culminating in a battle where, after being given the "inside scoop" on all those involved, the lines between good and evil have become distinctly blurred.

In the three previous novels in the series, the authors have set up the battle between the dragons, beaststalkers and arachnids, and this novel gives the background of the major players. The battle has been brewing since before Jennifer's birth, and being the daughter of both a beaststalker and a dragon places her smack in the middle. She is as irreverent as ever, and we learn the attitude comes from both parents. She has no problem with shaking things up and is gifted with the powers to do just that, if those that have been plotting against her, from before her birth to more recent times, can be stopped before irrevocable damage is done.

SERAPH OF SORROW has more adult overtones than the previous Jennifer Scales stories. The authors play brilliantly with the reader's emotions. I laughed out loud more than once reading Jonathan Scales' story, and Glorianna Seabright's history is frighteningly Machiavellian. Fans of the series are going to get a kick out of this one and will be left to wonder what's next for the Ancient Furnace.