"Talisman Trilogy" ~ Brenda Pandos

I read the "Talisman Trilogy" over the last week and I'm really not sure why.  The series consists of "The Emerald Talisman", "The Sapphire Talisman" and "The Onyx Talisman".  The first one was free and the others were $2.99 so that might explain why I finished the series.  So two disclaimers: first this is a young adult series, second it was recommended by a person with a young adult daughter.  I am not however a young adult woman and parts of this series just pissed me off.  Other parts just bored me. 

The main character is 16 year old Julia Parker who is an empath, who can sense what others are feeling.  The first part of the book sets up Julia, her friends, her school, her classes, etc.  Being a long way from high school I just skimmed these parts.  Then one night on her way home, Julia is attacked and rescued by Nicholas, cute alpha male with a capital "A".  Soon Julia meets cute beta male Phil and our triangle is complete.  Turns out Nick is a half vampire vampire hunter, who's been watching over Julia for most of her life.  Then throw in the prediction that Julia is the key to stopping the vamps and there is basis for the series.  The twist is that as a vampire sires a new vampire his bloodline is tied to that vamp and any that they sire.  So if you kill the head of the blood line every vamp attached to it will *poof* die.  So Julie needs to kill the father of all vampires to destroy this curse.  I actually like that part of the series.  It was interesting and what actually kept me reading.

What I did NOT like was the characterization of the female characters.  It's the same thing that bugged me Twilight, but at least with that I didn't notice until after I was done with the series.  With this series, it pissed me off all the way through.  Julia spends so much of time caught up in this storm of dramatic emotion, it just made me tired. Julia goes from I just met you to I'll die without you over the course of about one date.  Later when Julia and her friend talk about sex, Julia says she not ready and that she wants to wait until she is married.  Later on Julia and her friend again have this conversation and the friends says she wants to marry her boyfriend and again wait to have sex until after she is married.  I have no problem with waiting for the right person, I have no problem with being committed to a person, and I have no problem with marriage.  The thing is, if you asked a group of teenage girls what they were going to do after high school, I don't think get married immediately would be the top answer.  None of the female characters express any desire to be anything but part of a couple.  No mention of future goals or career plans.  Even Julia's aunt does nothing but be a surrogate mother to Julia and have a baby.  Where is the girl power?  Where is the strength and confidence that you yourself are enough. 

Finally, in the third book you really get a look at what Julia's dad does and it is so ridiculous that I could barely keep reading.  I honestly don't even know why that part was even included.   Generally I try to stay away from writing negative reviews, but I just couldn't do it in this case.