Scorched digs its claws into quite a few pots. Time travel, futuristic gadgets, genetic tampering, a girl with a tragic past, two love interests, and dragons. That doesn't even cover the other things I could babble off. Dragons to me, off course, being the most important. 
 Trinity gets herself mixed up into quite the tangle with these twin brothers Caleb and Connor. The brothers are on opposing sides of two factions that have traveled back in time from the future. Both believing they are going to be the one to prevent the Dragon Apocalypse, be either festering or saving a dragon egg that Trinity is destined to bond with. 
 If you read much young adult fiction and have read the book description, then you really have to expect there is going to be a love triangle. I mean come on, one girl, and twin brothers? Whether it works here I think will widely vary on a reader by reader basis. I'm not a huge fan of triangles, but I'm a realist in the sense that I can totally see the temptation and pull of liking two boys at once. Heck, that happens to a lot of people. I thought it was nicely done in Scorched and I think young girls will like the twins and the sibling rivalry between them. 
 While I liked Trinity, I thought some of her behavior didn't always jive. The tragic past was a tad over played but I understand why it was done that way and I rolled with it. There were both pros and cons to her behavior and I couldn't help thinking about what I might have done instead if I were in her spot. I think this is the biggest reason why I'm so much on the middle of the fence with Scorched. Plus there were a few things I could totally see coming. 
 The one major part that I didn't find feasible, and that I don't believe to count as a spoiler because you learn it at the very beginning of the book, is fact that Connor is the only one sent from his faction to the future. Why send a teenager alone - especially when the opposing faction sends three people? My reasoning powers just cant come up with justifications here so it bugged me. 
 I love the land of the Nether where unborn and dead dragons live. It was a neat way to tie things together and I loved that aspect of things. With an equal mix of science fiction and fantasy, I am curious to see where Mancusi takes these characters.