Dawn by Erin Hunter

I read the third installment of The New Prophecy the day it came out, and like everyone says, it was a suspenseful, adventurous, and a simply outstanding book.

The questing cats, Crowpaw, Squirrelpaw, Brambleclaw, Tawnypelt, and Stormfur, return to the forest, leaving Stormfur's sister, Feathertail, behind. When they arrive back at home, ThunderClan were eager to leave their forest, about to be destroyed by the Twolegs. They even risked leaving their cats behind; Leafpaw is trapped in a cage with kittypets and kittypet food, and Squirrelpaw will do anything to save her. There is a particular cat who is lost, and they may turn into a kittypet, or worse, dead. I believe that this book kept you more entertained than the other two, though there was slightly less excitement, and it starts right where Moonrise left off with a cliffhanger.

Overall, Dawn is the best of the New Prophecy series, and I recommend Dawn as much as any of the other Warriors books. Like many others, I am now awaiting Starlight, the next book in the series.

This book shows much improvement since Moonrise. It shows lots more realism, and is more plausible. It is much less sappy and sentimental than Moonrise, thank goodness. However, this was the slowest Warriors book so far. The cats don't actually start their journey until 3/4 way through the book. At some points, I just felt like putting it down because it was so slow and boring, which has never happened in other Warriors books.

I thought that this book was excellent for several reasons. First, it culminates most of the ideas of the first two New Prophecy books. Second, it has much more action and suspense than the other two combined. My only complaints are that the ending was dull and hardly a cliffhanger. Another would be that some cats could be seen to suffer too much and some cats' families are almost completely wiped out. Plus a character that all fans love is gone and still missing with an undetermined fate at the end of the book. Aside from a few grammatical errors, this book is very well written. Erin Hunter has created a very good 'bridge' book for the new series, and I hope that she will keep the action and suspense going throughout the three remaining books. I'll be looking forward to Starlight, Twilight, and Sunset.