A hidden truth.
Mortal enemies.
Doomed love.
Marked as special at an early age, Jacinda knows her every move is watched. But she longs for freedom to make her own choices. When she breaks the most sacred tenet among her kind, she nearly pays with her life. Until a beautiful stranger saves her. A stranger who was sent to hunt those like her. For Jacinda is a draki - a descendant of dragons whose greatest defense is her secret ability to shift into human form. Forced to flee into the mortal world with her family, Jacinda struggles to adapt to her new surroundings. The only bright light is Will. Gorgeous, elusive Will who stirs her inner draki to life. Although she is irresistibly drawn to him, Jacinda knows Will's dark secret: He and his family are hunters. She should avoid him at all costs. But her inner draki is slowly slipping away-if it dies she will be left as a human forever. She'll do anything to prevent that. Even if it means getting closer to her most dangerous enemy. (Taken from Goodreads)
Marked as special at an early age, Jacinda knows her every move is watched. But she longs for freedom to make her own choices. When she breaks the most sacred tenet among her kind, she nearly pays with her life. Until a beautiful stranger saves her. A stranger who was sent to hunt those like her. For Jacinda is a draki - a descendant of dragons whose greatest defense is her secret ability to shift into human form. Forced to flee into the mortal world with her family, Jacinda struggles to adapt to her new surroundings. The only bright light is Will. Gorgeous, elusive Will who stirs her inner draki to life. Although she is irresistibly drawn to him, Jacinda knows Will's dark secret: He and his family are hunters. She should avoid him at all costs. But her inner draki is slowly slipping away-if it dies she will be left as a human forever. She'll do anything to prevent that. Even if it means getting closer to her most dangerous enemy. (Taken from Goodreads)
Title: Firelight
Author: Sophie Jordan (Check out her website)
Publisher: Harper Teen
Pages: 323
Teaser:
"You should stay away from me. Something I already know, but sitting in the front seat of his car, I'm not quite succeeding at that. I wish I could." - pg. 128
My Review:
Firelight is one of those books that eases you into not wanting to put it down, then leaves you wanting more. It is like hot chocolate on a cold day, you know you want it but once you start drinking it you have no idea what you did the rest of the day cold and without chocolate. Jordan takes a teenage coming of age story and gives it a nice draki twist. The main character, Jacinda, is a rare breed of draki which makes her more of a commodity than a person in her Pride. This is especially evident when the Prince of the Pride, Cassian, deems her as his mate without really caring if she is interested or not. In addition to her complicated Pride life, her father is dead and her mother and twin sister want nothing to do with the draki world. Jacinda's mom's solution is to runaway from the Pride, which means the whole rest of the story is told from living in the human world as a draki. If it is not clear this is a horrible thing for Jacinda who feels she is having to sacrifice who she is to make her family happy. The rest of the story you will have to read the read to book to get the details, but here is some juicy stuff to hold you over: there is another boy thrown into the mix (I'm on Team Will), Jacinda comes face to face with the draki's mortal enemies, and there is a chick fight (love those). You will not be disappointed if you read this book!
Things I Liked:
First off, I really enjoyed the paranormal change. Do not get me wrong I love me some vampires, witches, and various forms of animal shifters, but being a mythical dragon that can shift into a human is pretty awesome. Secondly, the cover is just tasty. Red heads with blue eyes are such a rare happening, then when I found out twins were in the story I got even more excited. I have an unnatural love of twins and after having read Jaye Wells' Sabina Kane series let me tell you I love a good twin drama. Finally, I love how she ended this book. So many of the people I talked to about this book were complaining about the cliffhanger ending, but I felt like that is where I would have paused the story. It felt natural. Overall, I thought this book was very well done and I cannot wait to read the next book in the Firelight Series, Vanish.
My Complaints:
I wanted more information about the different kinds of drakis. With this story being predominately in a setting where Jacinda was forced to keep her true self hidden we were not given as much of the draki world as I would have liked. While I do love how she ended the book it is not a stand alone novel, which I always expect even books in a series to be.
My Rating: 4 Stars
Such a great review! I love that I know exactly what you liked and didn't like about the book. 4 stars it sounds like a winner :)
ReplyDeleteI loved this book so much one of my favourites! Great review! :)
ReplyDeletehttp://bookmigik.blogspot.com/
I haven't read this one yet!!!! I have it and Vanish both, but never seem to find time...
ReplyDeleteNice blog.Plz follow my blog too....
ReplyDeletehttp://www.andhratemple.blogspot.com/
http://apcmysr.blogspot.com/
Hi Michelle!
ReplyDeleteWe met at Buns and Roses Charity Tea. I thought I'd come by and say hi and check out your blog. I picked up Firelight at the Tea. Enjoyed it but the end left me totally hanging so I had to read Vanished. Both are well written but I'd really like just a wee bit more story resolution in each book. But I guess you're right. Can;t complain about what works. I ran out and bought Vanish.
I devoured Vanish by Sophie Jordan. Literally, I downloaded the galley onto my kindle and swallowed it whole, hah! But really - I started reading it before work, just for fun, and I couldn't stop thinking about Vanish all through work. And then as soon as I got off, I went home and finished.
ReplyDeleteAnd I loved Vanish so much! I admit, it took me a little bit longer to get into the story than it did with Firelight. I really did enjoy getting more of an inside look at Jac's world than we did in Firelight, but I did think too much time in the beginning of Vanish was spent moping. But once Vanish got going, it really got going.