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Thursday, November 11, 2010

Firelight - Sophie Jordan

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.

Right off, I'm going to say that I really liked this book. And I'll also say this, it kinda reminded me of Twilight. Don't roll your eyes like that at me, I'm not saying it's exactly the same, nor am I saying that it's a bad thing. I adore Twilight, so in my book, this is a huge compliment. But the whole preditor and prey falling for each other...it felt familiar. But she wrote it extremely well, and I really liked the way she interpreted that dynamic.

Overall, I felt Jacinda was a very *real* character. She's very flawed, full of doubts, and to be honest, fairly selfish. But, she's 16, and in my mind, that all fits. While her selfishness sometimes gets a little old, I completely get where she's coming from. I like her. She's struggling against not only her family but her pride to stake out her independence. She refuses to be used by those around her, and she wants to live her own life, not the one all these different people have planned out for her.

Will. Oh, Will. Yet another fictional hero to add to my list of literary crushes. He's mysterious and conflicted, handsome and alluring. And once he decides what he wants, he's unwavering and committed. And oh, he's so, so sweet. *swoon* While he's a big part of this book, we don't really find out a whole lot about him. At least, I don't think so. I'm really hoping that his story is explored more in future books. But as long as there's more Will, I'll be a happy girl.

As for the minor characters - Cassian, Xander, Tamra and Jacinda's mother - I wasn't a fan of any of them. Cassian and Xander are the macho male types I hate in life and in fiction, Tamra is extremely selfish, even when she complains that Jacinda is the selfish one, and her mother is overbearing, hating the pride for wanting to rule Jacinda but basically doing the same thing in her own way. *sigh* But, since this is the way that Jacinda sees them, and the book is from her perspective, I suppose that all makes sense.

The draki world is a great new fictional world. It's new and interesting and I'm deeply intrigued to learn more. I understood how it all worked - at least, as far as what I'm supposed to know so far - and I never got lost while reading. It had a nice steady pace and I had a very hard time putting it down. I must say, I'm very eager to read the next book, whenever it's set to come out.

And very quickly, can we talk about how gorgeous this cover is? Because it's amazing! It's what initially caught my eye, and I'm excited to see what they come up with for the next book.
4/5

Firelight
Sophie Jordan
HarperCollins
326 pages
$16.99 (hardcover)

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