Review: Firelight

Firelight by Sophie Jordan

Official Website 

Series: Firelight #1

Description: 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.

Mythical powers and breathtaking romance ignite in this story of a girl who defies all expectations and whose love crosses an ancient divide.

Review: I remember when Firelight first came out. It was around the same time Nightshade came out, and those were the two big supernatural books at the time. Nightshade because the main character could change into a werewolf, and Firelight because the main character could change into a dragon. Those books were huge around the blog-osphere, and they got a lot of amazing reviews. Everyone loved them! But I tried to read Nightshade, and I couldn't get into it. I feared the same would happen with Firelight. However, I was not disappointed.

Firelight tells the story of Jacinda, who lives in a pride with her mother and twin sister, Tamra. At the age of 13, all kids with the dragon, or 'draki' as they call it, gene get to manifest into a dragon. Jacinda transformed into a beautiful dragon with fire-breathing powers, the first of her kind. Tamra, however, did not change. I'm not gonna go into detail, because Tamra was really annoying, but Tamra despises her sister because Jacinda got all the attention because she was the first fire-breather in generations. So then their mom killed the dragon within herself so she could be more like Tamra, and now the mom wants Jacinda to kill the dragon inside her also.

Okay, that above paragraph was shit, but that's actually what happens. And it's not so easy killing the dragon within her because Jacinda grew up being proud of being a draki, not hiding it. And she's really pissed at her mom about 3/4 of the book. No joke, it's her complaining about her mom being a bitch, and Tamra being really jealous. But I really can't blame Tamra, and I felt sorry for her, but she was so annoying. If it wasn't for Tamra being a little annoying snot, Jacinda wouldn't have done that thing and have to be sent back to the pride. (I'm reallllly looking forward to that)

About half of the book is filled with Jacinda lusting over this boy, Will. She ""met"" him once before, when she was in her draki form. She was being chased by hunters (Will's family), and Will caught her, but let her go. The romance was really boring and slow when Jacinda didn't tell him that she was a draki, but then when that itsy secret came out, it was fun. And there was a lot of lip-biting-from-cuteness between the two.

A lot of the book was Jacinda feeling terrible about herself and her situtation, and I felt like it was an overabundance of self-pity. She feels bad that her sister was always in the shadow, she feels bad that she had to make her entire family leave, she doesn't know what to do about Will, she wants to leave, her draki is dying, etc. I felt for her because she had so much on her plate, and she couldn't tell anyone anything.

Jacinda was alone, and the only person she could talk to was Will, because he was an outcast in his family in his own way, and nobody wanted her with Will. Isn't that how young adult romance works? Straying from your family for the boy you love, and the problems that that action causes.

I really enjoyed Firelight, but I feel I will love Vanished(the sequel) even more, because it deals with her reuturning to the pride, and the fallout of her family.

"I understand the whole not-being-what-your-family-wants thing. Understand what it feels like to be a constant disappointment. Together, in this, we are the same."

-Firelight, Sophie Jordan