September 4, 2010

Firelight - Sophie Jordan (Blog Tour)







Young Adult
Pages: 336
Publisher: HarperCollins
FirelightRelease Date: September 7, 2010

With her rare ability to breathe fire, Jacinda is special even among the draki—the descendants of dragons who can shift between human and dragon forms. But when Jacinda’s rebelliousness leads her family to flee into the human world, she struggles to adapt, even as her draki spirit fades. The one thing that revives it is Will, whose family hunts her kind. Jacinda can’t resist getting closer to him, even though she knows she’s risking not only her life but the draki’s most closely guarded secret.

Wow. How refreshing to read an exquisitely original concept within the pour of recent YA paranormal titles. Forget vampires and werewolves (so last season!), Firelight brings us dragons. And not just any dragons either, but half-human, half-dragon called 'draki'. Beautiful and breathtaking creatures that were assumed to be extinct. I loved the drakis and their descriptions and their world. That was my favorite part of the novel.

The first two chapters were overwhelmingly good. I don't know why I immediately thought that we might finally have a supernatural teenage romance outside the karma of high school. No such luck, though. By the third chapter we are pulled back to reality when the originality of the premise falters, and Jacinda is the new student at the local high school where Will is the hottie in the popular crowd. I wont lie, this somewhat disappointed me but the book kept me interested until the end and had me craving the next book as soon as I was done.

I loved Sophie's writing and the atmospheric settings. On character matters though, I felt that Tamra, Jacinda's sister, fell flat and almost not believable so I found it a little hard to understand why Jacinda would give up so much and want to protect her when to me she felt like a stranger.

With that said though, I must be clear that I really enjoyed the book very much. I think it's one of those books that readers will instantly fall in love with. If you love paranormal romance, this is definitely a fresh new concept that will have you glued to the pages.


4 comments:

  1. OHHH all the amazing reviews of this one are kicking my butt! I can NOT wait till Tuesday!!

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  2. Yay great review! So glad you enjoyed it - I knew you would :D

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  3. Brilliant review! I'm definitely looking forward to this one :)

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  4. Oh no that's so disappointing! I read the plot summary of this a little while ago, thought the premise sounded awesome (and loved the cover), and pre-ordered it. But it's just another high-school drama story? It's good to hear that it's overall OK, but I'm so sick of high-school dramas....

    The book's on its way to me already, but if I'd read this review - or realised it was high-school drama - I probably wouldn't have bought it. Good review though. :)

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