Firelight by Sophie Jordan

Today, I have my friend Patricia doing a guest review. She will probably make frequent appearances.

Publisher: HarperCollins
Date: September 7, 2010
Series or Standalone: First in a series (of three)
ISBN: 978-0061935084
Format: E-book, 336 pages
Source: E-book purchased for Kindle

Rating: A-    

First line: Gazing out at the quiet lake, I know the risk is worth it.

The five things I loved most about Firelight:

 1. Jacinda – I really loved Jacinda as a protagonist. She is fiercely independent , strong, and has an incredibly developed sense of self for a teen. (Which is great to see in a paranormal romance!) I also like that she was realistically both girl and Draki, there was never a point in the story where her changing from one to the other (or mentioning being both) threw me, it was a seamless combination. Her struggle to keep her Draki alive, in the face of incredible challenges, was an internal fight that I could totally empathize with despite not ever having been a Draki myself. The nice thing about her internal struggle for me was that it never felt “whiny”, it was always very understandable and made me care about her character.

2. Love triangle(s) – Full disclosure: I LOVE a good love triangle. And this book had a couple of them. I was firmly Team Will at the end of this book, but in all fairness Cassian wasn’t really that developed of a character so there wasn’t much to root for there. The whole concept of the hunter that falls for his prey (Romeo and Juliet-style) was done extremely well. The only thing that bothered me about the Will/Jacinda/Cassian love triangle was that at different points in the book we find BOTH boys following her. There is just a whole lot of stalking going on and I don’t understand why; it’s not cute.

3. Family/Pride Dynamics – I loved getting to see the various family dynamics in Firelight. I don’t know about everyone else, but I did not always agree with my mother growing up and it was great to see a family (Jacinda, her mother, and her twin sister, Tamra) fighting, struggling, and trying to figure out how they fit together as a family unit once they left their pride. We also got to see Will’s family structure and again it was very messy, just like a real family (except with more weapons and blood-lust for dragons).

4. Dragons! – This was the first book I’ve ever read about dragons. And the fact that it was about dragons was one of the reasons I put off reading it for so long, but WHOA was I wrong. I don’t know about other dragon books, but Sophie Jordan created a rich mythology surrounding her dragons and I loved every detail of it!

5. Setting – The setting was another aspect of the book that really drew me in. During the scenes high up in the mountains you can almost feel the crisp, cool air when you breathe in. And when Jacinda and her family relocated to the desert you really do feel the heat and how dry everything is. The setting was woven into the story and the tone of the book really reflected where the scene took place.

Come back tomorrow for Patricia's review of VANISH, the second installment in the trilogy. 
 

 Get more info/pre-order:
Goodreads ||| Amazon ||| IndieBound ||| Book Depository |||| Barnes & Noble  

The author on the web:
 Website ||| Twitter ||| Facebook

 Patricia Osei is a writer and an avid reader. You can find her on Twitter @poseiwriting and on the web at the Tangled Up in Words, where she will and four other YA writers will be talking about the journey.