Firelight by Sophie Jordan

Genre: YA fantasy
Pages: 323 (hardcover)
Published: September 2010
Recommended for: fantasy and paranormal romance fans, and especially Twilight fans

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

My Take:


I expected to love Firelight, but ended up just liking it fairly well.  (There, that's the short review. :)  It wasn't the kind of book I get passionate about, or carry around and try to sneak into such unorthodox places as restaurants with fussy waiters or school Biology exams.  I read this book by the pool in Cancun, and it makes for a perfect beach read.  Lots of romance and enough action and conflict to keep you interested, but nothing that's going to make me wish there were more pages and stalk the author's website looking for extras.  I've read a lot of rave reviews by bloggers about this book and had high expectations, and maybe that's skewing my perspective.

Firelight has the formula for a great YA fantasy and paranormal romance: star-crossed love, a kick-ass heroine with a deadly secret, a love triangle, even a sibling (Jacinda's twin sister Tamra) who turns out to be more trouble than she's worth.  The mythology of the drakis (descendants of dragons who've evolved over time so that they can shift into human form at will) was cool, and I thought it was interesting how Jacinda was supposed to be able to 'surpress' her draki and eventually become entirely human.  We don't get to learn much about her pack of draki, but there's definitely more to the story there. All that said, the draki were a little reminiscent of other shapeshifting races like werewolves, etc, but different enough that it was okay.  The book opens really strong and kind of leaves you hanging at the end (typical first-in-a-fantasy-trilogy ending with the guy and girl left just clear of mortal peril).  I really like the cover-- the slit pupil of Jacinda's eye and the scales are really eye-catching.  Overall, I did a lot more liking on this book than loving, but I'd still recommend it to paranormal romance fans.  The basic story reminded me a lot of Twilight, and I think fans of the series would enjoy Firelight as well.

Cover: 5/5 

Premise: 4/5 

Plot: 3/5 

Characters: 3/5

Overall: 4/5