Review: Firelight

Firelight (ARC) by Sophie Jordan
Publisher: Harper Teen
Pub. Date: September 7th, 2010
Pages: 336
Series: Draki #1
Age Level: 14+

Synopsis via Goodreads
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.

Review
I really wanted to love Firelight, but I'm afraid that, while I still liked it, I was somewhat disappointed.

Jacinda, for me, was just an okay heroine. You're all familiar with the song 'Hot n Cold' by Katy Perry right? I'm sure everytime Will saw Jacinda, that song was playing in the back of his mind. Seriously, the girl was so indecisive. She could never make up her mind what she wanted and when she finally did, she couldn't decide how to get it. Some of this was justified considering her situation and being forced to choose between her own happiness and her family's but then it just got ridiculous. 'I need to stay away from Will. No I need to get close to him. No stay away! Get close, he awakens my inner draki!'And maybe it's just me but the way Jacinda kept saying, "He awakens my inner draki." sounded kinda...eh...sexual. *tries to reel in mind from gutter* Plus it seemed like she was using Will more than anything most of the time. As for Will himself, he was smoldering and had a dark secret. In other words, nothing out of the norm or that I haven't seen a million times; I actually found Cassian to be far more intriguing and I wanted more of him. Then the romance just really fell flat. I'm tired of these paranormal romances where two people just magically connect and that's the driving force behind the whole thing. That and the 'hunter and the hunted' aspect. And about Jacinda's sister, Tamra, well, pardon my french, but she was a real roaring bitch, not to mention selfish. I know she got treated like crap with the Pride and that was wrong and unfair but she didn't care one bit what Jacinda was giving up for her. At least Jacinda had the decency to care if Tamra was happy while Tamra only cared about herself 95% of the time. And the mom, I felt she made everything worse than it had to be by not telling Jacinda the whole truth about why they left in the first place and by always trying to prevent Jacinda from being what she was. She should have been more excepting and supportive of her daughter.

Within the first 50 pages, Firelight managed to go from being an enchanting, refreshing read to a been-there-done-that cliche. The story mostly ended up being about how Jacinda ends up moving to a new school and gets the attention of the hot, untouchable guy, who she just happens to have this magical connection with, along with having to hide a secret. I really wanted to see and spend more time reading about Jacinda's life with the pride, even if she still moved later in the book, because honestly, the beginning of the book rocked. Somehow though, the middle of the book still had it's redeeming qualities. There was some action and thanks to Jacinda's perpetual indecisiveness, suspense. I always felt very compelled to keep turning the pages. I guess in that way it was a lot like, and forgive the comparison, Twilight. Though Firelight was flawed, I still managed to enjoy the book.

I found Jordan's writing to be one of the most redeeming qualities about this book. It was beautifully descriptive, fast-paced, and sometimes even emotionally written. This is one book, though, that I think might would have actually been a bit better told in third-person narrative.

The ending was pretty great! It was filled with action leading up to a great cliffhanger. Though I had some issues with Firelight, something about the ending tells me that the next book is going to be much better and, hopefully, I'll be getting to learn more about Cassian and the pride.

Okay, so to me Firelight wasn't as great as it could have been and I did feel a bit let down. However it was still a decent story that I would read again, and I definitely plan to read the second book. A lot of people out there really loved this book and though I think you should keep my review in mind, I would like to encourage you to check out other reviews. This is only my opinion so remember that if my review happens to put you on the fence about Firelight. Despite my problems with this book, I'd still recommend it.

Grade
Characters: C-
Writing: B-
Plot: C
Ending: B
1st in Series: C
Enjoyment/Likability: C+
Recommendable: C+

Overall: C

Cover: A-