Monday, December 13, 2010

Firelight by Sophie Jordan

By Sophie Jordan
Pick up your copy today!
(at your local indie, Amazon, or B & N)

Synopsis borrowed from Goodreads:

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.

What Greta had to say:

This book has renewed my faith in YA.
I have been in such a rut with teen fic lately. Everything is the same. I am just soo bored with it.

I won this book a couple of months ago from a Bewitched Bookworms contest and it has been sitting on my nightstand waiting it's turn for me to read.

I picked it up on Thursday night and if my hubz had not have come home from a week-long business trip on Friday I would have attempted to finish it that next night (we also had a Smallville marathon so that's why it took me all weekend to read.)

Firelight is soo beautiful. The words leap off the page like poetry. Just lovely.
I've read some reviews that say people do not uber dig but I thought it was brilliant. I guess you should give it a whirl just to see if it sits well with you. As for me, it was totally my cup of tea.

Firelight is about a girl named Jacinda. Jacinda is different from the pride she lives in. Sure, most everyone is a Draki (descend from dragons and can manifest into one) but she's rare. Jacinda is a fire breather. There hasn't been a fire breather in the pride for a couple of generation. She's a treasure that needs to be guarded... owned... kept.

Jacinda's mom realizes what they want to do with her daughter. She used to be a Draki. Not that word. She killed her. Made herself forget. She couldn't handle the life and when Jacinda's twin, Tamra, was unable to manifest (this happens around 11 or 12 years old.. like puberty) she never tried again to release her inner Draki.

The story starts out with Jacinda and her friend Az wanting to fly in the morning time. This is a big NO NO NO NO!!! Someone will see. Someone did see. The hunters.

The hunters will shoot down the Drakis like any wild game. They are the predators... the drakis are the prey (which I found ironic because you would think a fire breathing dragon could take down a human... but she still is a girl)

Once the hunters have cornered Jacinda (in draki form) she meets a boy hunter that doesn't give her secret hiding spot away. He saves her life and tells the men he can't find her.... all the time he is touching her dragon skin... saving her life.... loving her even though he doesn't know what or who she is.

Because of this, the pride decides that Jacinda needs to be punished and this is when Jacinda's mom decides that it is time to go. She will not watch her daughter become encaged and she will not watch the Pride's alpha enslave her to his son (Like I said... Fire Breathers are rare. How do you make more?)

They move to a desert town. Jacinda's mom hopes this will kill Jacinda's dragon. Hopes this will make her normal, safer, less of a target. Jacinda has no interest in letting her inner draki die. It's a part of her.

As she starts school she locks eyes with a boy. A boy she has seen before. A boy who once called her beautiful. A boy... who has never seen her before and yet... has touched her.

Just like Romeo and Juliet.... this romance is forbidden from the start. The prey in love with the predator. The hunter's heart entrapped by the game.

Loves it!!

It's a really excellent book! I very much enjoyed it. And I hope there are more to come because the ending literally killed me.

Thank you Bewitched Bookworms for introducing me to it. I'll be mailing it to my friend Leila soon so she can also fall in love with the Drakis.


Loves loves loves!!



~Greta~