Firelight by Sophie Jordan

Title: Firelight
Author: Sophie Jordan
Reviewed by: Cassie
Rating: two glass slippers

Summary (from BN.com)

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.

When I went to the library, I wasn't looking for this book. Yet, I happened to see a sticker beckoning me saying "Fantasy" and an interesting title called Firelight. I pulled it out and saw a very interesting cover of a girl with cat-eyes and scales near her hair. So I flipped it over and read the back, and got immediately drawn in. Needless to say, it has an intriguing concept and great cover. However, as you will see it was not carried out well.

The protagonist-

Jacinda is a curious girl. She's draki and quite frankly, a cold, self-absorbed girl. She has the issue of being simply a trophy-draki because she breathes fire, a trait unseen in her pride (draki group) for several generations. Jacinda has this dislike for being seen as simply that and not being seen for whom she really is. But...

does she even know who she is? She's never been human in a normal (read: normal) environment. How can she even know who she is? She goes on about how she wants to be understood and blahblahblah. In all honestly I think her pride understood her quite well. She is draki and her human form relays it well. She only cares to survive and doesn't see what's going on to the people around her. Or she does but doesn't care. At first I thought she was cool; who wouldn't want to see what being draki was like? I mean dragons are fascinating creatures and Firelight really shows that. But in all honestly, as the story came along, I realized how annoying uncaring Jacinda was. Words simply cannot describe how I feel.

Unexisting best friend-

Usually I would describe the protagonist's best friend... but she doesn't have one. Jacinda doesn't care about fitting in or making her sister happy. She's not best friends with her twin Tamra, even though she could be. She doesn't confide with her mom or ANYONE. Except Will. Great. But really, when did they 'talk' without ending up in the other's arms or really freaking horny? Ew. Not best friends. Friends with benefits would be pushing it. Acquaintance-friends-with-benefits-and-secrets? Sure.

The guy-

Whoop-di-doo. Here goes. Don't get me wrong, Will was extremely attractive. Exceedingly so. He is dangerous. He is mysterious. He has secrets. He is sweet. But he has no backbone. He let Jacinda do whatever he wanted with barely a peep, even though he had to have known it was a stupid as shit idea. I mean, he's a bloody hunter of draki (a very dangerous hobby, or so I've heard ;) and yet he can't just stand up to her once and say, "Hey, Jacinda babe? That's going to get us fucked." (though considering their ideals, they might not be opposed to that last part)

He's completely hormonal. He shares her secrets yet so conveniently forgets to tell her one of his biggest ones. He takes her out of a horrible assembly and then kisses her in a stairwell. Okay, I don't know about you guys but I'm pretty sure school stairwells are not a place you want to make out in. They are disgusting.
Apparently that doesn't matter to Jacinda and Will. Aw, hell.

World-

Okay, so it's cool that there's draki in this world. What else? I had no idea what enkros were and honestly I don't care for high school life. I was interested very much by what the pride's home looked like and etc. but I never got a description.


I need to stab someone now.

Adventure-

Barely a smidge. Sucked butt. (yes go ahead and imagine that) But really 99% of it was in the very beginning. Then the rest of the story was 'resisting' (HA.) our dear William and then a cat-fight at the end of the book. 
Big whoop, that's amazing. No crazy journey to save a lost family member or save the world. Nope, it's about self-survival and the Big Challenge of Resisting My Hormones. *yawn* Please let me sleep now.

So. Yeah I didn't even like it at the end of the book. The only reason I finished it was because it's summer and I had to wait an hour to go to the library. (YES!) Now, if you're going on an incredibly boring car trip or flight, sure. Read this. It consumes the reader and is pretty interesting, the first 290 ish pages. I even liked it at the start. But then I got around to putting it down and actually assessing the situation Jacinda was in. So, I wouldn't advise  reading Firelight if you have another book in mind. But if you want some draki-and-hunter hormonal teens, sure. You'll be interested for however long. As long as you're okay with kinda steamy scenes and no real action action, then read it! You may throw it across the room but you may end up really liking it. If you do end up reading it or read it, comment below and tell us your thoughts!

Cassie