Book Review: Firelight by Sophie Jordan

Firelight (Firelight #1)

Sophie Jordan

Publication Date: September 7th 2010

Publisher: HarperTeen

Pages: 323

Genre: Paranormal Romance, Young Adult

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.

Oh man, this book! I enjoyed this book a lot, but I will be the first to admit that it is so clichéd. It follows the Paranormal  Romance formula to a T, yet the whole idea and world building in this book are so original.

The idea is that there are a race of people who are able to transform into dragons once they reach a certain age. The world building is very neatly explained to us, careful not to either overload us or leave us floundering because we have no idea what's going on (unless Jacinda herself is confused about something of course).

It's actually slightly disappointing to see such an amazing idea and paranormal/fantasy world that is only fleshed out with a basic insta-love Romeo and Juliet plot. It's sort of the opposite issue that I had with Wither in which I loved the plot but was annoyed at the sloppy world building. For the most part, however, clichéd storylines don't bother me too much, but they also can take the book down a notch for me, and this is the case with Firelight. The main storyline aside, the relationship between Jacinda and her family and clan are very interesting and I really liked seeing that play out.

The issue with clichéd plots like this, is that I can see the ending coming a mile away. There were really no surprises (except for when it turned out Will has draki blood, but that's of course the excellent world building showing through again). I guessed that Jacinda's sister was hanging out with Will's cousins, that sir Prince Draki was going to pop in and complicate things and that it would end with her returning. I am curious to see how she will escape her clan since her truwuv is Will, even though it is all dramatically impossible.

Complaints aside, I want to confirm that I really did enjoy reading this book. The clichéd bits amused me more than annoyed me and I really recommend this to anyone who likes that Paranormal Romance formula, but wants a taste of a world building job done incredibly well.

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