Firelight by Sophie Jordan

Firelight #1

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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.
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I wasn't terribly impressed by Firelight. Jacinda is an incredible annoying main character and I really struggled to like her - now I finally understand the harsh words some have said about Bella from Twiligt. Jacinda is a whiny little brat and rather than do anything about anything she just whines and moans in silence. Even when she occasionally attempts to stand up to her mother, her sister, and all the others who expect her to roll over and be quiet, she does it so half-heartedly, it downright pisses me off.

She also spends *ages* moaning about how she can't be with him (Will - the almost, but not quite Edward) but how she absolutely must, but she really shouldn't, but oh to hell with it and does it anyway. Their instant deep love (*sigh*) is of the worst YA kind and I dread to think that any young adult will think such "love" is in any way depicted realistically.

Beyond all that it's not a book where you're supposed to contemplate the setup or the surroundings. Full of holes and unanswered issues, it's left floating in the breeze, while all attention is focused on Jacinda and her... issues. I think this would have been an amazing book if it had centered around an adult rather than a teenager, provided that the adult didn't throw herself into the most vain love affair ever, of course. The whole Draki thing is really rather interesting and I would have loved to know more about the Pride and well just the whole magical part of it, as well as the Hunters. But Jacinda only gives us a very superficial I don't really care view of it and that's a real shame.

I give it 3 stars because despite Jacinda tempting me to strangle her through the pages, it's moderately well written (but in first person and present time which very few authors manage to pull off successfully) and the cliffhanger ending did leave me wanting to get my hands on the second book in the series, Vanish.

336 pages / published in 2010
Review by Iben Jakobsen, BoB, 2011