Review : Firelight by Sophie Jordan

Summary (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.

Personal Thoughts

This is going to be a very hard review to write. This is the first ever dragon book that I've ever read. Going into this book, I had great expectations. Not only was the idea original, but it was also very interesting. I really did want to like this book, but I simply couldn't for a few reasons.

My very first problem was Jacinda. She is the protagonist of Firelight and I seriously thought I would like her, but unfortunately I didn't. For one, I couldn't connect with her. She had serious issues. She kept complaining and whining about how she didn't belong all throughout the book. Don't get me wrong, I'm okay with characters complaining, but I felt like Jacinda complained a little too much. When she is in the pride, she complains about not having enough freedom and then when her mom takes her away from the pride she complains that she misses the pride and wants to go back. With all that complaining you would expect her to do something to solve her problems, but she doesn't. Moreover, she is selfish and thinks only about herself. To be honest, she was very reminiscent of Bella from the Twilight Series and I didn't like Bella.

Will is a hunter. His people hunt and kill Jacinda's people. However, the two end up falling for each other. I thought Will was an okay character except he too looks strangely familiar to Edward Cullen. He was up to an extent a typical YA hero : Good looking, the guy everyone in school wants, mysterious and has a secret. However, I felt sad for Will and the circumstances he was in.

The secondary characters in the book include Tamra, Jacinda's twin sister, Jacinda's mom, Will's cousins and Cassian, the guy Jacinda was supposed to get marry too. The author doesn't really develop their characters in this book except maybe for Jacinda. I have feeling Cassian becomes important in the next book, Vanish. I found Tamra annoying and at times pathetic.

Onto the romance. I'm not a huge fan of instant love. This book has it and I didn't enjoy it. I didn't get the attraction between the two. I thought everything was way too rushed.

Sophie Jordan's writing is fairly good. I enjoyed it. I even think that the plot had huge potential, but like many books, the excess of romance and the lack of action ruined it.

Overall, I didn't enjoy Firelight. I completed the entire book but I was really bored reading it. I'm not too sure whether I'll be reading the sequel soon.

I think that this book will appeal to fans of Twilight.

Rating

Cover : 4/5
Plot : 1/5
Characters : 1/5
Writing : 3/5