A
hidden truth.
Mortal
enemies.
Doomed
love.
With
her rare ability to breathe fire, Jacinda is special even among the draki—the
descendants of dragons who can shift between human and dragon forms. But when
Jacinda’s rebelliousness forces her family to flee into the human world, she
struggles to adapt, even as her draki spirit fades. The one thing that revives
it is the gorgeous, elusive Will, whose family hunts her kind. Jacinda can’t
resist getting closer to him, even though she knows she’s risking not only her
life but the draki’s most closely guarded secret.
Where do I begin with this review?
This is my second times reading this book (I need to reread it so I can finally
read the final two in the series). It’s weird because I remember loving this
book the first time around, but this time around just wasn’t as amazing. I
think the first read wrapped me up in the premise, and this time around I got
more into the plot and characters. If I were to rate this book on my first
reading, it would have more stars than it’s getting this time around.
The premise of this book is really
my favorite part. I love shapeshifters (trope alert) and I love the idea of
them transforming into dragons. I don’t feel like there are a lot of dragons in
YA so that’s very appreciated. I think it was great to make Jacinda a
fire-breather and to make that such a coveted and lost gift in their world.
This added such conflict, especially since her mom and sister were human.
Jacinda’s special, but her twin sister isn’t. Twins. Love it. But the conflict
wasn’t done very…nicely I guess is the word I’ll use.
I hated the dynamic between Jacinda
and both her twin sister, Tamra and her mom. It was awful. I should be behind
it because it’s very real, but it was just too much. I don’t think Jacinda
helped very much, however. Jacinda is the most selfish character I think I have
ever read. Firelight is literally a
book about a super selfish teenage dragon shapeshifter (“draki”). So I kind of
hated Jacinda, but then you see her side and everything she’s given up and you
understand her and hate her family with her. It’s very tense on my
heartstrings.
Aside from the sheer selfishness of
the three women in this family, they’re also mean to each other. Tamra doesn’t
even care about her sister when something happens to her towards the end of the
book. She only cares about herself and her new life here. Jacinda’s mom doesn’t
care either! She’s only worried about their new lives. While it all makes sense
(Tamra’s a teenager, the mother only wants safety for her daughters since their
fathers’ death), it was a little too thick. I wish I could have seen more love
between the three of them. Just a few scenes of Jacinda bonding with her mom or
her sister would have helped a lot.
But Jacinda was selfish, so she only
really cared about herself. Therein lies the dilemma of this entire book. I
loved Will, though. I really love something about the hunter/prey love trope.
To fall in love with that which you hunt is something special indeed. I like that
Jacinda and Will had this crazy bond between them that kept them from staying
away from each other. I just wish I could have seen the attraction and love
grow between them instead of the cliché automatic soulmate bond, and then them
pushing each other away the whole book.
So in the end, I can whole-heartedly
say that I adore the premise of this book but not much else. There was an empty
threat to Xander (there was more from Brooklyn!) and I wish there’d been more
to the sheep in the wolf’s den dinner scene between Jacinda and Will and his
family. There were just a lot of things that could have been done a lot better
but I have high hopes still for Vanish because
of the big reveal at the end of this one. More twin trope! The book did have a
lot of good things going, of course, otherwise I wouldn’t have enjoyed it as
much both times I read it. But a girl’s gotta review honestly.
XOXO Tia
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