Firelight by Sophie Jordan - Okapi's Review

Title: Firelight
Author: Sophie Jordan
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Target Audience: Teens
Pages: ARC - 323 pages
Release Date: September 7, 2010

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 leads 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 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. - Summary from Goodreads


As a fan of dragons, the premise sounded promising - a hiatus from vampires, werewolves and angels while still lingering in the paranormal zone. Curled up in my bed for a couple hours, I read this novel in one sitting, my attention constantly tethered to the rapt and engaging plot. But alas, my eyes uncovered a paltry, watery novel that washed through my mind and caused me to forget about it soon after.

I love the concept of draki, the descendants of dragons, morphing into human, and their customs are interesting. However, I wish the author included more draki lore and history, along with their feud with the dragon hunters. For example, Jacinda mentions an "evasive flight maneuvers class", which sounds interesting, and I would like to learn more about. Jacinda barely spends any time with the dragon pride, and the reader merely experiences them through her memories. Reading this book would be a much more enthralling affair if we actually encountered the pride alongside her, gaining background information about drakis and enriching myself, thus making the rest of the novel more enjoyable.

The majority of the characters are lifeless and perilously flat. Will, who I've now nicknamed as "the Wallflower", fails to be mysterious and sexy as the author intends. He only snags my attention when Jacinda begins pining and whining over him, and though many other reviews claim their love to be intriguing and captivating, all I see is another paranormal romance that bores me. Their love is unbelievably instantaneous and predictable, lacking any depth. When Jacinda's inner draki flares to life around Will, it is the definition of cheesy, especially since the author reveals no explanation of Jacinda's fascination of this bland child. Many other reviews state their relationship to rival the romance in Twilight, but while I'm not a fan of that book, at least the author explains Bella and Edward's love. The romance in Firelight flounders to grapple my regard.

Jacinda's remarkably selfish twin sister Tamra and mother are extremely irksome and undeveloped. Her mother forfeited her draki spirit and eschews draki culture seemingly without any reason, and her sister complains about the most frivolous things. They aggravate me using their barely there personalities and do nothing more than set up meek obstacles of conflict for Jacinda to jump over. The character redeeming the rest is Jacinda, since she is surprisingly developed compared to the others; during the novel, my liking for her escalates as she demonstrated selfless, unpretentious qualities. She actually tolerates her irritating family members. I notice some other reviews chastising Jacinda for being selfish, endlessly complaining about the situation that her mother puts her in. However, I would probably react similarly if somebody hacks away part of my soul, just as Jacinda's mother attempts to rip away her draki. Jordan successfully captures Jacinda's raw anguish and the torture of allowing her draki to die, which is the equivalent of losing part of one's soul. She describes Jacinda's quest to maintain her identity using simple, emotional phrases.

"I once saw a show about an amputee who lost his leg and still feels it. He actually wakes up at night to scratch his leg as if it's still there, attached to him. They call it a phantom limb.

I would be like that. A phantom draki, tormented with the memory of what I once was."- page 37

The author's writing is very bland and repetitive, and after a while, I began to tire of Jacinda's distressed musings and cravings for Will. Jordan tends to echo Jacinda's thoughts in an annoying manner, and all her sentences are short and choppy, structured too simply. Though constructed using prose that lacks description, this book still consistently maintains its hooking attribute.

The ending is so annoying abrupt and unsatisfying that I couldn't help but roll my eyes once I was finished, asking myself if somebody had pruned off the real end of the manuscript. Don't get me wrong, I always bask in the afterglow of anticipation after reading a superb cliffhanger, but Firelight left off without any conclusion or thoughts to hold onto whatsoever. When I read a cliffhanger, I run off a cliff, though there are always questions and unsolved mysteries that keep me dangling on the edge. Firelight, however, has nothing sparking further curiosity, so I gallop over the edge and plummet to the ground.

Overall, this typical paranormal romance ensnared my attention for most of its three hundred pages, causing me to dub it as 'mildly addicting' and file it away at the very back of my mind. I'm sure, like many other paranormal romances, it'll acquire a teen fandom when it releases in September, 2010. I'll probably skim the sequel just to see what's in store for Jacinda and company, but I hold very little hope that this series can possibly redeem itself after this slight disaster.

Cover: 2/5 - I'm usually partial to people on covers, and this one's no exception. I dislike how up-close the girl is, and the artificial shade of her hair. However, the golden scales add a mysterious touch.

Rating:

2.5 hoots

Books like this:
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To view Rica's review of Firelight, CLICK HERE

The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting

Title: The Body Finder

Author: Kimberly Derting

Genre: Paranormal/ Romance/ Suspense

Target Audience: Teens - Adults

Number of Pages: Hardcover- 327 pages

Violet Ambrose is grappling with two major issues: Jay Heaton and her morbid secret ability. While the sixteen-year-old is confused by her new feelings for her best friend since childhood, she is more disturbed by her "power" to sense dead bodies- or at least those that have been murdered. Since she was a little girl, she was felt the echoes of the dead leave behind in the world... and the imprints that attach to their killers.

Violet has never considered her strange talent to be a gift; it mostly just led her to find dead birds her cat left for her. But now that a serial killer is terrorizing her small town, and the echoes of the local girls he's claimed haunt her daily, Violet realizes she might be the only person who can stop him.

Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet find the murder and Violet is unnerved by her hope that Jay's intentions are much more than friendly. But even as she falling intensely in love, Violet is getting closer and closer to discovering a killer... and becoming his prey herself. - From the inside Flap Jacket

I had finished this book in about 2 days, and considering the fact that I am an incredibly slow reader, me finishing a book in that amount of time is saying something. You can assume that this book is one I didn't want to put down. It was the cause of my exhaustion on Monday morning when I had to get up to go to school, after staying up well into the night reading this book. Kimberly Derting entwines suspense with romance and the two elements mingle flawlessly, thus creating a richer and more complex novel.

This book held me in since the beginning with the adorable romance and captured my attention with the bone-chilling suspense. The love between Jay and Violet will make you smile in your seat, while the lurking serial killer forces you to jolt up and gasp. On the outside, Violet is just your average teenager- one who goes to school, hangs out with her friends, and crushes on boys. But behind the scenes, she is anything but ordinary. Her unique knack of uncovering murdered bodies thrusts her into adventure...and trouble. Readers follow Violet on her drive to stop the man threatening her suburban home and Jay's determination to keep Violet safe.

Derting tells the story from two points of view. One voice is Violet's, and the other is the murderer's, which is written in italics. I remember when flipping through The Body Finder at nighttime, I would always dread reading the italicized chapters, for they never failed to send shivers down my spine. However, reading about Violet's accounts were always a treat for me. I was able to witness the brave and shy, happy but scared, mature yet growing, qualities in Violet which all come together to make up her persona. I was also able to get a glimpse of the killer's mind. It was an interesting experience, for when readers scan their eyes along the italicized lines, they are able to learn about his motives, purposes, and his thinking process.

Her writing was fair. It was not the best I have read, but the sentences flowed easily enough. My one concern was her over use of ellipsis. They appeared quite often, yet it wasn't so major and bothersome to the point where I couldn't stand it. Another theme I discovered when reading, was her repetitive vocabulary. I noted how the same words would show up more than once. Don't get me wrong, I am not judging her on little words like 'the' or 'and', but rather more memorable words and phrases like the adjective, 'no-nonsense.' The phrase had been featured over two times. These are minor flaws and they didn't overshadow or make a large impact on the overall effect of the novel.

Though her writing is not spectacular, the strong and alluring plot overpowers it. This is definitely a novel that I would read over and over again, so if you are in for a thrilling love story, go snag a copy of The Body Finder!

Cover: 3.5/5 - The cover is pure, pretty and very majestic, but I'm not sure what it is, or is supposed to be. Maybe it is an echo? I don't know. The blue contrasts with the black and it is appealing, but it could definitely be more clear on what it is. From the cover, readers don't really know anything about the book. Just by judging the cover however, I would probably pick it up at the store.

Rating:

4 Hoots

Source: Public Library