Firelight by Sophie Jordan

Firelight by Sophie Jordan
"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."- summary from Amazon

This was a good start to a trilogy and I really enjoyed this original idea. You don't really see dragons/draki in YA so it was refreshing to read something that wasn't vampire or werewolf. But at the same time, there were some flaws.

First off, Jacinda was a wonderful character. I really enjoyed reading about her struggles moving to a new place where she has to deal with humans and also deal with not having a say in anything at all. Her frustration really came through and made me frustrated as well about the situations she was put in. I was really pulled into her story and her emotions.

The character dynamics and interactions were really handled well too. Each character was clearly defined and nothing ever felt forced with the dialogue or the scenes.

I also liked the romance (because I'm a romance kind of guy), but at the same time, it just didn't sit right with me. I can see why they would be attracted to each other and they did seem to converse and get to know each other but I didn't like the insta-attraction and connection they had (I read this and another book with the same thing back-to-back). It felt a bit rushed to me and wasn't really explained fully. Maybe that's a point that'll be brought up in the sequel (or maybe it was explained here and I missed it) but for right now, it seemed a bit much and a tad unrealistic.

Overall though, I did enjoy the book. It certainly had some twists and turns and ended unexpectedly, and I can't wait for the sequel. Definitely a book to pick up if you're a fan of paranormal but looking for something different than what's out there already.

FTC: Received ARC at BEA (signed!). Link above is an Amazon Associate link; any profit will go toward funding contests.