Firelight (Sophie Jordan) Blog Tour: Review + Giveaway!

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.

Out of the few dragon-themed novels that I have come across to read, none of them were connected to so much romance as Firelight did. Most of the time, dragons in fiction tend to be much associated with adventures, thrills of battle, and power - the romance in Firelight is testament to its originality, as this book certainly takes you on a wholly different ride!

Albeit already special - being a shape-shifting dragon and all - Jacinda's fire-breathing abilities puts her on a pedestal. With the suffocating protectiveness of her pack, her mother's desire for her to kill her other self and her sister's envy of her abilities, Jacinda is sooon forced to a life faraway from the comforts of her home. Most of Jacinda's narration is consequently filled with the heaviness and the bitterness of this fate - I was angered and saddened along with Jacinda. Fortunately, she was not depressing, but one finds oneself symphatetic to her plight. Jacinda voices and delivers her emotions readily, and it is easy for the readers to understand why she resents being where she was. Her loyalty is to her dragon - her other self - and to give this up and unthinkable.

With Will, Jacinda finds her dying dragon revived. This was her primary reason to constantly justify her emotional and physical responses to Will. Unlike her sister (who has been shunned by her fellow drakis as she cannot transform), Jacinda does not belong in the human world. Only Will ties her to it, and the theme of forbidden love is one of the central plots. Will and Jacinda's romance is seductive, sexy and a sure joy to read. Despite knowing that what they essentially have is veiled with deceit, dangerous and ultimately forbidden, it is as easy to ignore that as Jacinda does when they are together. However - what I cannot wait for is to see how a third party, Cassian - Jacinda's intended fiancee and the next leader of the drakis - plays in the succeeding books - because as much as I adore Will with Jacinda, I am definitely rooting for darkly seductive Cassian!

There were however, disappointments in Firelight. Minor - but they affected my reading experience quite a bit. Firstly I wanted the plot to move at a quicker pace than it did, as at some points the narrative felt very repetitive. There was also what I felt was a lack of subplots, which would have made reading the book so much better - I felt like I was looking for more while reading.

Having said that, the ending, though neat, hardly gives readers peace. You will be longing to see what happens next once you turn that last page!

Three Stars.

GIVEAWAY!

One lucky UK resident will win a fresh, beautiful new copy or Sophie Jordan's Firelight!

Ends 10th March.

Don't forget to check out tomorrow's stop for a guest post from Sophie! Chek out Lynsey and Vicki's blog at:  http://yafiction-heavenhellandpurgatory.blogspot.com/