The Blood of a Dragon • Firelight

Firelight by Sophie Jordan
Series: Firelight #1
Publisher: Harper Teen
Publication Date: September 7, 2010
Source/Format: Bought || Hardcover

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.

Dragons are probably my favorite mythical creatures. Because of my endless fascination with them, I find that I tend to enjoy books about dragons or anything dragon-related. With a premise like the one above, how could I not want to check this book out?

Firelight was a fascinating read. Featuring adventure and a few heart-stopping moments, dragons as you've never really seen them and a romance that blossoms beautifully, Firelight has quickly earned a spot in my heart.

The Characters

Jacinda is a character that I truly came to love. The most admirable thing about her is that she was adamant about being accepted for who she was (more specifically, her draki form). She worked really hard to keep that part of herself alive despite many external forces trying to kill it, and her tenacity was truly inspiring. Apart from that, just the idea of her appearance in manifest was magnificent -- the hues of color and her skills definitely set her apart in my eyes. Other great qualities she possessed were her bravery, strength, loyalty and love of family.

Of course, there were a few things that I didn't particularly like about her personality - she could appear to be selfish and slightly wishy-washy in certain situations, for instance. But I believe these things contributed into painting her in a more realistic light, and helped me feel more like she was a character that I could relate to.

Will is made to sound absolutely lovely in the summary. And while he is a lovely character, and I approve of how he treats Jacinda, I feel like there's a slight disconnect between me and him. There's just a lot of questions about him that I have leftover, and we basically only see him via what Jacinda gets the opportunity to experience. This is not to say that I wasn't fascinated with him, because I was. I just feel the need to learn more about him.

The Story

The story moves at a steady, fast pace and I felt quite breathless reading it. There was so much action in the pages that, though there were very brief respites in between the scenes of major conflict, I felt winded (in a good way) while reading. I enjoy reading books that move quickly, especially when I want to be completely consumed in a world that's different from my own.

What I can also appreciate about the novel is that, interspersed with all this action, the author manages to give us bits and pieces of information about draki and hunters. It's admirable that all this information is not dumped into our laps all in one sitting, but rather spread throughout the novel, only being revealed as necessary.

And last, but definitely not the least, I really liked the romance. For once, the guy wasn't really the "bad boy" but a decent guy. And it built up pretty slowly too that when the big moment finally happened to change the status quo, I was just yelling "FINALLY!". I'm definitely looking forward to seeing where this series goes and how it all works out in the next book!

Personally, I say you should...

Read this novel if you're looking for an original paranormal YA read. It combines a great dragon mythology with an exciting storyline and a sweet romance into one awesome package.

This review was posted as part of Rewind & Review.

Rewind & Review is a great monthly feature started by Ginger of GReads! and Lisa of Lisa is Busy Nerding. Each month, participants will set aside some "older" titles to read and review on their blogs. This feature is the perfect opportunity to get around to reading that title you've been eyeing for years or that book that's been in your TBR for what feels like forever. For more information, you can visit this post.