Review: Firelight

Firelight

Sophie Jordan

Publisher: HarperTeen

Release Date: September 7, 2010

Pages: 336

Ratings: 2 Stars

Summary (from Goodreads):

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.

Firelight was an intriguing concept that was not executed in the best way. I really wanted to love this book because the idea of this race of people descended from dragons called draki was something that struck me as very fresh and interesting. However, I was deeply disappointed in Firelight.

For me, Firelight was Twilight. Seriously. I am not a huge fan of Twilight and I  dislike when things are compared to Twilight but the whole time I was reading about Jacinda and Will, I couldn't stop drawing the comparison. The relationship between Will and Jacinda was very reminiscent of Bella and Edward. At one point, Jacinda even says that Will is an “addictive drug”, something to keep her draki alive while it is slowly dying from the harsh, desert environment. Sounds eerily familiar to Bella being Edward’s brand of heroin. At times, Jacinda and Will’s relationship seemed a bit rushed and all over the place. The focus of all the characters was mainly on Jacinda and Will and I felt like all the secondary characters got pushed into the background and were only brought back up again when need and were never fully developed. Along with that, I felt Will and Jacinda were very one-dimensional and I could not see past Jacinda’s narration. Everything revolved around her and her problems and at points I just want her to stop complaining so the story could continue. I was glad to see that towards the end of the book, though, that Jacinda started to change and see past herself and accept other people’s emotion, she started to become a stronger character I could respect a bit more.

While I really enjoyed the idea of Firelight, the writing was constantly distracting me. I felt like the entire book was composed of very short, fragmented sentences that distracted me from enjoying the book. I was engaged by the draki way of life and wanted to know more about the hunters and draki, but the writing kept getting in the way. I frequently had to read this book in short bursts because the writing would annoy me and take away from my enjoyment of the story.

The ending of the book was a bit anticlimactic. I felt like for the first novel in a series, Firelight did not leave a strong enough impact. I was left with more questions at the end of the book than I would have liked and I really wished that more descriptions about draki and draki life were provided in the first book. A first book in a series needs to wow me to make me interested in continue reading the series. Unfortunately, that was not the case with Firelight. I might check out the sequel to see what happens next and to see if more is explained but I won’t count on it.

Waiting on Wednesday (16) - Angelfire

Angelfire

Courtney Allison Moulton

Publisher: HarperCollins

To be released: February 15, 2011

Summary (from Goodreads):

This debut, the first novel in a trilogy, is achingly romantic, terrifying, and filled with blistering action.

When seventeen-year-old Ellie starts seeing reapers - monstrous creatures who devour humans and send their souls to Hell - she finds herself on the front lines of a supernatural war between archangels and the Fallen and faced with the possible destruction of her soul.

A mysterious boy named Will reveals she is the reincarnation of an ancient warrior, the only one capable of wielding swords of angelfire to fight the reapers, and he is an immortal sworn to protect her in battle. Now that Ellie's powers have been awakened, a powerful reaper called Bastian has come forward to challenge her. He has employed a fierce assassin to eliminate her - an assassin who has already killed her once.

While balancing her dwindling social life and reaper-hunting duties, she and Will discover Bastian is searching for a dormant creature believed to be a true soul reaper. Bastian plans to use this weapon to ignite the End of Days and to destroy Ellie's soul, ending her rebirth cycle forever. Now, she must face an army of Bastian's most frightening reapers, prevent the soul reaper from consuming her soul, and uncover the secrets of her past lives - including truths that may be too frightening to remember.

This past week, I feel like I’ve only heard talk about this book. I’m super excited for this release, even though February of 2011 is so far away. I will definitely be waiting for this book for a while, but it will be worth it.

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event highlighting exciting upcoming releases. It is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Teaser Tuesday: Beautiful Darkness

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Mizb at Should be Reading.

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure what you share doesn't give too much away! You don't want to ruin the books for others!)
• Share the title and author too so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser this week comes from:

Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

"It wasn't Ridley." She didn't sound like herself, or sure of herself. "She is not the only one who hates Mortals, believe it or not." (86)

Fragment Friday (6) - Personal Demons by Lisa Desrochers

Fragment Friday is hosted by James of Book Chic and it is where you read excerpts of your favorite books or what you are reading now. I chose an excerpt from a favorite this week: Personal Demons by Lisa Desrochers

Tales From Under the Grave, a YA Spooktacular Halloween Event

With Halloween around the corner, it is time for some spooktastic events. 

Danielle at a Frenzy of Noise and Khelsea at Once Upon a Review are going to be hosting this Spookacular Halloween featuring some of my favorite things! Authors, reviews, mini-challenges, giveaways, "trick-or-treating", ghost stories and CANDY!! Sounds awesome right? More details to come once the event date gets closer and trust me, you don't want to miss it!

(You can follow #YASpooktacular on twitter if you want some as-they-happen spoilers.)

Twitter: @daniellebunner OR @onceuponareview

Participating Blogs

Ashley - Book Labyrinth

Christina - Christina's Books

Courtney - Courtney Reads

Me - Overflowing Shelf

Gail - Ticket to Anywhere

Julie - A Tale of Many Reviews

Kari - A Good Addiction

Kelsey - Reading or Breathing

Lesley - YA Books Reviewed

Sarah - Goddess of the Library 

Fallenarchangel.com

Mundie Moms

Paperbackdolls

Reading Teen

ATTENTION AUTHORS!!! WE ARE CURRENTLY LOOKING FOR MORE YA AUTHORS TO WRITE A 200-600 WORD PIECE OF A SHORT STORY WITH OTHER AUTHORS.
If you know an author you think would be interested please contact talesfromunderthegrave@gmail.com and let us know! Thanks!

Review: Personal Demons

Personal Demons

Lisa Desrochers

Publisher: Tor Teen

Release Date: September 14, 2010

Pages: 364

Ratings: 4.5 Stars

Summary (from Goodreads):

Frannie Cavanaugh is a good Catholic girl with a bit of a wicked streak. She's spent years keeping everyone at a distance—even her closest friends—and it seems her senior year will be more of the same...until Luc Cain enrolls in her class. No one knows where he came from, but Frannie can't seem to stay away from him. What she doesn't know is that Luc works in Acquisitions—for Hell—and she possesses a unique skill set that has the King of Hell tingling with anticipation. All Luc has to do is get her to sin, and he’s as tempting as they come. Frannie doesn’t stand a chance.

Unfortunately for Luc, Heaven has other plans, and the angel, Gabe, is going to do whatever it takes to make sure that Luc doesn’t get what he came for. And it isn't long before they find themselves fighting for more than just her soul.

But if Luc fails, there will be Hell to pay…for all of them.

Wow. Personal Demons blew me away. I am in love with this book. Personal Demons kept me franticly turning pages and staying up way too late, but in a good way. A stunning debut from Lisa Desrochers and definitely one of my new favorite series.

What can I say about Personal Demons? I spent a day when I was sick reading this whole book. I was addicted. I love the whole concept of Personal Demons with demons and angels vying for a person’s soul. I’m so glad this book focused on demons as well as angels; demons deserve some more attention in YA lit in my opinion. While I’m usually not a fan of dual point of view, having split point of between Frannie and Luc worked so well. I really enjoyed seeing the story unravel from both Frannie and Luc’s point of view since they were such different characters. Frannie and Luc were also well developed characters and each had their own voice that made the dual point of view really work. I felt Luc was a strong character than Frannie and better developed but it makes sense for Frannie to be a bit less developed since Frannie is battling her own “personal demons” and very torn on who she is. Overall, I felt the book was completely spot on with narration throughout and I found myself enjoying the two different point of views more then I thought.

At first, I was worried that this book would have a religious tone since it is a battle between heaven and hell for Frannie’s soul and because Frannie is from a very religious family. However, though the plot is focused on the battle for Frannie’s soul, I felt the story was more focused on the characters and the characters internal struggle more then anything else. I loved that the characters and the choices they have made and make through out the book drove the plot and book. The characters were such great characters and really three dimensional it was hard for me not to like them or relate to them. While Luc is a demon, he has that cocky, bad boy attitude, but he begins to question himself and his mission throughout the book and I love seeing him battle his own “personal demons” along with Frannie battling other personal demons and real ones. Frannie was a very complex character and I loved being able to see what was going on in her head and why she felt so guilty. Lisa Desrochers did a great job writing great characters that were interesting and fun to read.

I could go on and on about my love for this book (and my love for certain characters) but I won’t. This book left me wanting a lot more. While the ending of the book didn’t answer all the questions I had while reading, I hope the next book in this series will answer them. I cannot wait to find out more about Frannie and her power that makes her soul such a valuable commodity, about Luc, who I loved, and his relationship with Frannie. Personal Demons is one of my favorite books published this year. I’m excited to see where Lisa Desrochers takes us next in this series with these wonderful characters.

Waiting on Wednesday (15) - Prom and Prejudice

Prom and Prejudice

Elizabeth Eulberg

Publisher: Point

To be released: January 1, 2011

Summary (from Goodreads):

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single guy in his spring semester at Pemberly Academy must be in want of a prom date.

After winter break, the girls at very prestigious, very wealthy, girls-only Longbourn Academy are suddenly obsessed with the prom, which they share with the nearby, equally elitist, all-boys Pemberly school. Lizzie Bennett, who attends Longbourn on scholarship, isn't exactly interested in designer dresses and expensive shoes, but her best friend, Jane, might be - especially now that Charles Bingley is back from a semester in London.

Lizzie is happy about her friend's burgeoning romance, but less than impressed by Will Darcy, Charles's friend, who's as snobby and pretentious as his friend is nice. He doesn't seem to like Lizzie either, but she assumes it's because her family doesn't have money. It doesn't help that Charles doesn't seem to be asking Jane to be his prom date, or that Lizzie meets George Wickham, who tells her that Will Darcy sabotaged his scholarship at Pemberly. Clearly Will Darcy is a pompous jerk who looks down on the middle class--so imagine Lizzie's surprise when he asks her to the prom!

Will Lizzie's prejudice and Will's pride keep them apart? Or are they a prom couple in the making? From Elizabeth Eulberg comes a very funny, completely stylish prom-season delight of Jane Austen proportions.

I loved Elizabeth Eulberg’s first book, The Lonely Hearts Club (it helped me get over not getting into my  number school) and I cannot wait for here next book. Prom and Prejudice is a spin on Pride and Prejudice and I love that book and adaptations of it, in anyway, I usually love. Can’t wait to read this. 

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event highlighting exciting upcoming releases. It is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.