Firelight by Sophie Jordan

Read essjay's review here. But these below are my thoughts on Firelight.

Firstly, how beautiful if the cover? Yes, we've covered this already, I am fickle.  But it really is.  It's also a very tactile book.  It makes you want to pick it up and touch it.

When we were asked to be part of Sophie's blogtour, we agreed as essjay had read it last year, having bought it in to read via her Kindle.  I did however feel very left out and Liz, the PR guru who works with OUP sent me my own copy to read.

I wasn't quite prepared to like Firelight as much as I had.  I've not read a paranormal YA for some time, having spent a lot of time reading contemporary adult fiction, thrillers and such, so when I had to shift gears to get into Firelight's characters' heads, it happened far easier than I anticipated.

I think it's because I could identify with both of the sisters - with Tamra and Jacinda. I thought that both characters were well developed.  They were both selfish, quite spoilt and far luckier than they ought to be in the situations they found themselves in.  Jacinda, back with the pride, was coveted for her ability to be a fire-breather.  This is quite rare in the world of the draki.  When she manifested her powers they singled her out as something special, something to be held on to at any cost.  Whilst she revelled in the power this gave her, she also must have realised that what made her unique also made her a target.  Tamra on the other hand had to watch her twin sister become everyone's favourite, because of her gifts.  Tamra has none - she is, by all counts 100% human with no draki gifts.  She can't change or breathe fire or breathe under water.  So she was the outsider in the pride.

When their mum decides that she's taking her girls and running away it's not quite clear as to why she's doing this, but it is soon revealed that they want to keep Jacinda as close as possible and away from the pride and their nefarious ways.  The pride would do anything in their power to find Jacinda and keep her tied to them.

Their mum seems to have blocked everything about her own draki - she doesn't want to acknowledge it at all.  And she is keen for Jacinda to lose all contact with her draki.  She moves them to a new home that is in the middle of the desert somewhere and the heat literally drives the draki from her.

Enter Will who sounds wonderfully conflicted and full of angst about his own family.  Will has dark awful secrets of his own and Jacinda reacts very strongly in his presence.  She starts to manifest and they can't seem to stand being apart. She is warned early on about his family and about the fact that no one seems to be good enough for them.  A bit Twilight, yes, but Will's family is probably far more volatile than the any of the vamps in Twilight. 

I liked Firelight - I loved the dragonlore and felt on several occasions that I'd like to slap both Jacinda and Tamra for being selfish, self-centred and for being dim.  (This by the way means that Ms. Jordan got it right creating these flawed characters).  I hated how the story ended - it was all wrong.  It was not the right choice for Jacinda to make - I thought she was more intelligent than that.  But to be honest, as much as I hated the ending, I knew exactly why the author had done it: it was the right ending in this instance.  150% the right way to end the book - and yes, it is an obvious hook into the new upcoming follow-up but honestly, I would not have wanted to read it if I felt complacent about Jacinda's fate.  As it stands, I want to know what happens even more.

I think Ms. Jordan has given us something very different here - a very rebellious main character who walks a thin line between like and dislike.  It makes her wholly human as we can see our teenage selves in her.  And we don't like admitting that we are flawed.  I also enjoyed the relationship between her and Will.  It was stop start and although it was a bit instant-attraction, we realise pretty soon why it was instant-attraction, but even so, do not expected the expected.

More please, Ms. Jordan and congrats to OUP for nabbing this very clever debut author.

Firelight Blog Tour with Sophie Jordan

I read and loved Firelight back in October of last year (my review is here ) so am over the moon that it's getting a UK release with Oxford University Press. Sophie has been kind enough to answer a few questions on the exploration of identity in Firelight.

Hi Sophie. I'd like to start by telling you how much I enjoyed Firelight. I whizzed through it so quickly and can't wait to read the next one.


1. I love the strong themes of identity and belonging which run through Firelight and the twin's relationship really highlights this. Do you see the twins Jacinda and Tamra as two parts of a whole or as completely separate people?

Thank you, Sarah! So glad to answer your questions.

Oh, Jacinda and Tamra are definitely separate people, but also connected as twin sisters. One is essentially human and the other a draki. Meaning that for one to be happy and flourish, then other one must live in abject misery. This leaves both of them guilty much of the time. It’s easy to “find yourself” when no one else is affected. In their cases, both are adversely affected by the others actions, and that makes things very difficult. While both want to seize their dreams, they don’t wish to hurt the other one – obviously this creates a lot of friction between them. I could have written them alike, made both of them a draki, but that would have been too easy. What’s a story without conflict? Plus, family relationships are never easy, and I wanted to reflect how complicated parent/child/sibling relationships can be.

2. The way that Jacinda and Tamra swap status as they change location made me feel bad for both of them! It also perfectly reflects the fickle nature of school popularity. Was it important to you to make Jacinda as relatable as possible despite her Draki nature?

Naturally, I wanted to make Jacinda relatable ... and the best way to do that was to strip away everything from her and watch her struggle – a fish out of water, so to speak.
Flipping the sisters’ statuses was another way to increase the conflict. I wasn’t trying so much to highlight the fickle nature of “school popularity” as I was trying to show the irony of circumstance ... how Jacinda can be this valued and prized member of one community (her pride) and then inconsequential in a different community (the human world).

3. The Draki lore is fascinating. Did you base any of it on myth or did you create it all from scratch?

Some of it stems from myth, such as a dragon’s tendency to hoard jewels. I wanted to keep that part of the lore, but come up with a good reason for it. Greed just wasn’t going to cut it as an explanation. Jacinda and her fellow draki couldn’t be greedy and remain sympathetic.
Also, a dragon’s ability to breathe fire is well known and perhaps the first thing to leap into people’s heads when they thing dragon – incorporating that into Firelight was an obvious thing for me to do. The rest of the lore I pretty much made up myself.

4. Will's also struggling with who he is and family loyalty but both his and Jacinda's Draki tribe are full of flaws. Is the imperfect family an important theme to you?

I always like to depict some type of family dynamic in my writing. As in real life, there is no such thing as perfection. I believe that people are overall good – but family relationships can be complicated. Readers can relate to that, too. We all have some type of family. It always struck me as fascinating and a bit tragic that we love our family most in the world – and also hurt them the most.

5. Do you have any advice for budding writers (as many follow our blog)?

Read, read, read. Write, write, write. Lol. Seriously though, I’ve never known a writer that isn’t also a reader. And it’s important to know the market, ie, what publishers are buying and what your potential audience is drawn to.

Thank you so much for answering our questions!

Sophie's over at Writing From The Tub tomorrow, Tuesday 8th January so please follow the blog tour and head over there too!

Firelight by Sophie Jordan

Synopsis

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.

I've just finished reading a brilliant book recommendation (The Painted Man - thanks Liz!) so have been suffering from that bereft feeling you get when you want to read it all over again. I've been looking at this book on and off and finally decided to give it a try. Firelight is full of action from the first page. Jacinda and her fellow draki friend Azure are doing something they shouldn't be - flying in daylight. Found by hunters who want her for her beautiful skin and ability to find precious stones, she hides in a cave and is found by hunter Will. He doesn't betray her but more than that he finds her beautiful, not merely an animal to be killed.

By breaking the rules Jacinda's safety is at risk and her Mum takes her away in the middle of the night with her twin sister to start a new life in the desert. Jacinda's mum knows that this dry atmosphere will kill the draki inside her leaving her human. Jacinda's twin, Tamra, never became a draki and is overjoyed with the chance to move out of her sister's shadow. Everybody is happy except Jacinda.

I loved this book (apart from one gripe which I'll come to later) and the difficult family relations give it a great edge. I was as furious as Jacinda that her mum expected her to endure the dry conditions whilst the most important part of her literally withers and dies. While Tamra flourishes at school, popular for the first time in her life, Jacinda is out of place and unimportant until she meets Will again. The connection between them is instant and the development of their relationship is deliciously intense. It's not easy, both of them seem to fight against their bond. Although Jacinda is finding it difficult to transform into her draki form she finds that being in close proximity to Will feeds it. When with him her draki flourishes; a mere kiss has her skin changing and steam threatening to escape her lungs. I absolutely adored Will and Jacinda together; they're everything a teen romance should be.

Obviously there's another boy. In this case it's Cassian, next leader of the pride. As Jacinda is a rare fire-breather he expects to marry her. Of course he isn't going to let her leave the pride without a fight which adds an extra element of drama. In fact, Jacinda finds herself fighting for herself at every turn. This makes her an incredibly likeable heroine and she doesn't make one choice that jarred with me as the reader.

But now to my one negative - this book is too short. Just as the action reaches fever pitch it's over and, dammit, I wanted more. However,the cliff hanger ending is exciting. This is part one of a trilogy and I'll be first in the queue to get the next book. The best word I can use to describe Firelight is breathless. Gorgeous start to a new trilogy which I highly recommend.