"Firelight" by Sophie Jordan

From Goodreads: "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."

I hate when I read reviews and people have compared books to "Twilight" saying that the book that they read is a blatant rip-off of "Twilight" and whatnot, because a) "Twilight" ain't the most original story out there and therefore it should not be the book that all other books are compared to and b) the majority of the time the book that the reviewer has said is just like "Twilight" isn't. At. All. A lot of time I go out of my way to defend these books because, as mentioned, in the majority of cases they are not like "Twilight" and in my opinion, I think that by comparing them to "Twilight" people who are completely anti-"Twilight" will set these books aside thinking that they are cliche-ridden books with lots of teen angst and sparkly hot male characters and not read them- and I think that in not reading them they are missing out on some really great stories.

Now you may be wondering where this is all leading to? Well, I must admit... I found the first half of this book to be entirely reminiscent of "Twilight" (hangs my head in shame, I know, I know... I am totally being hypocritical) and then the second half of the book seemed entirely reminiscent of Claudia Gray's "Evernight" series.

Now how was this book so similar to "Twilight"? Well first off, Both Bella and Jacinda move before they feel pressure to do so, second, they go to their new school and meet a boy, a boy who happens to hang out with a crowd that the entire school seems to worship/ hold in awe, the boys family. Though all of the girls at the boys schools throw themselves at said boy he never shows any interest in them until new girl comes along. New girl and boy start to develop feelings for one another, but boy keeps telling girl that she shouldn't hang out with him because he is dangerous. One of one's family members takes a weird interest in girl and tries to intimidate her whenever possible (ie. Rosalie and Xander). Both boys (and their families) disappear from school for days at a time (one uses the excuse of fly fishing, one uses the excuse of camping). When boy is gone from school girl becomes overly dramatic moaning and groaning about how she misses said boy and how her life is a little less bright without him in it.

And how is this book similar to Claudia Grays "Evernight" series? Both boy and girl are keeping major secrets from one another. Girl is a paranormal/ fantastical being and boy is a hunter, a hunter who kills said paranormal/ fantastical being. Despite knowing about one another's secrets, both fall in love and all seems doomed because of their families/ occupations. Both girls also have boys of their paranormal/ fantastical racewho wants to be with them, pretty much at whatever cost, and both boys get kinda jealous when girl chooses "the enemy" over him.

All in all? I think that despite the similarities between "Twilight" and the "Evernight" series this is still a good book, but I just wish that it had been a bit more unique. I must say that I do prefer Jacinda over "Twilight's" Bella because Jacinda actually has a personality, though I prefer Bella's/ Edward's family over Jacinda's family, mainly because (for the most case) Edward's family was supportive of him (I cannot comprehend whatsoever what is going on in Jacinda's mothers head. Yes, I understand that she wants to keep her daughter safe, but pretty much forcing her daughter's draki to die? Not cool. They could have moved to a town like Forks! Where it was always rainy and tree-y and everything, where Jacinda could have really thrived, instead she forced them to move to the dessert where Jacinda was pretty much in pain 99.9% of the time). And the ending? Well, I wouldn't consider this to be a full story whatsoever. There are a ton of loose ends that were not tied up, nor even touched upon! It seriously just ended, probably with one of the worst cliffhanger endings I have ever read before. But then again, Sophie is a genius in ending the book like that because it keeps us on the edge of our seats/ makes us want to know how everything is going to play out in the second book in the series, "Vanish", which comes out in September 2011.

Rating: 7.5/10