24 August 2011

Early Review: Vanish by Sophie Jordan

*This title will be released on September 6, 2011*

Vanish (Firelight, #2)

Title: Vanish
Author: Sophie Jordan
Series: Firelight #2
Cover Art: N/A
Genre: Paranormal YA
Excerpt: No
Source: Publisher
Reviewed by: Abigail

  • Reading level: Young Adult
  • Hardcover: 304 pages
  • Publisher: HarperCollins (September 6, 2011)
  • ISBN-10: 0061935107
  • ISBN-13: 978-0061935107
buy the book from The Book Depository, free delivery



Sexual Content:

Kissing.  References to sex


Rating:

Good - A fun read with minor flaws. Maybe read an excerpt before buying.


Description

An Impossible Romance.
Bitter Rivalries.
Deadly Choices.

To save the life of the boy she loves, Jacinda did the unthinkable: She betrayed the most closely guarded secret of her kind. Now she must return to the protection of her pride knowing she might never see Will again—and worse, that because his mind has been shaded, Will’s memories of that fateful night and why she had to flee are gone.

Back home, Jacinda is greeted with hostility and must work to prove her loyalty for both her sake and her family’s. Among the few who will even talk to her are Cassian, the pride’s heir apparent who has always wanted her, and her sister, Tamra, who has been forever changed by a twist of fate. Jacinda knows that she should forget Will and move on—that if he managed to remember and keep his promise to find her, it would only endanger them both. Yet she clings to the hope that someday they will be together again. When the chance arrives to follow her heart, will she risk everything for love?

In bestselling author Sophie Jordan’s dramatic follow-up to Firelight, forbidden love burns brighter than ever.

Review

Being a teenage girl torn between obligations and dreams is never easy.  When you’re a teenage girl who also happens to be a fire breathing draki shifter whose obligations include mating to someone you don’t love and giving up on a star-crossed romance with a human who hunts your kind, things are exponentially more difficult.  VANISH picks up immediately after the cliffhanger ending in FIRELIGHT.  Jacinda is forced to flee with her mother and sister again, but this time they aren’t escaping pride life, they are fleeing to it. 

Much to my delight, the draki mythology that was only touched on in FIRELIGHT is explored in much greater detail in VANISH.  Since the majority of the book takes place within the draki pride, we get to see more of the politics, relationships, distinctions, and practices of the draki.  How they have remained a secret from the world, how their various abilities are ranked within the pride, and how they view humanity.  It was all fascinating.  I especially responded to the way the female draki were treated within the pride like possessions, with no choices, and severely punished for any perceived disobedience.  I saw red so many times I lost count and can’t wait for Jacinda to finally and fully rise up against the pride.

I only wish that Jacinda had been more consistent in her thoughts.  When she was within the pride and forced to submit to the barbaric subjugation of the elders, she rightly longed to escape.  But when she was faced with freedom, she only remembered the too few benefits to pride life.  I understand that she’s a teenager and therefore prone to conflicting emotions and indecisiveness, but I could not fathom how she could forget about the atrocities that waited for her in the pride just hours after escaping it. 

VANISH is a very different story from FIRELIGHT.  Jacinda isn’t trying to control her draki and blend in at high school.  She isn’t struggling with a heart that keeps leading her to a draki hunter.   Instead, she is forced to try and reacclimatize into the draki pride while weathering the animosity of her fellow draki who view her as a traitor, and ward off the attentions of two draki who want to claim her as a mate.  Life is fairly miserable for her and promises only to get worse since her pride gives her no choices.  So, yes, I missed the impossible romance from FIRELIGHT, and as interesting as pride life was, I preferred watching Jacinda in the human world.

Overall, VANISH mixes of dragons, danger, and despotism in a well written love story that while not burning quite as bright as FIRELIGHT, does still continue what is currently my favorite dragon paranormal YA series and sets up what promises to be another wild and romantic ride for the next book in the Firelight series.

Previous Books in Series
Also Reviewed By:
  1. Firelight – 4/5

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