The Firelight Trilogy by Sophie Jordan

      I will be posting about the entire trilogy and it's crash and burn. Here is it's tragic story. Spoilers ahead.

 4 stars

What seemed like such a promising beginning, ended in pain and misery for this book nerd and my OCD book cover tendencies. 

Firelight seemed promising and while it was unique, it's love story was not. A girl, Jacinda, who lives secluded in a forest among a pride of half dragon/half human folk with her mother and twin sister. They are usually in human form, but they can summon their "draki" at will. This pride tends to be old fashioned, with strict rules not just meant for order but for protection since draki are hunted and sold to enkros. We are not told what enkros look like, or what they are.

Jacinda is considered precious to her tribe since she is a rare "firebreather" type.
 I found myself confused at this...fire breathing was the typical dragon, and now it's not? Meh. Putting that aside, Jacinda and her friend decide to break the rules and fly during daylight, and they both nearly get caught by hunters, except she is spared by one who finds her beautiful. He even touches her and they feel a shock. I did say it was a typical romance. When she returns she is, no better words to be found, in deep shit. Her wings will be cut, or she can marry the "prince" of their pride, Cassian, to ensure her behavior and safety. 

Feeling her twin daughters and herself are no longer safe, Jacinda's mother whisks her family off into the night into normal society. They take up residence in the desert, hoping that the lack of proper moisture and environment will kill Jacinda's draki off, leaving her human. In other words, Jacinda is miserable, but her twin sister, Tamra, is thrilled to be among humans since her draki never awoke, thus making her a pariah among the pride. 
It is here that Jacinda meets her fair hunter, Will. Their romance begins to bud, and she finds that her draki thrives with him around and that he loves her for both her draki and human sides. 

Shit hits the fan when Cassian hunts Jacinda down, in order to return her to the pride, and ensure her place by his side. He promises to temporarily butt out, but returns to see Jacinda and Will smooching, among Will's hunter family at an outing. Draki are revealed, hunters are outraged, Cassian and Will throw punches, and Will loses a lot of blood. The book ends with Will and Jacinda vowing to find each other, and Cassian packing Tamra and Jacinda into a car and fleeing. 

CUE BOOK 2.

Lovely matching cover, isn't it?

3 stars

 The second book picks up where the first book leaves off, except that the hunters catch up to Cassian and crew and everyone faces impending capture. 

 

             presto chango!

  

Tamra's draki suddenly awakens,

saving everyone's asses by using her newly found fog powers that can erase people's memories. The crew heads back to the pride to face both scorn and joy; scorn that Jacinda and her mother left the pride, and joy that Tamra has awakened into a useful and rare dragon. Tamra is again, thrilled since she has been forever in love with Cassian who wasn't interested. Jacinda however is the definition of miserable, especially since she thinks Will has forgotten her due to Tamra's abilities, and their mother has turned to drinking which is quite depressing. She becomes so lonely, that she even shares a heated moment with Cassian that involves kissing, and half changing, it's all very dramatic and ends in denial on Jacinda's end. Apparently, she's scared of hurting Tamra, but yet she showed no hesitation while playing tonsil hockey with Cassian.

To summarize even more drama the mother gets banished from the pride, 

Will shows up at the pride like "oh hai," and Jacinda is annoyingly indecisive on whether she is going to stay or go. Eventually, Jacinda screws up again, and the pride decides that Jacinda and Cassian shall bond in order to save Jacinda from getting her wings clipped. Tamra is very bitter about this bonding, btw. Jacinda finally decides to run away for real, except Miram, Cassian's sister follows her and they both get captured by hunters. Will saves Jacinda, but is unable to rescue Miram. By the end of the book, Cassian, Will, Tamra, and Jacinda team up in order to save Miram from the enkros.

okay....BOOK 3.

C-C-Combo breaker! WTF HAPPENED.

2 stars.

Tension.  Tension with Cassian and Tamra, tension with Cassian and Will, but tons of bonding connected feelings with Cassian and Jacinda due to their dragon ritual in the previous book. Cue tension between Jacinda and Will. Why so much tension.

  For starters, so many strings were left hanging, the whole book was rushed and felt somewhat pointless.  

Jacinda's time with the enkros was super short. It literally lasted 49 pages before Cassian and Will come to break everyone out, so basically one day. Jacinda was there one day. I was also truly disappointed by was the fact that enkros were so...boring. I was expecting some mysterious clan of freak lizard creatures from the sound of their name, but no, just creepy ass scientists in lab coats. 

Readers meet a few new draki, though only one sticks around. Which brings me to the insta-love. Tamra and Deghan's love bond was way too quick. Ultra-super-duper quick. Deghan meets Tamra, Tamra seems unnerved but then is interested! Deghan and Tamra are in love. And this literally happened between a moment of changing clothes. He shows up, she freaks out and changes into a draki, once everything is calmed down and explained and he stares at her like she is a fresh steak, she walks off awkwardly, changes, comes back, and then is a willing participant in this pathetic excuse for romance.

We find out that the reason the twin's father was captured was due to betrayal among the clan, which got me hyped again, but then I found out who the villain was. 

Cassian and Miram's Aunt Jabel, who we rarely see throughout the entire trilogy. Who also, later proceeds to stir up more "da fuq" moments by killing Miram. WHY DID SHE KILL MIRAM? Seriously. What was the purpose of that blood shed? She just came, saw, stabbed, threw in river, and walked away without giving a single fuck.

I also felt like a lot was left hanging between Cassian and Jacinda. So many questions left unanswered.  
Seriously disappointed.