Thursday, August 16, 2012

Review: Wildefire


Wildefire (Wildefire, #1)






Author: Karsten Knight
Pages: 393
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Source: Library
Challenge: Ultimate Reviewer's Challenge
Synopsis: Every flame begins with a spark. Ashline Wilde is having a rough sophomore year. She’s struggling to find her place as the only Polynesian girl in school, her boyfriend just cheated on her, and now her runaway sister, Eve, has decided to barge back into her life. When Eve’s violent behavior escalates and she does the unthinkable, Ash transfers to a remote private school nestled in California’s redwoods, hoping to put the tragedy behind her. But her fresh start at Blackwood Academy doesn’t go as planned. Just as Ash is beginning to enjoy the perks of her new school—being captain of the tennis team, a steamy romance with a hot, local park ranger—Ash discovers that a group of gods and goddesses have mysteriously enrolled at Blackwood…and she’s one of them. To make matters worse, Eve has resurfaced to haunt Ash, and she’s got some strange abilities of her own. With a war between the gods looming over campus, Ash must master the new fire smoldering within before she clashes with her sister one more time… And when warm and cold fronts collide, there’s guaranteed to be a storm.

Buy the Book (Amazon/The Book Depository)


It really saddens me to write this review. In part because there wasn't anything really wrong with the book, except there wasn't that one thing that made me love it. Wildefire had all the makings of a great story but it never satisfied me. I say me, because there are probably many people who loved this book.

I'll start with the good.

1) The characters were all unique and had their own personalities. There were also many of them with a wide range of ethnicities.

2) The plot is twisty and very obviously complicated. It's fast paced and leaves you guessing.

3) The world is one you'll want to explore. The different lesser known Gods are awesome to read about and there will be many questions.

Wildefire had decent plot, characters, and setting. My problem was that I couldn't get into it. While reading, I rarely ever felt like I was experiencing the story rather than reading it. When bad things happened to the characters I didn't really feel much. I wanted to love this book though. That's probably one of the reasons I finished so quickly- I wanted to know what happened and to be so ecstatic and love it. I just didn't.

Another was that I never really connected with any character but the villain. Seriously, that was the character I was most interested in and so you can see the problems there. None of the characters called to me and there was a lot told about them but since there were so many characters, almost none of it was demonstrated.

The plot didn't leave me satisfied too. I know this is the first book in a series but it left me knowing that. Let me explain: I feel like a book should have a beginning, middle and ending which means an individual story. If it's in a series, that story should fit into a larger arc. Arguably, you could say that there was an individual story. Problem is, I don't like the conclusion.

The most important thing missing was my emotional investment. The story never really came through for me. Maybe that was because I already knew stuff like what goddess Ashline was as I saw it in some reviews and I was tired of it being such a big mystery for most of the book when I already knew. That affected my view of the story greatly. It could also have been my mood while reading- tired and with a headache. Whatever the case, I just wasn't impressed.

Overall, I will probably read the sequel because there is potential there and I do think I may like future books. I also may have been expecting too much due to hype. If this book seems interesting to you, read it, but i wouldn't say it's a must read. 3 stars,

***

4 comments:

  1. "While reading, I rarely ever felt like I was experiencing the story rather than reading it."

    That's a really astute observation of your experience. We haven't read this book, but we enjoyed your review. Like you, our connection to the characters and our emotional investment really drives our ability to fall in love with a book.

    And it's okay that you didn't fall in love with this one. It's helpful to other readers that you explained why. Just like with people, we're not all looking for the same things.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What bothered me a lot is that I feel like I should have liked this story. I love paranormal, kickass characters, etc. All the specific stuff should have appealed to me, but when it came together I couldn't get into the book. Maybe it was me or maybe it was the book. Sometimes it's hard to write a review because so much of reading depends on the reader them self.

      I'm glad you liked my review though. :)

      Delete
  2. Sorry it wasn't all you wanted to be, but at least there were good things about it. Hope that the next book in the series is better.
    Brandi from Blkosiner’s Book Blog

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, I hope so too. Thanks for visiting!

      Delete

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!