Book Review: Wildefire

Wildefire
Wildefire #1
Author: Karsten Knight
Pages: 400 Hardcover
Reading Level: YA
Published: July 26th 2011
Review Source: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Available: Amazon / Banes & Noble / Borders

Summary: (from goodreads) 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.

Wildefire kept pulling me in so many different directions. The first pull was the cover. It's definitely a cover that we haven't seen in the YA market yet. The colors used along with the purple calla lily is a great representation of a Polynesian theme. It's a wonderful book to have on your coffee table just for the cover alone. 

What other ways you might wonder did the book pull me. I would says 75% of the book I was being pulled in a positive way, then the other 25% I was on the fence between negative and neutral. The storyline is a fresh take on mythology and Demi-gods. You learn of Gods and Goddesses you might not have read about in other books. What drew me back a bit was that the mythology side of the story didn't gel well for me when it was being mixed with the current story.  I might not be explaining myself so you can understand me. Let's just say sometimes when the story jumped, I didn't jump with it back and forth everytime. That being said, I still thought it was good take with the reincarnation of the gods into the high school kids. Will I read the other books in the series, of course. I'm still very curious as to what will happen next. Especially with the cliff hanger Karsten delivered at the end. I was not expecting that end at all. Bravo on that. 

Ash is struggling to find her place in the prominently white community she lives in. Why, well Ash is the only Polynesian girl at her school that adopted. She has a psycho older sister that like to disappear from time to time. Ash prefers it that way, every time Eve I around something happens that ends badly. So when someone dies at the hands of Eve and Ash is there to witness, Ash gets transferred to a remote school in the woods. While Eve is missing again and she is now attending Blackwood Academy, everything seems to be going well for Ash. She has all the cute boys after her and she is Captain of the tennis team. Ash meets her new love interest, he is older and a park ranger and they hit it off well. So what do you think happens when Ash discovers that her and a few other student happen to be Demi-gods reincarnated and top it off with Eve reappearing at Blackwood Academy. You can say the volcano erupts. Ash needs to learn to figure out her new life and the purpose of it before Eve can destroy everyone or thing around her. 

The next installments in the Wildefire series are Embers & Echoes 2012 and Afterglow 2013. I can't wait to see what happen now after what Ask discovers at the end of the book. Also check out Karsten's website and   make sure you look at all his vlogs, they will have you in stitches.