Vanish: A Firelight Novel (edition 2011)

It's late and I'm feeling lazy so there's no summary for this one. Vanish is the sequel to Firelight, which I had high hopes for and was exceedingly disappointed by. At the end of my review of that one, I declared my distaste for it and had no intention of continuing on. Still, when I saw Vanish come up on NetGalley, I couldn't resist it.

Suffice it to say that Vanish fits with its predecessor. I will not harp on the problems that remain from the first, because I already knew they would be there and that's my bad. Overall, I think I liked this one better, probably because I knew to lower my expectations considerably.

The one thing I really need to point out that's unique to this one is that Jacinda is really dumb. She's in trouble and has a chance to save herself (by pointing out to Severin how she can maybe save someone else)...but she doesn't. Also, why can draki not shift at will? Some are tied up in draki form at one point, which could probably be escaped easily by shifting...only they don't. Why not? Because of plot points?

Another problem: I'm totally starting to ship Cassian with her rather than Will. She and Will are just too gross together. Although Will is maybe getting more interesting...which bodes poorly, as I will probably read the next book too, wondering why I've done so the whole time. ( )

Let's first start with the cover.... You guys, its beautiful! I love how she went from the "firey" red one on the first one featuring Jacinda and on this one choosing a cool soothing one featuring her sister Tamara. And the way her draki skin is coming through on the top left corner, ahhh I love it! This series is by far some of my top favorites when it comes to covers.
Now, on to the book. Vanish picks up right where Firelight left off. Tamara experiences a huge event in her life by a sick twist of fate and from then on things change. They then escape back to the pride. When they reach it, things are nowhere near the same. Everyone looks at Jacinda as a traitor and but at Tamra with a new sense of admiration.
But out of nowhere Jacinda begins getting lonely and amazingly through it all Cassian is still there on her side. Which is why I LOVEEEE him! He is not giving up on his love for her. Although I was a little perturbed on some of the things he did at first, I was impressed that he didn't let that cloud his judgement. But in the end, Jacinda ultimately made her decision, and it was one that was not expected.
Then, there's Cassian's sister, Miram. Although we are just introduced to her.... I hate her lol She made me so mad because instead of being a teenage girl she was acting like a bratty child who's never heard the word "No" before. Then there was Corbin..... Yeah don't want to go too much into him because I don't want to give anything away... I know anything I say about him won't be pretty.
So after all that, things begin to get serious. Will comes back into the story and it causes a big turn of events. This story mainly shows how even your smallest choices never effects JUST you. The story ends on yet another cliffhanger which I would be upset about if I didn't have Hidden's ARC sitting on my shelf lol
But overall, I kind of felt like this was sort of a filler book. I sort of saw it as her moping around alot because she was so depressed about not being with Will anymore... But yet she wasn't doing anything about it. Until almost the end. And then when the action arrived again, that's when I dove back into the story. It made me realize again why I don't like the dreaded second novel in a series. Don't get me wrong, Jordan did not disappoint. She hooked me again with her beautiful language. I felt like this was for the older crowd of YA. She really knows how to write. She also hooked me with the end. I will be reviewing Hidden soon, just stay tuned! ( )

WARNING: The second paragraph may contain spoilers for FIRELIGHT. Please skip it if you do not want to have things spoiled.

VANISH was, by far, an entertaining read. In fact out of FIRELIGHT and VANISH, I'd say this one was the best in my opinion. It is very rare that a series progresses and improves for me, usually they just can't match the success I felt with the first. This was not the case.

This second book in the FIRELIGHT series begins right where the first left off and we find Jacinda back to the cooling mists and mountains of her home. Things have changed and Jacinda does not go unpunished for her crimes that threatened not only herself, but her people as well. Now she has to adjust to her life, being treated like a prisoner, not like how it was before she and her family left to move to the desert down of Chapparal. To top it off, now she is no longer the coveted Draki, as in a turn of events, her twin sister Tamera manifests into another rare form: A Shader. Soon Jacinda finds herself torn between forgetting the past, forgetting Will, and accepting her new fate, new life.

My one and only issue was Jacinda still doing the "I need to forget him/I WANT HIM!!" bit over and over again. Like I've stated before once is understandable, twice is okay, more than that and it becomes a little insipid. Jacinda is a fierce character, I know she is, and I really would have loved for her to have validated that fact in this sequel rather than living a humdrum life without Will. Here's to hoping for her to bust out the bad ass in the third book.

After reading Firelight, I was most definitely Team Will. Now, after reading Vanish, he seemed to come off as more of a loveable pest, while Cassian, who in Firelight yielded the title of charming pest, now stands front and center as the one to be desired. I loved how Sophie Jordan, even it if wasn't intentional, was able to do that. Make you really question which one you want Jacinda to end up with and giving steamy and romantic scenes that will drive you absolutely mad. In the end, Jacinda can only choose one. Who will it be? I'm sure we will find out in September, when HIDDEN, the final book in the trilogy releases. ( )

Jacinda’s adventure continues in Vanish – book two of the Firelight series. After exposing herself to human hunters, she is forced to flee with her twin sister back to the pride with Cassian. With a broken heart and spirit, she faces the Pride Elders as they prepare to punish her for not only risking her own life, but every Draki by exposing herself. No matter the punishment they choose from her, she has resigned that none can compare to the loss of Will and the new way that she is treated.

Will, on the other hand, has not given up so easily and starts out to fulfill his promise to Jacinda to find her. After locating her, they quickly form a plan to run away together but Jacinda finds herself now torn between her love for Will and her love for her twin sister Tamra who has now come into her Draki power.

I was slightly saddened to see that Jacinda’s attitude was the same as in book one, Firelight. Having faced what she has, I thought that it would mature her a bit and although she does have a few moments, she still relies on thoughts of herself and what she wants such as using Cassian as a means to push thoughts of Will from her mind while trying to stay on the pedestal that everyone has placed her on. Towards the end of the novel, I was glad to see her start thinking about others and putting her feelings on hold while she aids in the planning of rescuing of her fellow Draki friends that have been captured.

I’m excited to see what happens in Hidden – book three of the Firelight Series. ( )

This book is very hard for me to rate. It’s not a whole book. It’s the front half of the ending of this story… yes, I mean “cliffhanger” and I mean a great, big, huge “WHAT?!?!”

Here’s the thing… I entered Vanish with specific questions leftover from Firelight. I was hoping the romantic attraction would find more depth than Draki-hormones (my term, not Sophie's.) This was a huge question for me, and Vanish did not answer my question. If anything, it added to it.

Because Will became demanding. He froze in his awesome state last seen in Firelight and his non-progress basically left him behind, as far as I was concerned. Choosing Will over the Colony for Jacinda transformed from a question of True Love to a question of True Rebellion. Basically, would she able to stick to her choices and ditch her natural habitat for someone she doesn’t know but has gushing feelings for when she’s in the presence of him… or what?!

And then Cassian becomes this huge, respectful, patient, gorgeous Mr. Right waiting for Jacinda to get over her dumb rebellion. He’s in a position of up-n-coming power, too, so he can arrange her future however she’d like it to be. The only thing holding her back from Cassian is this tremendous unexplained physical draw to Will. Until… she is physically drawn to Cassian, too!!

WHAT?!

So, by ¾ way through Vanish, I was irritated with Jacinda. She is torturing herself over this guy she really doesn’t know (yet). She hasn’t had the opportunity to create lasting connections with him, and I haven’t been convinced that this Draki-hormone thing isn’t flip-a-switch changeable. So… why the self-torture?! I mean, she’s just turning Cassian into some martyr, you know? If he’s really a jerk, I’m going to be furious. If Will turns out to be a jerk, I’ll really be furious!!! I suppose that’s a strong love triangle, right? Who knows which way to turn?! Huh.

But Sophie Jordan takes “love triangle” to another level by opening up Jacinda’s sister’s character - Tamra. All of a sudden, she’s vulnerable and loveable. I love the sisters’ relationship and their lasting bond of trust and commitment. And she loves Cassian forever. Uh-huh. So, now it’s clear why Jacinda should just choose Cassian, but she never can… and Cassian ought to just choose Tamra, but apparently he can’t.

Now throw Draki-bonding into the mix. Yea… no joking. Hormones weren’t enough, now we have bonding. (This is Sophie's term.) This bonding is cool, too… and the tension increases like 100 times. Then… then, the story begins to build towards a climax that is just got to straighten out the futures and loves of everyone… and the book is OVER! Like, lopped off at the head!

I could have thrown the book, I was so mad. I could feel the pages dwindling down as the climax built and I just humphed and shook the pages and groaned and writhed around… which is really dramatic for a book I don’t want to rate very highly. It’s just… it’s not a book!!!! This is the first half of the ending!!!!! And I don’t have less questions, I have MORE. And that’s just unfair!!!! I don’t recommend anyone read this book until the final one comes out in the fall. SO THERE!! Only if you want some amazing kissing scenes with well described hand placement and breathing with lip biting and… uncontrollable hormones that draw out the inner dragon... Well, this book does have that.

This book bugged me too much. My Rating: 3 - but not "cute", more like "maddening". It's well written, but... I can't really rate it higher without reading the next book, since this is only a piece. ( )