Adrienne Woods

Elena Watkins is a 16 year old girl who has been living a very nomadic life with her father since she was a toddler. Her mother left her and her father when she was just a very small child with really no explanation in the books as to why. The book begins with Elena and her father on the run from unknown forces, just has Elena has been accustomed to in her young 16 years. This time it is different…they get caught. Elena very drastically and quickly discovers her father is a dragon when he show more transforms into a full grown dragon to protect her from the other dragons who seem to want her dead. Elena does find a way to escape and she finds herself waking up in an infirmary room surrounded by unknowns adults…and no father. Her father died protecting her from the evils that she didn’t even know existed until that night.

Elena has been gut punched by reality and the world that is Paegeia. A world that is full of magic, dragons and darkness that has been simmering since the death of their beloved King Albert. Elena begins attending the school of Dragonia. A school that is built to teach and train the Dragonians, riders of Dragons, and their Dragon counterparts.

Firebolt takes you through the story of Elena Watkins, her best friends Becky (a dragonian) and Sammy (a dragon) and the search for Elena’s true destiny.

My Opinions:

AHHHHHH!!!!! I needed a good read! The story line and plot that Adrienne Woods developed is wonderful. It is definitely Harry Potter meets Vampire Academy. She did a great job of explaining the different types of dragons and abilities that the dragonians have in order to understand the trajectory the story takes throughout the book. Elena is also a really good heroine . Even though she is 16 years old, she does not carry the immaturity and whiny attitude that a lot of teenager characters possess.

There was just enough action/romance balance in order for one not to overpower the other. Sometimes in stories it is very easy to get so much of one and not enough of the other. It can become overwhelming and drown out either a really good opportunity for relationship development or just a bland and boring storyline. I was also grateful there wasn’t a lot of “fluff” put in throughout the book. I absolutely HATE to get a good taste of a theory or foreshadowing and then not hear another thing about it until the last 10 pages of the book. Who’s with me?!

Star Review:

I very happily give this book 4 stars. This was my first Adrienne Woods novel and I LOVED it. It kept be plugged in until the very end and I automatically purchased the second novel in the series. show less

Dragons! I loooooooooooove dragons! Seriously, there aren't enough (good) books about dragons! :D

Ahem, on to the review...

Lately, I haven't been reading a lot of books where the main hero(ine) is so young, but I must say that I enjoyed it very much. It was a great read.

The book started with a bang, introducing us our lovely Elena and her father, dragons and setting the stage for our exploration of Paegeia.
As we moved into different settings, all environments and scenes were detailed enough show more without being too much, letting your mind just enjoy the story.

Character development was good. Elena needs to adjust big time when she sets foot in her new world, having to cope with magic, dragons and prophecy.
Luckily she finds great friends in Sammy, Becky and Lucian.
Blake, the resident bad boy and the dragon everyone is just waiting to turn dark, hovers at the edge, treating Elena with disdain.
The characters felt real, believable (yes yes, even the dragons :p) and were fun to read about.

Pacing and flow were good, there was a good balance between action and conversation. While the book started fast-paced, it does slow down enough for the beginning of the story to fully unfold without being too overwhelming.

The book itself was well written with no (noticeable) errors.

All in all a really nice surprise, I very much enjoyed this instalment and look forward to reading the second book (my poor TBR list). show less

Elena is sixteen and used to living all around the place while an unspecified danger lurks in her father's background. Then one day her father is attacked by a dragon and she finds herself in a world of dragons and humans and schooling that could literally kill her.
While interesting I found the dropping a student in the deep end where the deep end could kill her method of teaching to be the almost rank opposite of what most fair-minded teachers (as the daughter of two teachers) to be show more ridiculous and make me wonder about how American schools are run. Entertaining and shows promise. show less

Thunderlight picks up exactly where Firebolt left off (thank God!). Elena continues to try to find her way through the world that is Dragons, Dragonians, jughead boys with mysterious intentions and her ever evolving issues. Elena meets a new classmate who is also a Wyvern. Wyverns are a species of dragon but have two hind legs only instead of four legs like your commonly known dragon…yes I googled it. Paul’s, the wyvern, intentions are not necessarily known throughout the book. You get show more mixed feelings from all of the book’s characters regarding the Academy’s new pupil, but who knows his true intentions. You see Elena and Lucian’s relationship continue to develop, Elena herself continues to mature and learn more about herself as an adult, and Blake just continues to be Blake.

Firebolt set the platform for many fan theories surrounding Elena’s parents, who they really are and who she truly is. Is she a dragon, a dragonian or both? Guess you’ll have to read it to find out 🙂

My Opinion:

I couldn’t put it down! I read this book in less than two days…

I just had to keep reading!! I honestly wanted to strangle Elena myself a few times and knock Blake around too. I honestly thought I had this book figured out. I just knew who Elena’s parents were, what the plan for her was and that she was going to claim Blake. I can honestly say I ended this book with the phrase; “Are you kidding me?!”.

This novel was written very well in my opinion. Adrienne’s writing style very much fits my reading style. I like stories with a lot of options for multiple theories, I like a good even split of romance and magical mystery, and I like having a strong female lead character that I can find similar attributes within myself.

Elena is very stubborn and doesn’t listen to anyone else’s, forcible may I add, suggestions on what her actions should be. She beats to the rhythm of her own drum and fully believes in the reason behind what she is doing. That is because what she is doing she does with the full capacity of her heart. She is a heroine that I would want my daughters to want to be. Plus, she kicks butt…literally.

This novel was very well written. There wasn’t any grammatical errors, typos or horrible noun/verb discombobulation. There wasn’t a ton of filler in the book that would stray you from the main point of the story. The storyline itself kept a good pace in my opinion. I didn’t get bored or sidetracked with sidebar activities that the characters partook in. They all seemed to tie together in the end and that is always impressive to me.

The only reason I did not give this book 5 stars was because I felt the story could have focused more time on Elena and less on the development of Paul’s character. Once the novel ended, I can see that Paul’s character development could have been intention to the further development of the story but I still wish I could have seen more character development of Blake or the relationship development between Blake and Elena. show less