Firespell

Ooh! I really enjoyed Firespell! I’ve heard mixed things about it, and while I totally get where other people are coming from, I thought the book really worked – especially as the first book in a series.

I really haven’t read anything like Firespell before. The plot was pretty unique from anything I’ve read. I love the idea of teens running around catacombs under a boarding school, fighting monsters. There was a lot of backstory and explanation in this book at the start of this book, but it all led up to some pretty awesome action sequences. I enjoyed the backstory a lot, and the climax of the book, and I feel like it was all awesome buildup for the second book in the series.

Lily was an interesting protagonist, and I really show more enjoyed the mystery behind her arrival at St. Sophia’s boarding school. But honestly – Scout rocked. I can’t wait to learn more about her character in the next book because she was such an awesome character with a lot of personality. Not to say Lily didn’t, but I was more interested in Scout overall. I enjoyed the romance subplots for both Lily and Scout and I can’t wait to see more of those relationships in Hexbound. I’d like to see how they develop.

I really enjoyed Chloe Neill’s young adult debut. I thought it was well written and, as I said earlier, had a unique plot which is rare with paranormal books coming out left and right in the young adult market these days. If you’re interested in a quick, but intriguing read, definitely pick up Firespell. I can’t wait for Hexbound, which comes out in January 2011! show less

Firespell has a lot of my favorite things in it: boarding school, kick ass heroines, magical powers, and hot guys. And it did them justice. The book is full of action, suspense, some mystery, and a touch of romance. I liked it a lot more than I thought I would, and I'm glad that I picked it up.

I really liked Lily as a character. She was strong willed, but not brash, and new how to handle herself. But she also had real emotions that we all could relate to. I think that Scout was my favorite character. She's the rebel with the nose ring, but she's not mean and she's really funny. In the beginning she's rather mysterious, sneaking out at night and not telling Lily where she's going, but I never got the feeling that she was doing anything show more bad.

The part of this book that makes it not just another boarding school book is very original and compelling. It's well thought out and makes sense once you wrap your head around it. There's never a dull moment, and with a few more twists added in it's one heck of a read. It goes by super fast, and now I can't wait for the others in the series show less

What's the best way to describe my feelings of Firespell? Totally intrigued works really well I think. I started the book thinking 'Just a few pages, then go to bed' three hours later I'm blearily looking at my laptop clock and cursing silently. Firespell just sucked me in and wouldn't let go. Each time I came to a point where I thought it was starting to sound safe enough to put down for the night BAM utter peril for one or more characters! New unexplored regions of the school! Possible flirting action between Lily and one of the other Adepts! It was very hard to put it down.

Neill's worldbuilding is basic, but she does it well. Ancient school with gothic like structure, a whole slew of restrictions, snotty rich girls, hot guys, new show more city...its like a teenager's dream and nightmare all rolled into one. I've never been to Chicago, but Neill made me want to go visit (a feeling I've never had before, trust me). Its not Lily who convinces me, but her new BFF and suitemate Scout. Scout talks with passion about the unexplored side of the city that the 'Brat Pack' (snobby classmates) wouldn't dare tread. That passion is infectious.

The novel moves along at a fast rate--before you can blink Lily goes from being the new girl with ignorance to the new girl who knows things and is stuck smackdab in the middle of those things. A comparison to Twilight isn't quite fair--wherein no matter what Bella did or said she ended up being alternately adored and hunted down, Lily has to deal with petty teen pranks, friendship squabbles, boy troubles and wanting to fit in. Her and Scout hit it off right away, but on the flipside Veronica (lead Brat Pack Queenbee) alternates between trying to befriend her (in a condescending 'this is for your own good' sort of way) and lumping her in with the losers. Lily makes a bad choice and she pays for it.

Though there's a neat explanation for why Lily is a late bloomer, I have a feeling it has a lot more to do with her parents secret research then anything else. Several times the Head Mistress mentions that their research is 'important to everyone' and 'especially to me'. After hearing a lot of the secrets at St. Sophia's I can guess at some of it (though it would be a spoilery guess). The introduction to the world of the Dark Elite is action first, answers may come later sort of thing. And a lot of the answers seem to be a on a need to know basis.

On a different front I have my suspicions about Sebastian (works for the bad guys) and Jason (he works for the good guys). Nothing terribly concrete yet (I think Sebastian has all of four whispered lines? What we learn about him is from everyone else mentioning him), but suspicions. Definite heavy suspicions on why it was important to mention, at least three times, Jason's reluctant attitude about being an adult and Sebastian's seeming moral conscience.

All in all a great start to a new YA series I am eagerly looking forward to. According to Neill's site we get to look forward to Book 2 in January of 2011 and is tentatively titled 'Hexbound'. show less

Firespell by Chloe Neill

Reviwed by Moirae the fates book reviews.

As a huge fan of books like Harry Potter (My childhood!) when I found this book on the shelf at my library I picked it up, after reading the cover blurb I knew it would be a interesting read.

Firespell is about a girl named Lily Parker who hails from New York. Her parents go on sabbatical and send her to St. Sophia’s school for girls, a boarding school in Chicago. Lily is very unhappy with this new arrangement to say the least. The school is packed with the stereotypical super rich bratty girls. Which Lily is not a fan of.
She wants to know where her new friend and roommate Scout goes each night when she sneaks out. Lily soon learns about a world in Chicago that she never show more knew about a world with magic, vampires and demons.
Lily must learn fast how to protect her self and Chicago from these creatures and from the Reapers who use dark-magic.

I really enjoyed this book. The book was fast paced and fun. Neill’s Chicago is a fun one, but it can also be a frightening one. I really enjoy her writing style and how she tells a story. She gives you enough information, but she also keeps a lot from you and upon finishing the book, if you are anything like me you’ll groan, not in a bad way, but in more of a I-have-to-wait-a-whole-year kind of way. I know I did that.
There were so many questions left unanswered about Lily, her friends and her parents.
Neill is not afraid to let her characters have flaws nor is she afraid to let them fail. They are real characters, I love that! I am so glad that none of them were Mary-Sue.
The dialog felt real to me. It didn’t feel forced or feel like Neill was “Trying to sound like a teenager”.
The character development is great! We get to see how Lily grows from page one to two-hundred forty-six. I am waiting very anxiously to read Hexbound the next installment due to be released January 4 2011.

Over all rating:
I would give this book a ***** 5 out of 5 stars if you like Harry Potter and Hexhall you’ll love this book.

Cover art:

I think the cover art is creepy in a good way, the darkness of it makes it that much more mysterious and I think it captures the mystery of the story.

Obtained:
My local library, then I bought a copy for myself. show less

Lily Parker's academic parents are on a two-year sabbatical in Germany and instead of taking her with them or letting her live with friends, they've moved her from NY to Chicago and enrolled her in a very exclusive girls' school. There she finds out that magic is real, that most of the people who use it are evil, and, oh, for some reason those evil folks have their eye on her, too. If I were Lily I'd be hiding under my bed. But Lily's the loyal kind. And the stubborn kind. So she follows her new friends right into the heart of the battle.

Okay, this book’s description kind of gets you all worked up for Lily to be some major mojo magical badass.
For the first looong time in the book, she’s just plain old normal and un-magical.
And then, she’s magical, bu her power is pretty lame-ass.
That doesn’t stop her from acting like a badass, though, which is why I like her.
And then her power turns out to be pretty badass anyway, so, it’s all cool in the end.
Plus, you know, as much as I love vampires, I am a complete sucker for werewolves. I love pretty much every werewolf I come across, no questions asked. vampires, angels, demons, witches, and other assorted magical creatures, yeah, I usually like ’em, bu sometimes I hate ’em.
With werewolves? I’m pretty much show more guaranteed to love them.
Okay, and also, there were two moments in this book that were so hilarious: Flip flops and unicorns. I won’t say any more than that, you’ll just have to read it yourself.
This book only gets four stars because as much as I want to, I can’t give EVERYTHING five stars, plus, this book was kind of dim in comparison to the previous book I read.
Off to read the next one! show less

Firespell is the start of Chloe Neill's young adult series (her adult series is the Chicagoland Vampire Series). Being the start of a series it does do a fair bit of setting up the characters and the setting and getting to the actual paranormal activity (and yes, I do sound like Ghost Hunters or something) but none of that takes away from the story--just makes it hard to summarize.

Sent to fancy, well to do St Sophia's boarding school in Chicago (from upstate New York) when her parents leave for work in Germany, Lily feels more than a little bit out of place. The old stone building is cold and full of girls she doesn't know in blue plaid uniforms. And it's not home.

Scout, one of her suite mates, is about the only thing keeping her from show more going completely over the edge of homesickness. Except Scout disappears to strange places in the middle of the night.

And that's where the fun-ness begins and my summarizing ends.

Firespell is a book that gets you from page one. While it is true that it doesn't jump right into the action, I actually prefer that because you know who the characters are and where they are and why and then the spooky makes sense. (And really, really makes me want to read other Dark Elite books to see where it goes.)

The things that literally go bump in the night for Lily and Co also aren't things that are in twenty other books out at the moment so it's a fresh take on things and a nice change of pace to read something new but still in the otherworldly area.

All of that is not to mention Chloe Neill's writing and her characters (and especially their language/what they say-slash-think) which I just love. Like truly, madly, deeply in the way of the song ;)

When authors who write 'adult' books or series then write YA series, I always wonder if their teens are going to seem like teens r just twenty-somethings who are attending high school, but these teens were teens. Super fun, evil fighting teens, but still teens.

Being the first in a series it leaves some things open for future books, but not so many that you feel like this, the first book, is left unresolved.

And it's in Chicago which I miss and love so that's points there, too. Oh, and it's $6,99 so honestly where do you go wrong?

Read Firespell and you'l probably be looking for Some Girls Bite the first book in the Chicagoland Vampires series (it comes up whenever I search Some Girls Are so you can just buy both),

9/10 show less