Wildefire

Title: Wildefire
Author: Karsten Knight
Reading Level: Young Adult
Location: not yet released

Ashline Wilde is having a tough year. The psycho actions of her sister, Eve, forced her to transfer to an exclusive boarding school in the middle of northern California. Ash makes friends easily and seems to be getting her life back on track, but weird things keep happening. She gets chased by cyclopean monsters and, along with a few friends, seems oddly compelled to obey the summons of a blind girl. Ash soon discovers that she and her new friends are reincarnated gods and goddesses, tasked to carry out secret, separate missions to save the future of their race. As Ash begins to grow into her powers, Eve shows up with some new skills of her own, seemingly hell bent on creating havoc. Will Ash and her fellow gods and goddesses come to terms with their identity and face their fates? Or will the forces standing against them win out in the end?

Alright, I have to say that the above plot summary was definitely not my best. If you want a more in-depth description of the storyline (with quite a few more spoilers) check out the author’s website. I have to say, that I absolutely did not love this book. I tried very hard to like it. I usually adore paranormal/mythology stories plus this book has an amazing cover! The plot seemed promising and the main character, Ashline, is strong and likeable, but I could not get into Wildefire.

In the end, I really think the shallow, uninspired writing sank this story. This is the classic case of a writer telling you qualities about a character but failing to show anything through the character’s actions. All the characters felt flat and their interactions seemed robotic as a result. I was not the least bit empathetic to their plight. The romance, which should have been a pretty good side story for the plot, was hollow and lacked any convincing emotion. This should have been a great book, the plot had a lot of promise, but it did nothing for me. What a shame!

I will say though that just because I did not like this book, does not mean that you will not enjoy it. I have spoken with quite a few people who loved it and would recommend it. I don’t consider myself a picky reader. I mean, I enjoyed The Goddess Test, a book that plenty of reviewers completely disliked. So I would say to approach this one with caution and definitely check it out from the library or read a little bit of it in a bookstore before you consider purchasing it.


The Bottom Line: I was definitely not a fan of Wildefire. The superficial writing failed to connect me with the characters so I ended up being completely apathetic to their challenges and the story as a whole. If you enjoy supernatural books revolving around gods and goddesses, give it a shot but also try The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter.

The publisher provided me with an advanced reading copy of the book for this review. Wildefire by Karsten Knight has an expected release date of July 26, 2011