Review: Wildefire by Karsten Knight

Wildefire by Karsten Knight

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing (July 26, 2011)

Goodreads Description:

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.

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When I read the description of this book the first thing that caught my eye was the part that mentions gods and goddesses. Once I read that I knew I wanted to read this. I love all types of mythology. I was expecting the usual Greek mythology but I was very pleasantly surprised that it is actually a variety of mythology as well as the characters being a variety of ethnicity. Honestly most of the YA books I have read feature Caucasians or if they are of a different ethnicity they might mention the skin color once but leave it at that with no more info about it. This is really the first time I can think of that the subject of ethnicity was really discussed. I thought it made the story more interesting because of it. I also would like to point out that the author of this book is male. I have read very few YA books written by a man and I don't thin any of them have written about a female as the main character. He did an excellent job with it and I didn't even realize the author was male until after I finished the book.

Ashline was involved with a terrible accident because of her sister Eve so she transfer to a private school across the country. There she eventually discovers that she and a small group of other students from the school are gods and goddesses. They are in danger in a number of ways but the most immediate threat seems to be Eve who comes after her sister. Eve is extremely dangerous and temperamental. She doesn't seem to really have a consistence at all so there are definitely times in the story that things get pretty nerve wracking. I really don't want to say too much and spoil the story but there is action, a little bit of romance, tragedy, and self discovery. Not something you want to miss out on!

Finding out the names of each of the student's god or goddess felt pretty thrilling as well as finding out what their powers are. This book is really just the tip of the iceberg. I feel like things are really going to get even more intense in the next books and I am anxious to read more. The ending of Wildefire was a doozy and actually quite unexpected. It ends on a note that will keep you in suspense and eagerly awaiting the next in the series.

5/5

I received a copy of this from the publisher for review. Any opinions expressed are my own.