Signet
256 Pages
January 5, 2010
Amazon
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 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 ust buy both),
9/10
soundtrack: really coming soon, I didn't forget about this thing
and an extra large, humongous thank you to Chloe Neill and the publisher for sending me this book!!
Amazon
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 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 ust buy both),
9/10
soundtrack: really coming soon, I didn't forget about this thing
and an extra large, humongous thank you to Chloe Neill and the publisher for sending me this book!!
Well Hello! I stumbled upon this book while leafing though the Walmart book section. What a little gem of a book it turned out to be, I can't wait for more (there will be more right? Yikes.) Granted I'm a sucker for any book that has any paranormal theme to it.
ReplyDeleteI'd agree with you and give it a 9/10
I was wondering (since I didn't know where to ask this), how did you get into reviewing books? And where do all your books come from. I know that people send them too you, but how did all that start?
Just curious, you are doing an amazing job, I've surfed a little of your blog last night and found a few books I can't wait to read!
Yes, there will be more (I don't know for sure when but it seems that there will be, so yay!).
ReplyDeleteAnd here's fine to ask (though you can email me, too book.splot @ gmail.com). Sorry I took a while to get back to you, I was out of town and just got all caught up on my emails. I was out of college for some medical reasons and always loved reading and writing and felt like doing something with it :) I started actually with Harper Teen and Harper's First Look (it's on break still I think) and books I own and from the library. So far I'm just getting books from arc programs (LibraryThing-and hopefully someday Goodreads) and authors and a few I've gottenf rom publishers/publicists.
A lot of bloggers have publicist contacts that they ask for books, so they might be able to help you more with that. (I havent' done any of that really so far.)
I hope some of that helps...Really,checking out contests and different sites you can review for, try for arcs, etc for is a good place to start.
(And glad you enjoy my reviews, too!!)
-Lucile
to clarify a bit: *A lot of bloggers have publicist contacts that they ask for specific upcoming books...
ReplyDelete