Review: Wildefire (Wildefire #1)

Wildefire (Wildefire #1)
By Karsten Knight

Published By: Simon and Schuster
Publication Date: July 26, 2011
Date Read: March 5, 2022
Genre: YA – Paranormal Romance
Source: Bought
Format: Hardback
Pages: 394

From Goodreads:
EVERY FLAME BEGINS WITH A SPARK.

Blackwood Academy was supposed to be a fresh start for Ashline Wilde. A secluded boarding school deep in the heart of California’s redwood forests, three thousand miles from her old life – it sounded like the new beginning she needed after an act of unspeakable violence left a girl in her hometown dead.

But Blackwood is far from the peaceful haven Ashline was searching for.

Because terrifying, supernatural beasts roam the forests around campus.

Because the murderer from Ashline’s hometown – her own sister – has followed her across the country.

Because a group of reincarnated gods and goddesses has been mysteriously summoned to Blackwood…

…and Ashline’s one of them.

“Dad always says, ‘If you can’t stand out, then you should just sit down.”

Wildefire has been sat on my shelf for a long time. I bought this one when it first released in 2011, and just never got around to reading it. As part of me ‘read some older TBR books in 2022’ challenge, I finally picked this one up. I went in to this one with super high expectations and I wish I could say that I loved this one… but it just fell a little bit flat for me.

Wildefire follows Ashline, a young teen who is attending Blackwood boarding school. Along with a group of other students she discovers that she is not a normal teen. She is a goddess and all of the gods and goddesses are in danger. Can they discover the secrets of their history and can all of them come out of this alive?

I love mythology! This is one of the reasons I really wanted to read this one. Anything with gods and goddesses is a huge plus for me, and this one sounded really unique and amazing. And don’t get me wrong… this book is good. It’s a good enjoyable read. I just think I was expecting more from it. I went into this thinking I would fall head over heels in love with it. And I really enjoyed the build up in the first half of the book. But then once I hit the halfway mark, I grew a bit bored. I wasn’t really interested any more and I ended up skim reading the second half.

I don’t know whether my disappointment in this book was the book itself, or the fact that I was in a huge book slump when I was reading it. Either way, I was left a little bit deflated after reading this book. I didn’t really like the main character very much, she wasn’t very likeable and I couldn’t really relate to her. I also hated the fact that when the characters find out they were gods and goddesses they were just like ‘oh yeah cool’. Would you really have no reaction to that? I was just really disappointed in this one.

I am glad I read Wildefire. It was a fun, enjoyable book but will I be continuing the series? Probably not. I do feel like if I’d read this one back in the day, I’d have probably loved it. But reading it now? It was just okay for me. If you enjoy fun-loving books with gods and goddesses then give this one a chance, you’ll probably love it.

“You can pretend like you pull your own strings, but in the end your only hope is that you’ve landed in the hands of someone who knows what the hell they’re doing.”

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