Review: Firespell - Chloe Neill

Dark Elite, book 1

Genre: YA, urban fantasy
Pages: 278
Published:  2010 Gollancz

As the new girl at the elite St. Sophia’s boarding school, Lily Parker thinks her classmates are the most monstrous things she’ll have to face…

When Lily’s guardians decided to send her away to a fancy boarding school in Chicago, she was shocked. So was St. Sophia’s. Lily’s ultra-rich brat pack classmates think Lily should be the punchline to every joke, and on top of that, she’s hearing strange noises and seeing bizarre things in the shadows of the creepy building.

The only thing keeping her sane is her roommate, Scout, but even Scout’s a little weird—she keeps disappearing late at night and won’t tell Lily where she’s been. But when a prank leaves Lily trapped in the catacombs beneath the school, Lily finds Scout running from a real monster.

Scout’s a member of a splinter group of rebel teens with unique magical talents, who’ve sworn to protect the city against demons, vampires, and Reapers, magic users who’ve been corrupted by their power. And when Lily finds herself in the line of a firespell, Scout tells her the truth about her secret life, even though Lily has no powers of her own—at least none that she’s discovered yet… 

Plot:

Lily's parents are going to Germany and decides to leave her behind in a fancy private school. She misses her home and her friends, but one good thing is the girl she shares the 4 bedroom room with. But then Scout is pretty weird and sneaks off in the middle of the night. Something strange is going on, and on top of it all she has a run in with the mean girl squad.

My thoughts:

I did enjoy Chloe Neill's voice, and reading this one made me want to check out that adult series of hers too.

Sure not that much happened at first, but I liked that. the book was building up to something. We got to see the school, see her make a friend, meet the Mean girls (oh why are there always mean girls, they are so bitchy and think they are all that.) And then she started having doubts about why her parents had gone away, why she was there, and what the heck Scout was up too. When she finally did learn the truth things picked up, and there was some action at the end. It also promised for one exciting book 2.

I liked Lily even if she was a bit too curious for her own good at one point. She was also very human in her fears later, and she showed great courage. There was also this love interest with a boy from a boy's school and he seemed sweet. I do like some romance with my action. Scout was one cool kid, and the mean girls, well they were mean. But then this was a private school and what would that be without the brat pack.

The world was interesting, people have magic and they either go bad, or they hunt the baddies. They are supposed to be some vamps and demons too, guessing from the blurb, but did not get to meet those yet.

All in all, I was happy with this book. I never know with YA, but this one delivered. 

Final thoughts and recommendation.

It seems UF YA fits me better than PNR YA, and I enjoyed this book. It was a fast read, an interesting world, budding romance, and some action. I would give it a 3,5 cos it is a YA I could recommend to adults and teens. It also has promise to get even better when the real fighting starts.

Reason for reading:

Curious about Chloe Neill

Cover:

ok

Review copy from the publisher