Book Review: Wildfire by Karsten Knight

Title:  Wildfire

Author:  Karsten Knight

Publisher:  Simon & Schuster

Publish Date:  July 26, 2011

Source:  Around The World ARC Tours

Synopsis (from Goodreads):  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.

My Thoughts:  I both loved and hated this book yet I really enjoyed reading it.  Yes, I am really that confused right now. 

The book opens with action right away.  Ashline is in her high school parking lot in a physical fight with a girl over a boy.  In rides her older sister, Eve, who puts an end to the fight.  You can feel the tension between Ash and Eve but your not really sure what is going on. 

Fast forward to that night and you find out that Eve is a runaway and Ash and Eve's adoptive parents have gone out to look for her when the girl Ash was fighting with at school (Lizzie) and her friends come to exact revenge on Ash.  Somehow, Ash and Lizzie end up on the roof of Ash's house and again, Eve comes to end the fight, once and for all.

Fast forward again, this time 8 months!  Ash is in some nowhere town in Northern California at a private school.  She is trying to put her past behind her and start anew.  However, a night out changes everything Ash ever knew about herself and Eve and about 6 other students at the school.  Slowly, you learn what is going on...kinda. 

I thought this book was a little slow after the initial first chapter.  Getting into Ash's life at the Blackwood took quite awhile however the characters were so great that I didn't really want to put it down.   Ash was a great heroine.  She was strong, independent and didn't let her older sister brainwash her.  I really enjoyed the romance between her and Colt because it wasn't too over the top.

My favorite characters were Raja and Rolfe.  Raja was a perfect Egyptian princess.  Her attitude was snotty and cold and first but I loved how she warmed up and fell in love with Rolfe.  Rolfe was so fun!  He was a total surfer boy and had a great sense of humor. 

Eve was psychotic and made for a great villain!  She had no problems killing someone who got in her way and was out to harass Ash to no end.  The best fight between the sisters was a great tennis match.  Although, how the opposing team didn't suspect the player wasn't theirs...yeah, wasn't sure about that one.

The main thing I had an issue with was that things just weren't explained very well.  All of the sudden, Ash is at this prep school with no explanation as to how she even found it and decided to go there.  There was no explanation as to how Ash explained Lizzie's death.  There is a big question regarding Ash and Eve's other family member that I would have liked to know more about and then what was up with "the Cloak"?  What was the reason for their existence?  Why was there the danger of Ragnorak occurring?  There were just a lot of questions left unanswered for me. 

However, even with the questions and the slowness of the book in the beginning (after the first chapter), I really enjoyed reading it.  It was a fast read (despite being 390 pages) and was fun with great characters.  I enjoyed the diversity and the cliffhanger at the end has me wanting to read more!  So, like I said at the beginning...I'm a little confused on my feelings for this book but think I would recommend it!