Review: Wildefire by Karsten Knight

Posted 12 July, 2011 by Danny in / 20 Comments


Wildefire
by Karsten Knight
Book I in a series
publication: July 26th 2011 by Simon & Schuster
copy received from publisher
amazon (Hardcover, Kindle)
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 schoolβ€”being captain of the tennis team, a steamy romance with a hot, local park rangerβ€”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.

The story starts with a “BANG”!

Something you would never expect a story to begin, but you immediately know about the tone of the story. Ashline, Ash is not your typical YA girl that is nice and maybe insecure. Nope, Ash is a bad ass in girl form.We start getting to know when Ash is knocking a girl in the face because she kissed Ash’s boyfriend. Wooop! As I said, it starts with a bang.

Ash is an angry girl, and it doesn’t help that her older sister is even angrier and more violent. So in order to run away from her older sisters wrath and anger she attends a boarding school in the middle of nowhere.

Yeah, score one for boarding schools!!!

At school she can do a fresh start and makes friends, a nerdy girl and gay guy both you instantly like. Although they lack a deeper development but in the end was ok since they are not part of the “bigger” picture.

Score two for the paranormal element of the story!! 

And since it is already in the synopsis ( bad BAD synopsis) she and other kids realize that they are god and goddesses with supernatural powers. Seriously, why would you have to tell this in the synopsis? One could have let the reader figure out themselves.

Anyway, as the kids learn about themselves. Ash’s past is coming back an hunting her and she meets that wonderful boy. Welcome big confusion.

The story had a odd pacing. Sometimes very detailed sometimes we move fast forward. It was kind of disturbing from time to time, but since I really liked the idea and story line I went along with it and didn’t let it disturb me so much. Especially the part after the big showdown felt rushed.

Regardless of Ash’s violence I liked Ash, because she showed true friendship, loyalty, love for her foster parents and a vulnerability that seemed honest and genuine. I liked the other god kids and would have loved to seem them evolve better.

Bottom Line 
The story was captivating and also tragic at some points and it end’s with a big BANG just like te beginning. I like this very unique story telling and especially love the idea and story! Me wants more!! Can’t wait for the next one!
 Different, awesome and very compelling. 

Random Notes and additional info: 
Karsten Knight does the most funnies Vlog’s ever! I spend a morning reading his blog posts, watching his Vlog’s and basically cracking up. (…uhm yes I know this sounds very much like a stalker..lol..but he’s also very cute…well. NOW I sound like a stalker!!) 

Much love my friends! 
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20 Responses to “Review: Wildefire by Karsten Knight”

  1. Grrr why do they spoil us in synopses??? Bad publishers! Then again, I loooove the sound of the whole gods/goddesses angle, so I guess their devious plan worked on me. πŸ™‚ I guess if you're going to make a volcano goddess it makes sense that she would have a fiery temper (haha, oh, I'm so lame) πŸ˜›
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  2. I tried to read this and couldn't. I found the characters too flat for my tastes, didn't like the author's constant reminder that a certain character was blind (I think the term was used more often than the character's name in some places) and poor vocabulary in some places. It had too many things that detracted from what could have potentially been a good story, and I just gave up.
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