Marked as special at an early age, Jacinda knows her every move is watched. But she longs for freedom to make her own choices. When she breaks the most sacred tenet among her kind, she nearly pays with her life. Until a beautiful stranger saves her. A stranger who was sent to hunt those like her. For Jacinda is a drakia descendant of dragons whose greatest defense is her secret ability to shift into human form.
Forced to flee into the mortal world with her family, Jacinda struggles to adapt to her new surroundings. The only bright light is Will. Gorgeous, elusive Will who stirs her inner draki to life. Although she is irresistibly drawn to him, Jacinda knows Will’s dark secret: He and his family are hunters. She should avoid him at all costs. But her inner draki is slowly slipping away if it dies she will be left as a human forever. She’ll do anything to prevent that. Even if it means getting closer to her most dangerous enemy. Mythical powers and breathtaking romance ignite in this story of a girl who defies all expectations and whose love crosses an ancient divide.
Maybe I'm getting too old. Maybe this book is too old compared to the current climate of strong females in YA lit. Maybe I shouldn't read this type of stuff after coming off of a long run of books featuring literal heroines. But...
This was not the book for me: I didn't like the main character, I didn't like her love interest, I didn't like her family, and I didn't like her selfish choices. About the only thing I did like was the draki concept, and the couple highschool friends she made.
My main problem with Jacinda started right at the beginning when her mother tells her why they're running away:
"When they demand I give my sixteen-year-old daughter to their precious prince so they can begin mating, they are fiends! They want you to be their broodmare, Jacinda! To populate the pride with little fire-breathers!"Jacinda's only response to this is wondering if the neighbors heard her mother's yelling. In fact, nothing about this seems to phase Jacinda throughout the book - she continually wants to stay/go back to these people WHO WANT TO USE HER TO BREED. No, she's more appalled by the later-revealed plan of having her wings clipped than probable rape. The only time she refers to this scare is halfway through the book when confronted face to face with the main guy she'd be breeding with:
“You think I’ll just wake up one day and think, gee, I want to be property of the pride again, a tool to be used for breeding.” I cross my arms. “I won’t go back.”Oh? Really? You remember that part? Cause you literally never mentioned it once before this point. And you never bring it up later either. I guess BEING FORCED TO BREED doesn't actually rank that high on your scare-level. Hell, she doesn't even think about having kids when she meets her forever-boy-friend, Will. Fine, she's 16 and doesn't need to be thinking about having kids when starting a relationship, BUT since breeding has been mentioned a couple times in the book (ok, literally only two) you'd think the thought of kids would cross her mind.
And that's just my feelings on one thing about her, not to mention her undeniable selfishness throughout the entire book. Yeah, it doesn't matter that she brings it up, that she realizes it shouldn't be all about her all the time, but the entire plot revolves around Jacinda and her wants; She doesn't want to leave the draki, she wants to be herself, she doesn't want to live in the desert, she wants to date hot boy, she doesn't want to reveal her secret to hot boy or his family, she wants to use hot boy to find new draki colony, she doesn't want to leave hot boy. It's all about not what she does, but what she wants and how she gets it.
I feel like the mom in this story is given a bad rap. I'm not advocating for everything she did, but I at least understand her reasoning a lot more than Jacinda seems to. Mom learns her daughter is in danger of being exploited, probably raped, because of her gift. Mom knows for a fact (because she's done it herself) that it is possible to get rid of this gift and live comfortably without it. Mom forces the daughter to go down this track for her own safety.
I know everybody jumps on the "You shouldn't force your children," and "what's the point in living if she's not herself?" trains, but seriously think about it for a second. Jacinda can either keep her draki-self and be hunted all her life, she can keep her draki-self and be used as a broodmare for the rest of her life, OR she can lose her draki-self, live as a human and choose any of a million other paths. It seems like a pretty easy choice from there.
And as much as Jacinda goes on and on about loving being draki, she spends the majority of the novel lamenting how it's giving her so much trouble. Her skin is dry, her nose is sensitive, she's in danger of revealing herself to hot boy, she's unable to stay human in stressful situations. I think she only enjoyed being draki at the beginning of the book, and after that has hung on "because she's a rebel."
Princess Leia is a rebel. Katniss eventually becomes a rebel. Karou (Daughter of Smoke & Bone) is a rebel. Jacinda is rebellious for the sake of it, not because she's fighting against the government, not because she's fighting against oppressors, but because she's not happy with where she lives and how she has to live there. Is it fair to have been forced into her situation? No. But there are a hell of a lot of girls (real and fictional) who have been through worse than suburbia, so forgive me if I don't shed a tear for Jacinda's plight.
I will continue to the next book, more out of curiosity and the fact it's currently available at my library than anything else. But if Jacinda doesn't start doing things for ANYONE OTHER THAN HERSELF, I'm done.
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
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