Firelight

"[I]magine loving someone... so much that you would give up all you ever wanted for yourself." It's one of the more insidious myths girls face: the need to lose one's very self to love. It's also the goal of Jacinda, the dragon-human "draki" for whom it's love at first sight when "bad boy" draki-hunter Will calls her beautiful. While the notion that women find their highest calling in self-sacrifice is common in romances, paranormal or otherwise, it's distressing to see it presented so plainly. Jacinda does have one other option: she can allow herself to become a flightless "broodmare" with the son of the draki pack alpha instead. The rest of the plot—the usual high school posturing, human/draki tensions, a mother who doesn't understand, a bratty sister—comes down to this choice of one romantic obliteration or the other. The prose in adult romance author Jordan's YA debut is solid, and there's no reason these star-crossed, cross-species lovers should be any less popular than their vampire and werewolf counterparts, which makes Jacinda's lack of independence all the more disappointing. Ages 12–up. (Sept.)