Wildefire by Karsten Knight

Publisher’s Summary: 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 Take: This book friggin ROCKED! I was amazed throughout the whole book by the craziness and creativity that Karsten conceived in Wildefire. Karsten’s imagination is truly unique in a way I have trouble explaining, and it’s completely different than what I’m used to. I loved the entire book, but it was the very last page that set this book over the edge of how I feel about it. I’m still sitting here in shock and thinking, “WHAT THE… ***???” I was trying to describe to a co-worker my thoughts about the ending, and I was stuttering trying to put my thoughts into words! And I mean that literally…I truly WAS stuttering. I CANNOT put into words what the heck I think about the ending.

While I was reading Wildefire, learning and experiencing in my mind the craziness that goes on because of these gods, I was thinking, “Wow, these gods and goddesses are not something that we would want walking around on our planet with that kind of power!” The evil characters in this book are truly psychotic (uh hum...Eve!) But even the gods and goddesses that are “good” can still cause serious damage, even when they don’t want to. That is, until they can learn how to control their power.

The main character, Ash, is HARDCORE! In the very beginning of the book, Ash is beating the living crap out of this girl Lizzie because Ash's boyfriend cheated on her with Lizzie. When I say that she was beating the living crap out of Lizzie, I REALLY mean it! She actually knocked teeth out of this chick’s mouth, and the whole time Lizzie was still talking smack! This little scene I just described is just a very small piece in so much craziness that happens in this book…and that’s only one example. Ash is one hardcore Goddess! If I am going to start picking teams for every book, I would have to say, "TEAM ASH" for this one.

This is the first time in a really long time that I really liked a book that a male author wrote. I don’t want to be all sexist, but a very high percentage of the books that I really love are written by female authors. So I am extremely happy that Fikshun recommended Wildefire to me! This is for sure a book that I would recommend to someone else.

Now you have to check out this hilarious video of Karsten talking about Wildefire. I'm still giggling over here thinking about it!

Received review eGalley from:

Simon & Schuster