Vanish by Sophie Jordan [Firelight #2] **Review**

Vanish by Sophie Jordan

Series: Firelight #2
Pages: 294
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Release date: 6th September 2012
Buy: Book Depository | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Waterstones

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Goodreads synopsis:

An Impossible Romance.

Bitter Rivalries.

Deadly Choices.

To save the life of the boy she loves, Jacinda did the unthinkable: She revealed the most closely guarded secret of her kind. Now, back within the protection of her pride, she is seen as a traitor. As isolated as she is, Jacinda has no regrets—because of her, Will is still alive, even if she can never see him again, even if he has no memories of that fateful night. . . . Then, against all odds, Will finds her and asks her to run away with him. But the cost of following her heart may be higher than she ever could have imagined.

In bestselling author Sophie Jordan's dramatic follow-up to Firelight, forbidden love burns brighter than ever.

I adored book one in this trilogy – a lot more than I thought I was going to. By the time I got to the end of the book, I knew it wouldn't be long before I picked up Vanish. I waited less than a week! This is quite rare when I start a series ... sometimes it takes me well over a year to read a sequel!
It's definitely a good sign that I couldn't wait any longer to pick the next book up.

I struggled with this instalment in the series a lot more than I thought I would, not because I didn't like the situation that Jacinda finds herself in at the end of book one (which, for the record, I didn't), but because I was suddenly having a pretty hard time actually liking Jacinda at all.
Yeah okay, in Firelight she's whiney and full of teen angst and self-pity, which is a little annoying, but let's be honest, accurate in the case of some teenagers. And I did feel sorry for her – the situation was not exactly her fault and I could empathise with her – a girl needs her freedom, and no one should ever be forced into a relationship or future they don't want.
In book one, I loved Jacinda – I admired her for her strength and (no pun intended) fiery personality.
However, in Vanish, it seemed to me that the pity party was getting just a little out of hand. Yeah okay, the situation was not exactly fair, and I don't like the characters that impose this situation on her, but – and this is a huge but – it's not just Jacinda's own life at stake by this point. She became selfish beyond belief and whiney to the point that I actually got pretty irritated with her and started to feel sorry for poor Cassian!
And speaking of Cassian ... how confused are my feelings about him?! In Firelight, my feelings towards the future alpha of the draki pride were pretty straightforward. I didn't like him. He was arrogant and spoilt, and there was something about him that I didn't trust. However, Vanish completely screwed up those feelings. As the book went on, I found my feelings for him were changing drastically, and I realised around half way through that I actually like him now. Didn't see that one coming! He almost certainly gets the points for the most character development (next to Tamra – although it was more her story that developed, rather than her character).

The second half of the book was much better than the first; Jacinda stops moping so much and finally starts doing something other than feeling sorry for herself and hiding away from everyone. It was probably the final third of the book where things really started to get good, and from that point on, I was totally in love with the series again (although still confused by my feelings for certain characters!).
The very ending of the book was really satisfying. It was a good enough cliffhanger for me to want to get straight into the final book, but it wasn't one of those cliffhangers that makes you groan with utter frustration. The perfect balance, in my opinion.

All in all, I really liked the second instalment in this trilogy. It gripped me most of the way through, and although I did get irritated with Jacinda, this did allow me to get to know other characters a little better and start to think more about their side of things. The final part was awesome, and it's left me very much anticipating what's going to happen in the final instalment!!