Wildefire didn't immediately catch my interest. Which, considering how much I ended up enjoying this book and my expectations for the book, sounds almost sacriligious doesn't it? But its the truth. The beginning caught me--Ashline is in a fight against the classmate stealing her boyfriend. Blood, insults, violence...and that's all before Eve (Ash's probably more than a little insane older sister) gets involved.

This is followed by the consequences of that fight and Eve's involvement. Which leads us 6 months later, Ash is off at middle of nowhere boarding school getting felt up.

Wait a second what?

The sudden shift of focus made me frown pretty spectacularly--as much as Eve terrified me I wanted to know more about her. She disappeared for a good chunk of the book while Ash got acclimated to the school, made some friends, enemies, love interests and played tennis.

Its not so much the story slowed down as it changed course so that when freaky-deeky stuff began happening it all made sense. Or some sense. Knight isn't big on giving us clear, concise answers. Since this is from Ash's POV we only get the answers she gets or figures out. And sometimes Ash doesn't always care so much about the details as 'How can I avoid this?'

Once they help [insert blind character's name] things begin to pick up again and as Ash is drawn further and further in (mostly against her will) an engaging premise emerges that really spoke to my interests. Mythology. Many many mythologies. Want to catch my attention? Just start talking mythology and I'll get hooked. Knight takes something from several different cultures--Norse, Egyptian, Polynesian--and hints at even more.

Admittedly I was a little confused about some of the particulars and much of what I think I understand is based on a principle that could be false. This book isn't so much about the group that Ash belongs--their motivations, agenda, etc. Its more about Ash coming to an acceptance about her circumstances. Taking a more proactive role in her life.

There's some creepifying bits--those...monster things. Eve. In general Eve is an absolute nightmare as a person and sister. I told my younger sister after she finished the book that she should be bowing down in thanks that I am not such a...well. Bitch. That's the only way to put it. Eve is a homicidal psychopathic bitch. I can't really give examples because they lead to spoilers, but her first appearance, and then her second appearance (all within the first 50 pages) are pretty good indicators of what sort of person she is.

At some points the book would focus on the more day to day life of Ash (and co.) with clues as to what was going on, but without the flash of say what happens when they go out for a night of fun or in the forest.

As for the other characters! I loved Rolfe. Possibly my favorite character (yes even before Ash). He had a way about him that I just liked. Raja took a little bit for me to warm up to; Ash saw her a particular way and that colored a lot of my perception of her. Closer to the end I felt better about her. Lily was kind of 'meh' for most of the book, said one thing and then acted another way. I thought I'd like her the best because of first impressions she made a solid one, it just kind of went downhill from there. Ade was interesting and I hope we learn more about him.

So how did this live up to my expectations? Well. It mostly did. I sometimes can't see the ocean for the river--this is the first book in a multi-book series. I might WANT answers now, but that doesn't mean I'll GET them now. Patience is a virtue I've never actually cultivated, but I'm interested to see how the surprises of the ending play out. I mean, its like 'Hey climatic battle!' and then let's just toss these big surprises at you for fun to mess with your head!

I'm not bitter or anything, I swear it. ( )

Loved it! Karsten does a fabulous job bringing multiple mythologies together to form a compelling story that will leave readers flipping the pages like it's their lives in jeopardy rather than the characters'. Every character is well-rounded, not just cardboard support. It's a great book all the way around. ( )

Absolutely amazing and breathtaking.

The writing is fantastically good, and the characters and story are a breath of fresh air: Ashline is kickass, funny as hell with her cutting sarcasm and very strongminded, which pleased me coming from a male author; the way she stoop up to her sister and how she handled all the issues thrown her way was admirable, and I wish more heroines were written like her. The opening scene, where she confronts the girl she caught her boyfriend cheating did it from and I instantly fell in love with her.

The rest of the story maintained its awesomness and I think I never enjoyed as much a different take on mythology.

Up until the 90% mark on my e-reader, I was going with a 4-star rating, there were some plotholes that left a bad taste in my mouth and I feared for the disappointement washing over me; but suddenly the events took a 180° spin and I couldn't stop reading or gasping. And what a wicked thing to do Mr. Knight to leave me hanging with that ending, I'm quite sure that I screamed a little and nearly thrashed my kindle with that final revelation. By the end, a "4" seemed insulting and unfair.

That ending built up my expectations for the second book, let's hope it won't disappoint! ( )

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS EVER!!!!!! It is about this group of highschool kids who find out they are gods and they have to save the world. there's way more to it than that but it is truly AMAZING!!!! It added some stuff that didn't need to be there though. ( )

I fully admit to buying into the hype of Wildefire. I came across it, thought "hey, a YA book about Pele reincarnated, cool!" Then, I found Karsten's blog/vlog and thought, "This hilarious of a guy has to have an awesome book!" I was sadly disappointed.

Wildefire is okay. It has an awesome promise and with some major editing could actually be a cool story. The bullet points are: more character development, better pacing as far as story development, less of the crazy lust that didn't help the story along, more work on realistic dialogue, less crazy/unnecessary violence, and most important- more research needs to be completed!!

Most of the lower rated reviews delve into the character development, or lack of in Wildefire. For the most part, it's hard to empathize with Ashline. The other gods/goddesses have little defining personality. Her sister, Eve was very crazy. I did love what little you get to know about Serena, the Greek Siren. Other than her and Eve, not many characters had distinctive personalities...

Some people may disagree with me about pace of story development. I thought it didn't go very well. Everything happened in a short span of time, but it felt like it dragged on. It also felt like it was so focused on the boring everyday stuff. Personally, when I read a book from a female's POV, I expect at least a little emotional turmoil. I think Karsten would have been better off writing this from a male POV.

The crazy lust and violence was weird to read. Ashline's love interests were bizarre and I never even felt like she was even into them, even Colt. Yet, everyone in the book was ready to have sex right away. Just random, let's have sex even though I haven't even acted and talked like I'm into you. Weird! Everyone was just randomly pairing off into couples as well. The violence seemed random, too. Did anyone else feel like Karsten watched some Jerry Springer before writing the open scene? Then, there's the whole mercenary scene where suddenly they all could call forth their god/goddess powers and kill with no remorse or cares in the world. Just kill a bunch of men and go bake to talking about dresses for the big dance. Those men tried to kidnap us, so it's ok that we just instantly killed them.

More research needed to be completed!! I did a quick search and it just feels like Karsten barely brushed up on all his mythology. I particular had problems with Isis, because I didn't remember her being any type of death goddess. A quick Wikipedia search shows her as a goddess of magic, motherhood, and fertility... um, yeah, enough said.

Also, just another random note, that tennis scene drove me absolutely crazy! As a former tennis player, I could not read it. He got the tiebreaker rules so wrong. When the score is 6-6, the game will go into a tiebreaker game, where players alternate serves and rotate sides. I'm not going to give anyone who read this far a tennis lesson, but it was written incorrectly.

With some work, Wildefire could be/have been an amazing series. I will probably read the second book to see if Karsten improves as a writer and completes more research.



~~ Spoiler Alert ~~



Ok, that ending... so predictable. Maybe not to everyone, but who really thought Eve would be the trickster. As soon as Colt mentioned that he was Hopi, I thought immediately that he would be the one Ashline was instructed to kill. The whole Kokopelli threw me off, because I actually thought Karsten would make Colt be Coyote. Since Coyote is a trickster in most American Indian legends and I always associated Kokopelli with fertility, but he is mischievous.
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