Paper flower

Along with reading I also really enjoy scrapbooking and card making. 

I follow this great blog called Lollyrot-Scrapbooking and on her site she had a link to this video she made. I think I will have to try this technique.

 It looks like such a fun thing to add to my pages. :)

Firelight by Sophie Jordan

Back Cover: 

A hidden truth.
Mortal enemies.
Doomed love.

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 draki - a 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. 

Sophie Jordan's Website 

My thoughts:

This book has a beautiful cover which instantly drew me in, I know I'm a little bias when I see pretty covers...anyways... if you're not as fickle as me and you need a good story line to draw you into a book then I would suggest taking a moment to read the opening chapter of Firelight. Sophie Jordan introduces the world of the Draki in a breathtakingly described early morning sun rise. 

The Draki are a mythological race of human descendants from dragons and Jacinda is the pride of the race, she is the only fire-breathing draki in ages. Because of this she has been chosen to marry the son of the pride's leader.  Jacinda has other plans however, she cannot sit idly by and allow all those around her to dictate her life; she needs freedom and the room to breathe.

When a daring adventure of hers turns bad and she narrowly escapes death from the hunters of her race her entire world is flipped upside down. Jacinda, her twin sister Tamra, and her mother flee the pride's safety in the middle of the night. Jacinda and her family relocate to the middle of the dessert ... the one place her mother feels the draki will not look for them. The desert is virtually a prison to all draki whose bodies crave the cool weather similar to her previous home in the mountains. 

Now the fun begins. To state quickly...Tamra is Jacinda's twin sister and has never manifested into her draki side, because of this she has been begging their mother, who intentionally killed her draki side to relate to Tamara, to flee the pride where she does not fit in. Tamra is ecstatic to finally be free of the draki pride, she can now fit into the high school scene where humans are just humans. She is having the time of her life living in the desert and going to a public school. Jacinda on the other hand is slowly dying inside. Her draki is unable to manifest easily in the open, hot climate of the desert...which is exactly what her mother planned to happen by relocating them to the desert. Jacinda's mother is extremely aware of what Jacinda means to the draki pack...she is solely a "breeding mare" - for lack of a better work. The draki are desperate to produce other fire-breathing draki and look to Jacinda as being the means to accomplish this. 

What Tamra and their mother are kept in the dark about is that Jacinda only survived her daring adventure when a hunter chose not to give up Jacinda's hiding spot the day she was almost killed. The hunters of the draki are ruthless humans who track and kill the draki race for their dragon skins and for "studying" as they ruthlessly kill them. 

The hunter who sparred Jacinda is Will, an amazingly good looking high school boy who struggles with his own dangerous internal conflicts. ( Here comes the paranormal romance struggle of a human dating a paranormal being. I LOVE IT!!) Jacinda instantly recognized Will in the high school hallways, Will does not know who Jacinda is since is only saw her in her draki form...but they are still instantly drawn together. Jacinda begins the struggle with herself of staying away from Will, who unknowingly stirs her draki side to life. She must avoid at all cost exposing the draki's one secret...that they can shift into human form to protect themselves. 

The other boy in Jacinda's life quickly finds his way back into her life after discovering where Jacinda and her family fled to. Cassian is the son of the pride's leader and is not easily willing to allow Jacinda to kill her draki. He is an Onyx draki, the largest species of draki, and intends to marry Jacinda.  .... I instantly do not like Cassian for his high-handed, machoness and poor reasons for wanting to marry Jacinda. However, after he finds Jacinda and approaches her he confesses to her that he truly wants to be with her and not just for the fact that she is the last fire-breather. 

Jacinda is relieved to know that if she truly wants back into the pride she now has an easy way in...but Will is keeping a tight hold on her. What is she to do?

Firelight is a great book which gives a new realm of young paranormal romance besides vampire and werewolfs...dragons are now in a close running for my favorite supernatural beings. <3 

It's a very easy read and I quickly had it finished and now cannot wait for the next one in the series, Vanish to be published in September of 2011. Sophie Jordan leaves us with a real cliff hanger...which I love and hate at the same time! I really look forward to Vanish exploring more closely the relationship between Jacinda and her sister Tamra. And of course the romantic love triangle...can't wait!!