Firespell by Chloe Neill - A BWB Review

Firespell (Dark Elite, Book 1) by Chloe Neill



This book purchased with my own moolah (kindle version).


PJV's QUICKIE POV: I was very impressed with Some Girls Bite, so I think I had overly high expectations for this book, which led to a bit of disappointment. The book was entertaining, well-written and enjoyable, but it wasn't very original.

Review: Lily has been abandoned by her parents because of a two year research hiatus in Germany. They send her to Chicago, and an all-girl's private school called St. Sophia's.  Away from her friends, away from her parents, and to a world of old money and a lot of secrets.

Immediately she is introduced to Scout, one of her new roommates, and they become fast friends.  Fast enemies are also formed as she is judged and proved unworthy by the brat pack. In typical Mean Girls style they try and trick her and the insults fly around like mosquitoes in June. All the while, Scout is running around in the middle of the night and is obviously lying about something.  The headmistress, Foley lets slip that her parents might also be lying to her about their careers, and even her new crush interest might not be what he appears.

As Lily is sucked deeper and deeper into the world of St. Sophias and Scout's world, her life might never be the same.

Mean Girls meets The Covenant.  Without the weanie bikinis...let's pause for eye candy.

The Covenant (2006)

When they got into the meat and potatoes of this novel all I thought was The Covenant, with a few revisions. The brat pack was very typical in their behavior, reminiscent of Mean Girls and all those other movies that has a trio of ridiculous and well dressed bitches. Like I said earlier, I was entertained, and will probably read the second novel, but it was much like watching a Miley Cyrus movie. Entertaining if you don't think too hard about it.

My problems with this book lay within the plot.  Friends that Lily had and missed in Sagamore were quickly forgotten after a text message and introduction to the crush interest. Lily and Scout also became fast friends without any kind of development. It was like "Your my future BFF." "Ok." It just lacked the depth of character and relationship building that Neill's Chicagoland books possess.  I hope the second novel is better. Once again, though, excellent writing and I can see that this series might have a great future.

Recommendations: Nothing to worry about parents, book is completely innocent. Recommended for younger teens and all the way up to the adults.

1. Lily and Jason.  Discuss. What do you think the next book holds for them? 
1. Well they will probably finally hook up.  I'm predicting that they might have a few issues with Lily maybe being destined to be evil or something. Which will probably lead to some relationship issues between them. 
2. Lily & Scout's friendship had a lot of secrets, so in the end who did you relate to more, Lily or Scout? How about Lesley or Veronica? Would you hang with the brat pack or be a loner?
1. I related to Lily more of course. The character of Scout was not as developed as I would have thought. Lesley was like a non-entity, and Veronica was just a typical snob queen.  I would most likely be a loner.
3. What do think of the overwhelming trend in YA literature where the parents of the protagonists are either- dead, strung out or shipping their children off to boarding schools? Do you think this is a real look at parents today and what teens are dealing with?
1. I think it might happen more these days than before, especially with  people having to work harder these days and more single parent homes. It might not be typical, but neither is witchcraft.
4. Follow up to parental question.  Authors employ the missing parents to mature their teenage protagonist. The protagonist doesn't have the option to act as an irresponsible teen, because they do not have any parental supervision.  Did you find Lily's behaviour normal for a teenager, or more mature than most?
1. Lily showed some maturity that I don't think many teenagers might posses, especially since she wasn't used to the parental abandonment, which would mature a teen.