Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Tuesday #Review - Before She Ignites by Jodi Meadows #YALit #Fantasy

Series: Fallen Isles Trilogy # 1
Format: E-Book, 496 pages
Release Date: September 12, 2017
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Source: Edelweiss
Genre: Young Adult / Epic Fantasy

Before
Mira Minkoba is the Hopebearer. Since the day she was born, she’s been told she’s special. Important. Perfect. She’s known across the Fallen Isles not just for her beauty, but for the Mira Treaty named after her, a peace agreement which united the seven islands against their enemies on the mainland.
But Mira has never felt as perfect as everyone says. She counts compulsively. She struggles with crippling anxiety. And she’s far too interested in dragons for a girl of her station.
After
Then Mira discovers an explosive secret that challenges everything she and the Treaty stand for. Betrayed by the very people she spent her life serving, Mira is sentenced to the Pit–the deadliest prison in the Fallen Isles. There, a cruel guard would do anything to discover the secret she would die to protect.
No longer beholden to those who betrayed her, Mira must learn to survive on her own and unearth the dark truths about the Fallen Isles–and herself–before her very world begins to collapse.



Before She Ignites, by author Jodi Meadows, is the first installment in the Fallen Isles Trilogy. The first book is complete with romance, deadly games of deceit and betrayal, and a fiercely imagined world that keeps you guessing until the explosive ending. The reason I choose to request this story is the faction-like islands, the dragons, and protagonist Mira Minkoba’s strong resemblance to Daenerys Targaryen (aka Mother of Dragons). Meadows' world consists of 6 island nations that make up the Fallen Isles. 

Mira lives on the island of Damina. Mika is the girl the Mira Treaty is named after. For 16 years, she has led a pretty charmed life while having a strong affinity with dragons. In fact, she has her very own dragon she has raised since she was small. But, after she and her best friends Hristo and Ilina discover a shocking secret about what is happening to supposed protected dragons, Mika is thrown into one of the harshest prisons in the Fallen Isles after being betrayed by someone she's always trusted. 

Mira is supposed to be the symbol of hope for the island chain, but after being sent to The Pit, she will have to learn how to survive on her own for the first time and unearth the darkest truths about the Fallen Isles—and herself. Never fear my dears. Meadows twists the story be weaving Mira's back story and who she was before, with the present and who she is forced to become. I think, in this case, it was definitely necessary to do the back and forth in order to get the truth to come out. 

Mira is an interesting character. She has a nervous affliction & anxiety that makes her count things. She never forgets what she has counted. The story pretty much beings with Mira's arrival as an anonymous prisoner who has been stripped of her dignity by not only the council, but by over reactionary prison guards. Prison guards who may know too much about who Mira is, and that means abandoning all hope of escaping unless she can find a way to trust the strange boy from Idris named Aaru who teaches her a strange way to communicate, or the warrior named Gerel who I dare say I want to see more of in future installments.

In closing, Before She Ignites is a story that has a diverse cast, including the leading lady. There is betrayal, Dragons, curious magical candles called noorestones, a prison riot, friendships, alliances, and enemies that appear as friends but have other agenda's instead. The sequel to this book is apparently going to release in the Fall of 2018. I shall hope that I am alive and able to continue this series until the ending.




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