Review: A Must for Vampire Lovers
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 15, 2011
It's been a while since I have read a really good YA vampire book. They have become so cliche that I often avoid them. Imagine my surprise when I picked up Ignite and fell in love with it by page 17. I emailed Kaitlyn that minute to tell her how much I was enjoying Ignite. At this point, I wasn't even really certain that the book was about vampires but I suspected as much. But hey...these vampires surfed. I loved Kaitlyn's lore surrounding her vampires. It was unique and well thought out.Kira make a great heroine. She is faced with adversity and doesn't back down. She knows what she wants and she's going to get him...no matter what anyone says. I loved that she didn't do the whole "which one do I want" thing. She loves Luke as a friend and respects his opinion but that is as far as it goes. Tristan is the one for her, the one who makes her all warm and gooey, the one she dreams about, the one who brings out the fire in her...literally.I loved Tristan but I felt his character was underdeveloped. He was supposed to be the bad boy but I never got that feel from him. I kind of felt like he had no real internal struggle. He wanted Kira and he would make it happen. Easy peasy. Sexy - definitely, tortured - certainly,  take home and have my way with - oh hell yeah. But things were just too easy for him.Luke is great. He's the supportive best friend when he needed to be and the protective older brother at other times.  I enjoyed his light-hearted interactions with his friends and fierce reactions to Tristan and his crew of misfits. Luke was completely believable in his role.Kira and Luke are conduits. They are the only things that can harm vampires...ever. They don't do it by ripping their bodies to shreds and burning them, they don't decapitate them, they don't stake them. They draw the sun into their body and use it as a weapon. Kira comes to Charleston without any knowledge of who or what she is. She realizes that Luke looks similar to her ex-boyfriend from up north and that his eyes are "psycho" like hers. At least that's what one of their friends point out.Luke refers to Tristan and his friends as the "misfits." Of course, Luke knows more about them than he let's on. Luke has been sent to protect and watch Kira by the council. She was born to a Punisher and a Protector. These are two groups of people who have the power to either kill (Punishers) or weaken (Protectors) vampires. Punishers believe that vampires have no souls and therefore possess no ability to control themselves and care for others. Protectors believe that maybe vampires do have a chance at normality.Kira has the powers of both Punisher and Protector which cause her to be a concern to her people and vampires, alike. Secrets will be revealed that leave Kira frustrated and upset with those she is closest too. Kira will have to learn to use her powers in order to save herself and quite possibly Luke and Tristan from death.Truly, I enjoyed Ignite immensely. I did feel like certain aspects of the story weren't fleshed out enough and from time to time I got a Twilight feeling. That is not a bad thing in my book except to say certain parts lacked creativity. Overall, I would definitely recommend Ignite to anyone looking for a good YA Paranormal Romance.