ARC Review--Vanish by Sophie Jordan

To save the life of the boy she loves, Jacinda did the unthinkable: She betrayed the most closely-guarded secret of her kind. Now she must return to the protection of her pride knowing she might never see Will again—and worse, that because his mind has been shaded, Will’s memories of that fateful night and why she had to flee are gone.

Back home, Jacinda is greeted with hostility and must work to prove her loyalty for both her sake and her family’s. Among the few who will even talk to her are Cassian, the pride’s heir apparent who has always wanted her, and her sister, Tamra, who has been forever changed by a twist of fate. Jacinda knows that she should forget Will and move on—that if he managed to remember and keep his promise to find her, it would only endanger them both. Yet she clings to the hope that someday they will be together again. When the chance arrives to follow her heart, will she risk everything for love?

In bestselling author Sophie Jordan’s dramatic follow-up to Firelight, forbidden love burns brighter than ever.

I received this e-ARC for review courtesy of NetGalley

Sophie Jordan's Vanish was a great followup to Firelight! It had a pretty good storyline, albeit a little slow at times. It has a weird sort of curve for me, starting high, dropping down and staying steady with a few raises and dips here and there, towards the end, like the last 1/4 of the book was all high curves! If that makes any sense!

Like I said, Vanish starts off with a bang! We pick up immediately where we left off with Jacinda, Tamra, and their mother racing off with Cassian at the wheel of the getaway car. Only to have the hunters catch up with them for another showdown and that's when something big and epic happens! Won't say what, but yeah, chapter 1 was filled with a lot of action and surprises!

Things mellow down a little once the gang gets back to the pride. As imagined things aren't going to be easy returning. The others look on at Jacinda and her family with some disdain. They've been gone for months and suddenly return. There's not a lot of love there. Jacinda's life has changed dramatically once again. No longer does she live the happy life of a draki or the happy life of a draki/human girl with Will, now she's back to being more draki than girl and the rest of her pride treats her with hostility almost for what she caused them.

There's still the feeling for awhile that Jacinda is still the same selfish girl she was in the beginning and most of the middle of Firelight. She still kind of thinks of herself too much. I know we all have self-pity, no one's completely flawless. But at times Jacinda really feels to self-absorbed. But as I said, that's just for a little while. Soon her actions don't feel as self-serving. True, she still does what she wants for herself, but it doesn't have the "me-me-me" feel to it. We're just following the actions of the protagonist.

That being said the pacing as I also mentioned was decent. It starts off wonderfully than sedates itself. There is a bit of peak in the middle-ish before taking off again. Won't go too into details for obvious reasons. There's still quite a bit of inner-pride drama going on with Jacinda's pride. And there's still plenty of danger, just because she's home doesn't mean Jacinda leads the simple life. If anything, things are a lot more hectic this time around as well.

The ending is a doozie as well! Quite the cliffhanger. I'm assuming we're looking at another trilogy here as that tends to be the theme in YA. No biggie. The third one should be even better! This was quite the fascinating read despite the lapse in action every now and then.

Overall rating 3.5/5

Vanish releases September 6, 2011