A review by ezzydesu
Wicked Like a Wildfire by Lana Harper, Lana Popović

4.0

 

“Your beauty is a force, you know, a power all its own. It can be both sword and shield for you, and win you anything you want.”
-Lana Popović

Have you seen how stunning this book is?! I got this book in the August 'Otherworlds' Fairyloot last month. Even though I was doubting how it would fit the 'Otherworlds' theme as the book takes place in modern time Montenegro (Eastern Europe) & not some fictive world, I was really enthousiastic about the story!

The story is about the twinsisters Iris and Malina. The women in their bloodline all have powers: the ability to manipulate beauty with magic. Their mother tries her best to keep their gifts a secret and the sisters are forbidden to tell (or more likely: show) their gifts to anyone or even to fall in love. But when their mother is attacked, they fall chin-deep in the mess around their family line: a curse that has haunted the bloodline for millennia..

Sounds exciting, doesn't it?! I absolutely loved the book! Best part: this book is the first book of the Hibiscus Daughter duology! The sequel, Fierce Like A Firestorm, is coming summer 2018!
The two protagonists are Iris and Malina and the book is written from Iris' POV, except the very last chapter which is written from Malina's POV (I suspect the sequel to be written from multiple POV's.) There aren't too many (or too little) characters throughout the book and they all have a fitting character development, which makes it easy to keep track of everyone in your head.
The storyline was really good! Especially if you realise that this was Lana's debut book! A thing I really liked that there weren't many of those typical YA clichés in the story. Not going in too much detail, because that will spoil the plot.

As the story is about manipulating beauty with magic, there were many descriptions of smells, looks, tastes and music. The ways all of that was described was really original, but sometimes things were written so detailed. At the first part of the book, I had a hard time going through all the lines of descriptions because there wasn't much else happening due the story still building. But this is the only thing I didn't like that's worth mentioning, as everything else is just personal taste and very little.

Overal a really good book, not perfect, but still worth the read! I'm looking forward to the sequel :)

Rating: ★★★★☆