Review: Wicked Like A Wildfire

Wicked Like a Wildfire
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher!

All the women in Iris and Malina’s family have the unique magical ability or “gleam” to manipulate beauty. Iris sees flowers as fractals and turns her kaleidoscope visions into glasswork, while Malina interprets moods as music. But their mother has strict rules to keep their gifts a secret, even in their secluded sea-side town. Iris and Malina are not allowed to share their magic with anyone, and above all, they are forbidden from falling in love. 

But when their mother is mysteriously attacked, the sisters will have to unearth the truth behind the quiet lives their mother has built for them. They will discover a wicked curse that haunts their family line—but will they find that the very magic that bonds them together is destined to tear them apart forever?

I'm not going to lie to you guys, I feel in love with the writing in this book right away. The descriptions are beautiful and the book is vivid right from the start. The writing and storytelling draws you in and the book itself is very original. It was actually a breath of fresh air for me, because it was something different to the usual. 

I immediately felt for Iris, her mother is pretty brutal to her and at the beginning you have no idea why. It's pretty uncalled for, to be honest. Iris has such awesome sounding magic, as do a lot of the characters in the book. The magic they have is brilliant, such original magical powers and each one is so beautifully described. I loved how Iris's magic was described throughout the book, along with Malina's. Iris is a brilliant MC, she's strong and determined and easy to empathise with. You can understand the reasoning behind her actions and why she acts the way she does. She's very realistic. 

I spent most of the book not entirely sure how I felt about Malina. Her power was a nice contrast to Iris's and was pretty awesome too! But with Iris as an MC and relating to her, and empathising with her as I did...I felt like Malina was pretty coddled and fawned over compared to Iris. She's pretty selfish more than once too. She shares their secret without telling her, and I kinda assumed she was the one meant to not do the thing...which is all I'll say because spoilers! But, considering how much I liked and empathised with Iris, it made it kinda hard for me to warm up to Malina. Don't get me wrong, Iris doesn't harbour any resentment to her sister, she loves her, but I really was a bit hmmm about her. I was fully on Iris's side, but towards the end of the book I did warm up to Malina and I'm intrigued to see her in the next book.

Wicked Like a Wildfire has so many interesting and memorable characters, Nev was so awesome, I'd loved to have seen more of her! Luka I loved, I shipped him and Iris so badly, it was so obvious they liked each other but Iris was doing her thing. Luka was just such a cutie and so adorable! Niko cracked me up  more than once throughout the book, but she did bug me a bit in the beginning. But that was because of my attachment to Iris. 

And then we have Fjolar. I thought he was shady from the start, and I couldn't really work out his purpose in the story. He was there..and then he wasn't...and I didn't trust him at all. He got more and more suspicious, and I wanted to like him because I thought the story was going one way but it went a completely different direction and genuinely surprised me! Dunja was another character that was tricky. She provided quite the mystery, and I was so torn about her for most of the book. I couldn't have guessed who she was, but I think a fair few people did. I don't know, maybe I'm just dumb, but I was so engrossed I was just flying through the book. 

There's a nice amount of clues throughout the book as we set off on the trail of the culprit. The story genuinely didn't go the way I thought it would, it went off in a completely different direction and it was a nice surprise. It threw all of my theories out the window and I was scrambling to try and come up with new ones! It was nice to be so surprised! 

The magic in the book, like I've mentioned already, is different to anything I've read before. It was a lot of fun, and there where some seriously cool powers. When I think of magic...this takes it to the next level. Popovic has an amazing imagination and she shares it with you in this book, vividly. I have to say, the descriptions of their mothers confections made me so hungry! 

As for the plot, it's fast paced and has some excellent mythology woven in to it. It also takes a lot of turns and twists that I wasn't expecting, like I was expecting one thing but the book became something else entirely. It's very well written and everything comes together so perfectly at the end, everything falls in to place and you're like OOOHHH just in time to watch the end play out! That ending though....it's going to be a rough ride in the next book, and I'm intrigued to see what Mara meant and what's going to happen next. I'm also intrigued to see if my dislike for Mara and the others will change. 

Wicked Like a Wildfire is a thoroughly enjoyable, and original ride that wraps you in a world of magic and myth and I'm excited to see how it'll wrap up in the next book! 

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