Vanish by Sophie Jordan
Series: Firelight #2
Published by Oxford University Press on September 6, 2011
Genres: YA, Fantasy
Source: Purchased
Add to Goodreads

An impossible romance.
Bitter rivalries.
Deadly choices.
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?

You have no idea how difficult it is to write this review for me. I was so enthusiastic with the first instalment and pretty sure to have found a very unique series with fantastic characters in it. Then I read Vanish and now I can’t express how much disappointed I am enough.

The whole book focuses on Jacinda and her back and forth between Will and her family. She wants to be with Will but on the other hand she can’t leave her mother and sister. How can she walk away from them? They’re all she has and their relationship is priceless, they’re all so close . . . Seriously? Do you realize we previously read Firelight, right Jacinda? But let’s keep going and what do we have here? Cassian and of course the inevitable struggling triangle with I’m afraid an even more irritating back and forth: Maybe I feel something for Cassian . . . – No, I love Will, he’s the only one I want. – But Cassian could be . . . – No, there’s only Will in my heart! Go on and on like this until the end and be prepared because I have serious doubts there won’t be more of this in the final book.

In all honesty, it was like reading a book written by another person. I didn’t recognize Sophie Jordan’s style at all, I wasn’t emotionally involved, there wasn’t a plot but a constant whining instead and all the characters lost their original charm and became completely strangers who are anything but likeable. That part of me who loved Firelight would like to finish the trilogy when the third book comes out, but of course, with the actual disappointment and the vanished magic, I can’t say I’ll read it for sure.

---