Wicked Like a Wildfire (Wicked Like a Wildfire, #1)

by Lana Popovic

"Lush. Delicious. Bewildering. And darkly magical. Popovic has created a world that you tumble into from the very first words and wish you could stay in forever." -Evelyn Skye, author of The Crown's Game

"Wicked Like a Wildfire was like devouring a succulent fairy fruit-it will rob your time, settle into your dreams, and leave you starving for more." -Roshani Chokshi, New York Times bestselling author of The Star-Touched Queen

Fans of Holly Black and Leigh Bardugo will be bewitched by Lana Popovic's debut YA fantasy novel about a bargain that binds the fates-and hearts-of twin sisters to a force larger than life.

 

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?

Wicked Like a Wildfire is the first in a two-book series. Readers will be rapt with anticipation for the sequel.

• ISBN10: 006243683X
• ISBN13: 9780062436832
• Publish Date: 5 October 2017 (first published 15 August 2017)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 24 May 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Katherine Tegen Books
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 416
• Language: English

Reviews

[ladygrey]

I haven’t given star in a long time but I’d give this one two stars.

The story keeps changing until the very end. Which is good. The characters are decent enough. I liked the Eastern European vibe (very well evoked) except the seedier parts like the smoking and cursing (which there wasn’t a ton of, but it was blisteringly sharp) and all the unseemly bits.

I couldn’t help but notice the similarity with Practical Magic (which I’ve only watched and never read). But I do think this leaned more heavily on local lore and so can be given credit as its own thing. A slow moving thing, but there are enough tiny revelations or new questions to give it the barest of momentum.

One thing I did really like is there aren’t a lot of secrets. I mean, there’s TONS of secrets but as the main characters discover the story, they don’t hide it from the important people in their lives. They talk about it and they tell the truth and they’re really all in it together which was refreshing.

The language was intentionally flowery and even subtly poetic to try to evoke this world of magic, but really it was the Slavic culture that defined the story more. I didn’t need all the particularly appropriate metaphors and scenic description. There was quite a bit in this book I didn’t need and also a little bit I liked.

[emruth13]

I really enjoyed this book! I enjoyed the different magics and what the characters went through. And with that ending, I'm looking forward to the next book!

[tweetybugshouse]

This is a uniquely told story about a family of witches who have what they call gleam which is a magical ability that enables the person to bend their talent to share with the world.  Both girls are unique in one is able to use her musical voice with gleam while the other uses flowers.  The story ends up being a mystery of if mom is dead or not.  They discover that mom has not been completely honest about their family line and in the end the girls think they broken the curse that the main coven mother has wrecked on them but instead one sister is left behind and the other is dragged off maybe never to be seen again.   This is a duo logy so i am eager to see how things play out in the final book.  Their a lot of poetic language along the way that at times bogged me down as i felt i drowning in the descriptions.  It an intriguing story just not a 5 star for me. 

[liz089]

It was a bit different from what I expected and even though I liked it.. I did not love it.

One of the biggest issues I had with this novel was the way it was written. It seemed overly descriptive and I could not keep my interest in it. I don't care how everyone looks down to the detail everytime they walk in, or how they smell this time, or the detail of every little leaf that falls down the tree.
Some can be more poetic then others.. but this way of writing is not for me. It worked in Strange the Dreamer for example, but not in this one. It annoyed me, and because of that I skimmed a lot.

The MC was also not that relatible.. and I did not care much for the other characters either.

I did really like that the story took place in Montenegro. I mean come on, how many stories do you know that has that setting ? Awesome !

I liked the plot, you did not really know what was happening exactly (though some parts were predictable) and it had a mysterious vibe to it...

I'm not sure yet if I will read the next one, it did have some interesting ideas (I love reading about witches).. but the whole way over the top detail writing is not really holding my attention.

3 stars

[ccbookwitch]

This book...wtf. What is this book? What happened in this book? Why is this book? What does seeing things in fractals and making other people see things in fractals even mean? Why is doing this important? These are just some of the questions that plagued me throughout the reading of this bizarre book, but they are just the tip of my confusion iceberg. I didn't understand what was going on for most of it, but by the end I'm pretty sure my entire thought process was just "WTF" over and over again.

I wasn't sure if I was even going to read this all the way through. At first, I thought the writing was pretty but didn't love the story, but stuck with it for the sake of flowery words. However, by the middle of the book, even the writing style started to annoy me. It was just too pretty with not must substance and it was trying way too hard. I also didn't feel like it was very YA either, since it was much too formal in a weird way.

The writing also didn't match the protagonist, Iris, as a character. Iris was always characterized as the rough and tumble sort of twin and Malina was the pretty delicate twin, so it didn't make sense to me that the voice was so formal and flowery. The writing was flowery and sweet to the point that reading it practically made me nauseous because it was trying so hard to be lyrical or whatever. In addition to that, I felt like the characterizations were weak as well. They were just very simplistic, and even though the relationships between the characters were supposed to be complex, I just found them very predictable and flat.

Wicked Like a Wildfire is a book I really should have DNFed, but I was halfway through it by the time I realized that. It was very superficial in a weird way, with the pretty writing on the outside but confusingness and simplicity on the inside. Basically, don't let the cover or the pretty writing at the beginning fool you: this book is not worth it.

[Sam@WLABB]

Rating: 4.5 Stars



If I had to sum up this book in one word, I would pick magical. From the very beginning until the very end, this book swept me away. I found myself mesmerized by the the lovely prose, which was so rich and lush. Popović didn't just describe this world, she put it in Technicolor for me. Through all the descriptions, I fell in love with Montenegro. The sounds, the sights, the food was set out for me, and I wanted to sample it all. Most of the books I read are set in the US, a few in western Europe, and it was kind of nice to travel outside of my norm.

And we have witches! I have a soft spot for witches, and really found this coven to be quite interesting. I have to warn you, a lot of the details are kept close to the vest for a good part of the book, but it is all eventually explained. I just enjoyed the rest of the tale as I patiently awaited more information, and I thought it was worth the wait.

Aside from the magic, we had a story of relationships. This book examines the complexities of the relationships that exist between sisters, mother and daughters, friends and lovers. It was very captivating to be an observer of the interactions between these pairs, and to see their relationships grow and change.

There's a mystery too! Malina and Iris take it upon themselves to find out who attacked their mother and why. As they are trying to solve that mystery, they uncover a lot of hidden details regarding their mother and themselves, which force them to confront certain things as what they discover many of their truths were lies.

This was a magical and beautiful journey. I will be counting down the days until the next book is released, and I look forward to many more stories from Popović.

**I would like to thank the publisher for the advanced copy of this book.

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