Kira Dawson was a well educated girl coming home from her private school in New York to spend her senior year at Charleston County High School. She had a head full of curly red and blond hair that twisted and mingled together on her head. Her mother also had flaming red hair. But her father and little sister (who was not even in kindergarten) both had straight brown hair. Kira liked to cook and hoped to go to a culinary school after taking a year off from school.
On the first day of school Kira runs into golden haired "knight in shining armor" Luke Bowrey. His open and friendly demeanor helps ease Kira's first day jitters as he shows her around. "There was something about his eyes, green with flecks of yellow, which she found familiar and almost comforting." Luke even made sure she sat with him and his friends at lunch.
And then there was Tristan. He was dark and dangerous. "He had a rebel without a cause look that made him perilous for a girl's heart." Like a moth to a flame, Kira was drawn to Tristan, although she knew it wouldn't end well if she didn't stay away. But those icy blue eyes of his threatened to have her jumping off the edge of reason.
It didn't take long for Kira to figure out that there was no love lost between Luke and Tristan and his
friends. Tristan's friends were much like him. Diana, John and Jerome were all what Luke and his friends called "the misfits". They didn't ever come in to lunch. They kept to themselves and seemed rather dangerous. Diana immediately puts Kira on edge and continues to torment her. The group continuously stares at her until she confronts them at the beach. Unfortunately, while she is at the beach trying to learn how to surf, Kira hits her head and almost drowns. To Luke's great chagrin, Tristan is the one that saves her. The hostility becomes so much between the two that Luke punches Tristan in the face. He had just been trying to help, but he also inferred that he may not want to stay away from Kira, and Luke is trying to protect her from something she has no idea about. But Kira wants to know about Tristan. She wants to get to know him and keeps trying to talk to him. Finally she succeeds. While in Battery Park he appears and they finally talk. Tristan shows her a secret place high in a church steeple that he liked to go to and he kisses her there. But then he runs away and Kira is more confused than ever. She is left all alone with nothing but her confused thoughts and Tristan's sketch book full of drawings. In the back there are drawings of her.
In an attempt to tell her the truth, Tristan accidentally gets Kira into a life threatening position with other members of his group. They are not really his friends, but they are like him. And Kira is about to find out all about that. They meet during lunch on the stage at school to have a private chat about things and Diana, Jerome and John show up. Diana bites Kira and tries to kill her, but Kira fends her off with flames shooting from her hands. Luke ends up saving her and explaining to her what the misfits really are and what she really is. They are vampires and she is a conduit, a vampire slayer of sorts. But not only is she a vampire slayer, she's a crossbreed of the Punishers and the Protectors. A cross which had never been heard of except in legend. Luke is a Protector who has been sent to watch over Kira. He doesn't kill vampires unless it is necessary. The Punishers are not so merciful. She now understands why Tristan is not supposed to be with her. It wasn't meant to be. It could never be.
"Fire and ice, she thought. That really was what they were, complete opposites. Fire could melt ice and ice could douse a fire, but was there any way for the two to meet in the middle?"
Another tale of star-crossed lovers no doubt. However, this one involves a vampire and a conduit. Two people who want to be together and go to great lengths to be together knowing that it will end and that it won't end well for either of them. It is a great story of a girl who sees a guy and cares for him before and after she finds out who he is. Even after she finds out who
she is. The saying that opposites attract can be a very true statement. But Tristan and Kira have so many obstacles to overcome just to stay together for the present. His group of "friends" don't understand her and want to kill her. They want her blood and so does Tristan. The difference being that Tristan is not like all other vampires. He seemed to be within the realm of possibility of saving his soul. He was so thoughtful and cared so much for Kira that she inevitably fell in love with him and didn't want to think about the idea of him being a blood sucking monster. But that is what Tristan thought of himself as, a monster. The weight of immortality is a heavy weight when you view yourself as a monster.
Kira is just finding out about so many things in her life. She thought she knew exactly who she was and what she wanted. Then she meets Tristan and Luke and finds out that the world she thought she lived in was totally different. Even her family is not what she had been led to believe her entire life. There is a lot for her to work through including the honing of her powers. Luke is there to help her with that. But he doesn't want her with Tristan. He sees it as an abomination. And he's jealous. But Tristan makes her feel almost normal. They are both misfits who just don't belong anywhere in particular. The book is great and the story gets even better as it goes along in the next three books! Check out the other three books to see the plot thicken and a shocking ending!
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*images via Kaitlyn Davis
*quotes via Kaitlyn Davis (Midnight Fire Series Book 1: Ignite)
