Firespell: Dark Elite, #1 -- Chloe Neill

Lily Parker's philosophy professor parents have been given the offer of a lifetime: A two-year academic sabbatical at a German university. And they've decided not only to accept the offer, but to leave Lily in the United States.

So, rather than returning to public school in upstate New York with all of her friends, she's going to start her sophomore year in Chicago. At St. Sophia's, a boarding school for the ultra-privileged and ultra-competitive.

She's not excited.

But, when she gets there, she becomes fast friends with her suite-mate Scout, she meets a cute boy, and despite having to deal with the obligatory mean girls, things start to look up.

Except for the whole Scout Being Involved In Something Secretive and Shady thing. Lily's not down with that. She's determined to get to the bottom of Scout's problem. But the secret turns out to be something she'd have never expected...

So, Firespell. It's another addition to the Paranormal Gossip Girl genre, complete with heroine who doesn't have any magical powers (SPOILER) but oh, wait, yes she does, and they're more powerful and rare than anyone has seen in like, one zillion years (END SPOILER).

It's got an interesting magic system, in that magic users have to give up their powers after their teen years, or keep them by Turning Evil. Which, of course, means that in addition to demons and vampires and weres, there's a Bad Guy faction of magic users. The author struck a good balance of questions answered vs. introduced, so interest in the next installment is piqued without frustrating readers who're looking for a one-shot story.

She also gives nods to both Alias and Buffy and Gossip Girl, which I gave her points for, as the influence -- at least in terms of premise and basic story structure -- was obvious. That said, most of the pop culture references felt pretty dated. (Smashing Pumpkins? Phil Collins? REO Speedwagon? Really?)

Competent and enjoyable, if forgettable, and will probably go over well with fans of Rachel Caine's Morganville Vampires series.

____________________________________

Other Boarding School Fantasies:

Hex Hall, by Rachel Hawkins
Evernight, by Claudia Gray
Blue is for Nightmares, by Laurie Faria Stolarz
Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels, and Sweet Far Thing, by Libba Bray
Wuthering High and The Scarlet Letterman, by Cara Lockwood

____________________________________

Book source: ILLed through my library.