Review - Fire by Heather James

BLURB

Is control over the elements a gift, or a curse?

Roxy thinks that she is in control of everything: with flames flaring at her fingertips and an equally fiery attitude, what more could she need? But then she meets Brae, a prince from a rival Realm, who turns her assumptions of superiority upside down.

Jasmine has none of Roxy’s confidence or intensity. But she does have a secret - and Brae - and she’s not going to give either up willingly.

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6879785.Heather_James

REVIEW

This was one of those serendipitous findings; it simply appeared on my home page and I was immediately intrigued. It was clearly meant to be!

World-building is a major strength of the novel; the author has clearly spent a lot of time getting to know every detail of her fantasy world and it shows in her writing. The history and politics of the realm are revealed using the right balance of show and tell so that you do not feel like you are having information thrown at you, or that the story is brought to a standstill. I particularly thought that getting Roxy to display her powers whilst at the same time meeting a historian with a first-hand (and thus quite passionate) account of an important historical event was very clever.

Roxy herself is a very interesting character; she has a lot of admirable qualities but also a lot of flaws which we can see are a result of her upbringing as a princess in the Helian Realm. Though the reader can of course empathise with her a lot through the link of POV her selfishness, and even at points her relish in creating misery, is rather shocking. She is exciting and I wanted to know how the events of the novel would affect and change her.

Jasmine at first runs the risk of being seen as the wet blanket as she is a lot quieter and is finding it difficult to adjust to the changes happening to her. And yet as her story progresses we recognise in her a strength which she does not even seem to realise that she has. She worries, yes, but never about herself, and she rushes off into the unknown without hesitation to save someone she cares about. Jasmine’s powers and heritage are a mystery; though I think I may have some idea of her parentage (I may be completely wrong!).

The romance in the novel was refreshing; there is no heroine who is new to town and has boys falling at her feet, or has to choose between the mysterious stranger and the reliable best friend. Having two viewpoint characters with feelings for the same boy is of course interesting, but their feelings develop and express themselves in very different ways; love is not the same for every person. There is no sudden love at first sight or long descriptions of how every physical aspect of the hero is perfection. The author recognises that love is hard, and can actually make you feel awful as well as great, and leads you to do things you never thought you were capable of.

It was also very interesting that Brae remains a bit of a mystery throughout as we never see inside his head. We know he cares for both girls but for the most part I could not guess whether he is in love with one or the other, or both, or if he even thinks of either romantically at all. I can’t wait to see this love story develop!

The only issues that I had with the novel are very small. I felt that the party, including the setting up and the cleaning up, which is part of the introduction to Jasmine’s home life, dragged on for too long. It seems that the purpose was to introduce Jasmine’s friends and their powers and to let us know that Brae is worried about her and knows something is wrong, but I think there could have been a different way to do this. In fact the aftermath is actually the most interesting part of this scene and so maybe the party could have been summed up in a few lines and then we learn more in the following section. This was the only part that I skim read – and I’m glad I didn't put the book down because I would have missed out on a great story.

One other tiny issue is that when describing a certain power of the Helians the phrase ‘like honey’ is overused. It is a very effective description but it is used several times within the same scene, or scenes which are very close together. As I say this was just a tiny detail that I noticed, and it didn’t tar my enjoyment of the novel.

The ending is very fast-paced and it is one of those endings where you get to that page saying ‘Now you are finished…’ and cry ‘NO! I want to find out what happens next!’ It feels like there is much more to come, in terms of story, but also for the characters; their relationships and personal development.

I feel like there is a lot more to come with this series, and that the story and character development will get better in the following books.