Review: A Strange Fire

A Strange Fire (Florence Vaine #1)
By L.H. Cosway
Published March 14th, 2012

Flo has always had problems. Her stammer prevents her speech and her dad’s abuse makes her life a living hell. Not to mention she sees colours other people don’t. 

When her dad decides to ship her off to live with her grandma in the sleepy town of Chesterport, Flo thinks that this is her chance for a better life. But on her very first day at her new school she is ridiculed and laughed at for having a stammer. One student sticks up for her and his name is Frank.

Frank’s body is surrounded by an aura of fire, but Flo is the only one who can see it. He lives in a foster home for troubled teenagers. Flo is drawn to him because he’s different and so is she. 

Things are about to get scary, because Chesterport is not your ordinary suburban town. It’s infested by a coven of dark witches who prey on the young and the elderly. Soon Flo discovers that she’s next on their list of victims, and finds herself fighting a battle she never would have imagined possible.

Rating: 3.75 stars

When I first started this book, I wasn't really sure what to expect, but I can honestly say that this book was better than I thought it was going to be.

Flo is definitely a different brand of YA heroine--and I don't mean that in a bad way. She doesn't appear as strong and kick-butt as a lot of other YA girls out there; she's got a bad stammer, she gets nervous easily, and she's very self-conscious. However, throughout this whole book, I think she really came into her own, overcoming her traumatic past and coming to terms with what she can do. She definitely emerged as a stronger person at the end of the book.

I loved the mix of supernatural elements in this book--it's not just a werewolf book or an angel book or a witch book, but a mix of everything! I also enjoyed the suspense in finally finding out what each person was. The whole time I was reading, I was constantly guessing who was what, but the author did a great job keeping me on my toes and surprising me when the truth was finally revealed. 

This world that Cosway has created where all these supernatural beings coexist left me very intrigued and eager to find out more.

This book had a rather slow build-up that wasn't really my kind of thing, but the book is full of creepy moments that made me keep reading. I know this isn't classified as a "scary book," but there were definitely some creeptastic moments that had me chilled to the bone!

All in all: this book was a nice read. Although I wish there might've been some more development in other characters and I felt like the identity of the big bad villain was pretty obvious from the start, this book has a very unique concept that makes me want to read the sequel and find out more about the world and Flo's ability. 

*I received a copy of this book from the ARR program on goodreads in exchange for an honest review