Blog Tour: Fire by Heather James

Fire by Heather James

Published: January 2013
Series: Elements of Fire 
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Visit the series at http://heatherfjames.blogspot.co.uk/p/home.html

 About Fire from goodreads:

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.

Fire is a young adult fantasy story with Jasmine and Roxy as main characters. Heather James use both of them to show us two different points of view. These girls are extremes, one extroverted and free, the other introverted and secretive. During the story both of them find a point in common when both of them converge with similar feelings towards their male counterpart. During a relevant climatic set of events where his well being is threaten, the best and the worst emerge from these girls. It is in that moment in the story that Roxy won me and Jasmine looked the worst to me.

The end of this book has an ending open to adventure. Also, it was an ending where I wish Roxy could speak. I really hope Roxy have the opportunity to redeem herself in the next book. Roxy is the character who showed more development. Both Jasmine and Roxy are well thought characters that easily can support a series.

The writing style of James is entertaining and keeps the reader turning pages. The idea of Fire is engaging. It reminds me to the animation series Avatar The Last Airbender with the use of the concept of power to manipulate the elements. I recommend Fire for YA readers, Fantasy readers and well, readers in general. Fire is a good introduction for new fantasy readers.

INTERVIEW :

As part of this blog tour we have the visit of author Heather James for a quick interview.

What literary genres do you read? Has any story being the literary fuel to inspire you in writing Fire? I read a lot of YA, particularly fantasy and paranormal novels. I don't think that any one story inspired Fire, but I can think of a lot of writers who have probably influenced my writing style: J K Rowling and Meg Cabot are two of the biggest, since I read so much of their work growing up.

What inspirations are behind the groups in Fire? The Realms were actually taken from an earlier story idea which was all about pirates (I think the third POTC film had just come out at the time). After an opening that I'm still really proud of, the rest of the story faltered and I gave up on it, but I kept the idea of the element-based groups for another work. When I started on a fantasy story, everything fell into place.

Is any of the characters more dear to you? Why? I love Roxy and Jasmine equally - they are both very different and Fire wouldn't work without either of them, as they compliment each other so well. And there are very different things that I like when I write about them - neither react to situations in the way that I would, so there's always a lot to think about.

Do you plan on continuing the series with the same characters or do you plan to show us other characters developing in this same world? The next two books in the series, Water and Air, will focus on the same characters and general plot line. I am toying with the idea of writing a compilation of short stories about different characters and releasing it as 'Earth', but I haven't decided on anything yet, other than that these particular characters will only be the focus of three books.

Any quick words for your readers? If you have already read Fire, then thank you very much - especially for all of the amazing feedback and support I have received. If you haven't, then please check it out soon, I would love to hear what you think.