My debut novel is not the book I expected to write
We all love a good tropes graphic
When I first conceptualized Fire to the Stars, I was a nobody writer who had two simple but fun tropes on her agenda: the hunter x hunted romance trope, and dragon shifters. I hadn’t seen this combination in the YA space (it might’ve existed, but none came up in my research at the time). This marvelous seed of a story grew roots in my brain for almost a year before I actually sat down to write it. And when I finally did…
it did not have the emotional tone I intended.
It was all because of the dragon magic.
A bit about the magic system in FTTS: The dragon shifting is involuntary. It’s a curse that dooms a person to become a dragon and burn everyone around them during a monthly solar event. Werewolf rules in daylight, basically. In many ways, the curse represents someone who cannot change intrinsic pieces of themselves—pieces that society tells them they should hate. In the book, Claire fights to hold onto those pieces. Abel was raised to ensure those pieces don’t survive. He is very, very good at his job—until the system he supports burns him, and he’s forced to question its validity.
As I developed the plot and characters around the mechanics of the dragon curse (and its inherent loss of bodily autonomy), I realized something that was frankly scary for me as an author: the banter-filled romantasy I had initially planned had a dark underbelly. Precarious, polarizing themes had reared up from the premise that, if I ignored them, would undermine the emotional and physical toll of existing in a world where magic is designed to ostracize and punish people for their “wrongness.” If I wanted to write a true redemption quest for my hunter, I had to fully lean into the misdeeds and consequences for the hunter AND the hunted, or they wouldn’t truly represent the cruel environment that raised them.
Redemption is cheap if the heroes were never truly invested in the wrong belief system.
This book is upper YA romantasy, and fits snugly alongside similar titles: Cruel is the Light, To Kill a Kingdom, Heartless Hunter, Serpent & Dove, Only a Monster, We Hunt the Flame… but I won’t lie: it gets heavy at times. It doesn’t shy away from the dark, ugly effects of the dragon curse, nor the impossible choices the characters must make in their attempts to do the right thing. No one involved is ever fully good.
Remorse is a big theme of this book. An even bigger theme is perseverance.
Embracing that duality made Fire to the Stars what it is today.
If I had succumbed to my fear of polarizing readers, the manuscript would be a disingenuous mess, trying to please everyone and thus pleasing no one. My agent and editor would not have so strongly connected to it.
So, when you pick up FTTS, expect moral grayness. Expect terrible mistakes. Expect characters who wield the power to break each other—or heal each other.
Advance reader copies are now available for request on Edelweiss and Netgalley.* Thank you to everyone who has shown early interest. Every honest review helps this book find its audience.
FTTS releases in the US and Canada on August 4.
*The ARCs don’t have content warnings, but I pushed for them in the printed copy. If you need mental health preparation before you read, you can find them here. I wrote this book with people like you at the forefront of my mind. I see you, friend. I hope you find Claire and Abel’s fight for survival as cathartic as I did while writing it.