The Fire Artist by Daisy Whitney

A forbidden romance literally heats up in this new fantasy from acclaimed author Daisy Whitney.

Aria is an elemental artist—she creates fire from her hands. But her power is not natural. She steals it from lightning. It’s dangerous and illegal in her world. When she’s recruited to perform, she seizes the chance to get away from her family. But her power is fading too fast to keep stealing from the sky. She has no choice but to turn to a Granter—a modern day genie. She gets one wish at an extremely high price. Aria’s willing to take a chance, but then she falls in love with the Granter . . . and he wants his freedom. Aria must decide what she’s willing to bargain and how much her own heart, body, and soul are worth.

In a world where the sport of elemental powers is the most popular form of entertainment, readers will be swept away by a romance with stakes higher than life and death. 

The Fire Artist was a beautifully and artistically thought out book. It combined pain, romance, and truth to create and astoundingly well-written piece. My first thoughts when I received this book was,"Oh boy, I can't wait to read this!"  As soon as I had opened to the first page, I was already immersed in the story. The author created an emotionally in-depth feeling as I read the story. I felt the pain. I felt the joy. And I felt the passion. The book was amazing. I couldn't put it down.

            The story begins with the main character, Aria, immediately describing to the reader her fire. In Aria's world, certain people are born with the ability to control the elements- earth, air, water, and fire. These people perform for audiences and make lots of money. There are also people who can grant wishes, aka Granters. Aria's parents were both elementalists. Her dad was fire and her mom was water. Her father has forced from a young age to burn her hands in an effort to "make the fire come out". She does not have natural-born fire, so each time he burns her hands, they actually get really burned. He does this everyday for a long time. 

Eventually, Aria becomes fed up with the constant abuse. She promises her bed-ridden mother that she will find her fire and get both her mom and her sister, Jana, out of their father's abusive household. So, Aria gets her best friend, Elise, an air artist, and they head out to steal fire from lightning. Aria's type of fire is illegal and dangerous, and it also burns out over time. Each time she refuels it, it burns away a little of her heart.  Eventually, she gets noticed by the professional league of elementalists and is whisked away to New York. There Aria worries about her fire and desperately tries to find a Granter.  Aria does find a Granter but she has one small problem. She falls in love with him. Now Aria has to decide what she is willing to risk for love.

            This book was well written, but it does have curse words and a few drug references. There is also child abuse and minor violence.  On my "Amazingly Fabulous Book Scale", I would rate this a 9.5 because of emotional depth, plot line, and development of characters. Dare I say it again, I absolutely loved this book! 

*I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.  Hannah