Synopsis:
A kingdom in shadow. A witch on the run. A pirate crew in search of a legend.
Stephanie Slagle’s debut YA fantasy novel combines the high-seas adventure of Pirates of the Caribbean with elemental magic—and dragons!
………Rai knows the day anyone learns she can see the future in fire is the day she will be murdered.
In her world, witches who possess fire magic are blamed for the fall of the land to the Shadows, monsters of darkness who swept through the kingdom like a plague, killing and kidnapping thousands. Three years after the invasion, only the bayou lands remain unscathed. Now sixteen, Rai lives in the swamp with her younger sister, Elianna, and their grandmother, keeping her head low and just trying to survive. Until in a single night, Rai’s magic is discovered and her grandmother is captured by Shadows.
Rai and Elianna barely escape, only to fall into the hands of a pirate crew under the command of Captain Adeline, the most fearsome pirate on the Black Sea. But instead of turning them in for a bounty, the captain approaches them with a surprising proposition: she’ll let Rai and Elianna live, unharmed, if Rai agrees to lend her magic and join the pirate crew on a voyage to a long-lost island. An island that’s said to be home to creatures of legend and the key to stopping the Shadow invasion once and for all: dragons.
With dragons on her side, Rai could keep Elianna safe, rescue their grandmother, and fly far away and finally be free. So, she agrees to the risky proposition. But she soon discovers just how dangerous the journey across the sea will be—and how much it will cost her to push the limits of her magic.
Perfect for fans of:
-elemental magic
-a slow-burn romance between a witch and a pirate
-complicated sister relationships
-action & adventure on the high seas
-DRAGONS (and mermaids)
Shop The Book: The Girl Who Dreams In Fire
Shop My Stack: 2026 Books Read
Ooh, I really, really loved this book. I love the idea of fantasy novels: the magical realms, the dragons, the mermaids, the pirates. What I don’t love is when a fantasy gets so deep into its world building that you practically need to study a whole lexicon of made-up language just to follow along. That’s honestly what keeps me from picking up a lot of fantasy, because I tend to assume most of it will be difficult to read. This one wasn’t. It reads like a gripping thriller set in a fantasy world, and I loved that about it.
The Story
Sixteen-year-old Rai knows the day anyone discovers she can see the future in fire is the day she’ll be killed. In her world, fire witches are blamed for the fall of the kingdom to the Shadows, monsters of darkness who swept through the land killing and kidnapping thousands. Rai lives quietly in the bayou with her younger sister, Elianna, and their grandmother, until one night her magic is discovered and her grandmother is taken by the Shadows. The sisters barely escape, only to land in the hands of Captain Adeline, the most fearsome pirate on the Black Sea, who offers them a deal: their lives in exchange for Rai’s magic on a voyage to a long-lost island said to be home to dragons.
Reading Experience
I was enamored and swept away from the very beginning. The opening scene of the witches burning had me immediately. It was so heartbreaking, vivid, and descriptive that it put me right in the moment, and the story didn’t let up until the very end.
Writing Style
This book feels written for anyone to pick up and enjoy, whether you’re a fantasy reader or not. With found family, adventure, and thriller elements woven in, there’s something here for most readers.
It’s also so emotionally heavy for these characters. You can feel the weight of the quest they’re on and how much is riding on it for each of them. That makes so many of the characters likable. You want to trust them, and you want them to come together and work as a team, even when a little voice in the back of your mind tells you they probably won’t. That makes the twists and betrayals hurt that much more if and when they come.
Characters
Witches, townspeople, pirates, dragons, mermaids. I love, love, loved how all of these mythical and magical beings were pieced together in such a believable way. The world feels grounded and real, so it makes complete sense that fire witches exist in it, that pirates roam the waters and know exactly what those witches can do, and that mermaids and dragons fit in seamlessly alongside them.
The characters have so much color and vibrance. Even with an entire pirate crew on the page, each one has a distinct personality and is easy to tell apart. You know who you love and who you don’t, who you’re rooting for, who you hope ends up on the right side, and who you suspected all along. And the two sisters had my whole heart from the very beginning to the very end.
My absolute all-time favorite character, though? Nadi the raven. IYKYK
Heartbeat
For me, the heartbeat of this book is family, survival, and staying true to who you are and what you’re destined to be. It’s about how far you’ll go to protect your family when they’re all you have and they mean everything to you. It’s about surviving a world that wants you gone, having to trust people just to stay alive, while knowing that in the end, it’s really just you and your family against it all. And it’s about holding on to who you are when who you are is punishable by death, and not just death, but a slow, torturous, horrific one.
Final Thoughts
This is absolutely a fantastic fantasy novel. But if you love adventure or thrillers and fantasy isn’t usually your thing, I really encourage you to give this one a try. It’s so well written that I think you’d still enjoy it.
ARC provided via Books and Bloom PR. All thoughts are my own.
Stephanie Slagle is the author of the Extraction series (as Stephanie Diaz), a YA sci-fi trilogy published by St. Martin’s Press/Macmillan. The Girl Who Dreams in Fire is her debut YA fantasy and her first foray into the world of indie publishing. She is also a freelance editor who has helped numerous writers with their books over the last ten years.
She lives in San Diego, CA, with her husband and toddler. When she isn’t editing books, sneaking in some writing time, or taking her son on adventures around the city, she loves hiking, traveling, watching funny TV shows, and playing board games.
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