Trial by Fire is a young adult fantasy novel about Lily Proctor, a shy and awkward teenager who is transported to an alternate universe where she is a powerful witch. In this world, witches are feared and persecuted, and Lily must use her newfound powers to save herself and the people she loves.

The novel is full of action, adventure, and romance, and it will keep readers hooked from beginning to end. Lily is a well-developed and, while not always likable, relatable character and the plot is full of twists and turns. Angelini's writing is beautiful and lyrical, and she brings the world of New Salem to life. Overall, Trial by Fire is a fast-paced and exciting novel that will appeal to fans of fantasy and adventure. I recommend it to others.

I absolutely loved Josephine's Starcrossed series and Trail by Fire did not disappoint! The world building was lush and character growth was great and the slow-burn tension between Lily and Tristan was oh-so good.

A girl who is literally too good for this world (it's trying to kill her via allergies) discovers she's very important in an alternate universe, where she has powers and everyone loves her. This is nothing special, and the writing is mediocre.

Everyone was talking about this book and I just had to have it and see if it lived up to the hype. Now I'm not usually one of those readers but when your friend tells you that you have to read a book, I usually listen to them. So I gave it a try and I wasn't disappointed, not in the least. I loved this book! So much so that I now own a copy on my favorites shelf. I couldn't get enough of this book. I need more from these characters and this author.

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: This novel was an original, interesting story that I found lots of fun.

Opening Sentence: Lily Proctor ducked into the girls’ room, already yanking back her rebellious hair.

The Review:

Lily is desperately sick. Anything, the most random items, can trigger a seizure or a fever. Her only comfort is her good friend Tristan, who recently became something more. She’s determined to seal the deal of being his girlfriend at a party, but it doesn’t go as planned, finding Tristan and another girl naked in the bathroom. In her anger, she hears a voice, asking her if she wants to leave this place. She says yes. How was she to know that the voice was herself in a parallel universe, and that she would show up in a parallel Salem, Massachusetts where witchcraft and bug monsters ran wild? In this new world, Lilly is no longer weak, because she discovers that she is a crucible and how to keep crucibles strong. She wants to go home, back to her sister and her mother (who is veering towards insane). But it’s not that easy. She’ll need to find the Shamen. She’ll need to avoid Lillian, who is desperate to use her for some unknown task, and cannot be trusted. After all, Lillian has murdered many outlanders out of spite, to make examples. And along the way she’ll need to fight her growing attraction to Rowan, because with her end goal of going home and his hesitance to trust her, it’s a relationship that won’t work out.

I haven’t read many parallel universe books. There aren’t a ton of YA ones out there. But Trial By Fire instantly intrigued me. The first thing that caught my eye was the cover. Look at it — it’s so pretty and unique! I love the castle and the font that the title is in. The second thing that hooked me in were all of the rave reviews. Quite a few reviewers that I respect had a lot of fun reading Trial By Fire. There were a couple that were disappointed, but many more found themselves enjoying it. The final reason that made me excited to delve into the story was the synopsis. The mixture of Salem witchcraft and parallel universes, science and magic — that is original. So I began to read. The first time around, I had been reading multiple books, so I must admit that I got sidetracked and stopped reading altogether. It wasn’t that I disliked it, but I had more pressing reviews that needed to be written. The second time, I was prepared to stick with the novel, and I opened the book excited to start over fresh. It was definitely a worthwhile read!

I felt so bad for Lily. She’s sick, and most of the time she grows sick without explanation. She wants to be strong, she wants to be an asset to her family and friends, but even she can admit that she’s dragging them down. I connected with Lily, which I sometimes find hard to do if a character is in third person, so kudos to the author. Anyway, her only reassurance is her longtime friend Tristan. Yes, he’s a player. Okay, so maybe he’s slept with most of the girls in school and never called them. But Lily (thinks) she’s in love with him. So when he kisses her, she dreams of him changing his ways and them having a happy ending… Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen. After a disastrous fight, she gets whisked away to a parallel universe and she realizes that she is a crucible, with the potential to become a witch. Lily grows so much over the course of this book. There is a constant issue of how far is too far and does the end justify the means? Lily tries to stick to her stubborn beliefs, and I respected her for that, even if sometimes that made her choices stupid.

The love triangle wasn’t really a love triangle. There are two guys vying for her attention: parallel universe Tristan (for the sake of convenience, in this review, I’ll call him Pristan; yes, it sounds ridiculous) and Rowan. Pristan is alike in many ways to Tristan whom she left behind. She tries to judge him for him and not in comparison to Tristan, but finds it hard not to notice the mannerisms that make him so alike — the flirting, the confident walk. Rowan is strong, but has serious trust issues. After all, when he fell in love with Lillian (Lily’s parallel counterpart) she betrayed him and murdered thousands of people. So he’s hesitant. Lily never really gives Pristan a real chance. It’s a Rowan/Lilly pairing. It’s a slow burn sort of romance, taking a lot of time to develop, though the chemistry is obviously there, and then beginning all at once.

Lillian was the final character I wanted to talk about. She’s clearly the antagonist. She’s killed so many. But she also is determined to use Lilly to do something that we don’t discover in this book, presumably we’ll find out in the next. I hated her, but I also am very curious as to why she went through all this trouble to find a girl she knew would oppose her. I’m super excited for the second book of the Worldwalker trilogy! I found this book a lot of fun, with action, magic, and plot twists. Certain parts grew slow, but the author’s simple but beautiful writing and the urge to discover what happened made me read on. I would recommend this to parallel universe fans and witch fans. It’s something that I think you will enjoy!

Notable Scene:

“My mother,” Lily said, her voice catching. “She’ll-”

“She’ll suffer more with a sickly daughter like you in her life than out of it. Believe me.” Lillian’s eyes drilled into Lily’s, cold and unrelenting.”You’re useless in your world. Worse. You’re a burden. But here, where you belong, you could be the most powerful woman in the world.”

Lily didn’t have much experience with hate. She didn’t even hate her dad for abandoning her, even though no one would have blamed her if she did. But as she watched Lillian finish her bitter speech, she realized that she hated her.

FTC Advisory: Feiwel & Friends/Macmillan provided me with an ARC of Trial by Fire. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review. In addition, I don’t receive affiliate fees for anything purchased via links from my site.

I was unable to finish the book, but thank you for the opportunity.

Witches. Alternate universes. Romance. This comes across as a really awesome book - especially for a certain YA audience. But you need more than a spell-binding subject to hold a reader.

The story deals with Lily Proctor (and BOOM - literary allusion and a connection with witchcraft). Lily has a number of allergies - many life-threatening - which keeps her from enjoying the teenage life that most high-schoolers get to enjoy. She's determined to get out an enjoy at least one party but is totally embarrassed and wishes she could disappear. Wham! She's now in a different Salem, with horrible creatures and strong women called Crucibles (hmm...let's get heavy-handed with allusions). In New Salem, everything that made Lily an oddball freak among her peers now makes her a force to be reckoned with. But the Lily who had been in New Salem is now taking her place in the Old Salem. Is either Lily living a life without danger. Is she a threat to herself?

This sounded like a pretty interesting book but I mostly found it just dull.

There are the usual YA tropes: a young girl whom no one understands; a young girl all alone against the world; a young girl who is needed for her ability which no one else can do; brooding and lots of pathos from the central character. While I'm not a fan of this typical YA style, I can work with it if the story (or character or SOMEthing) sucks me.

But nothing did.

Okay...I'm not a teenage girl and never have been, so I recognize that there are things I'll just never experience, but Lily's obsession with 'bad' boys (the cheating dude in Old Salem and the rough dude in New Salem) is on her. It's really sad when a book about a teenage girl isn't really so much about her but about two guys and how she feels about them.

I give this two stars because the idea is interesting but the execution fails.

Looking for a good book? Trial by Fire by Josephine Angelini is a YA book full of the typical teen-girl angst , but instead of offering up a heroine who inspires we get just another girl who's too good to be true - naturally, she doesn't have to work for it - but who lets herself be consumed by the bad boys around her.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

I will not be reviewing this novel at this time, but thank the publisher for the ability to read this in advance.