A Shadow Bright and Burning – Jessica Cluess

Henrietta Howel has power over fire, and has therefore always feared being found out by the royal sorcerers, because women should not weld magic. But she is finally discovered, and it turns out that they’ve been waiting for a girl that can weld fire. And so she is apparently the Chosen One.

I enjoyed this story – the set up for the evil beings was pretty original. They’re still not fully explained, so I definitely expect more in future stories. And it’s also pretty clear early on that Nettie is not actually the Chosen One, which was also pretty interesting. This book was definitely heavy on the set up – I’m interested to see where it goes from here.