Trial By Fire by Josephine Angelini
WOW! This book knocked my socks off! This is book one in a planned trilogy. Don’t pass this by because it’s a fantasy about witches. This has a great premise, great writing, super interesting characters. There are witches, alternate worlds, weird/scary creatures trying to kill people, and a heroine that has so many flaws that she should already be dead!
Lily is a Salem, Massachusetts teenager with life-threatening allergies that confound the finest medical minds. She attends a party that turns into a disaster and then mysteriously finds herself in an alternate Salem ruled by witches, the main & baddest one is her alternate self! She learns (maybe a bit to quickly, but that is a minor criticism) to harness her unique gifts because what is deadly to her in our world, makes her a powerful force in the alternate one.
There are very few missteps in this book, Angelini does a masterful job of weaving the story threads without dropping any important plot points. The plot moves along quickly and while there are some points where the reader has to suspend disbelief when things happen very conveniently, I think the reader will be so enthralled by the storyline and fantastic world building that they will be delighted to go along for the ride.