About the Book
It Started with a Fire
Jess and Lottie have always been inseparable. Friends from a young age, bound by their shared love of art, they have spent years turning a dream into reality — the Lynton Stone Art Centre, a beautiful space where creativity thrives and students are nurtured.
Tragedy strikes at their doorstep when a devastating fire threatens to destroy everything they have worked for. Amidst the chaos, Jess is forced to confront her own insecurities and step up to care for a young American student who becomes an unexpected guest in her home. What begins as a crisis slowly transforms into something she could never have planned for.
With a blend of friendship, resilience, and new beginnings, It Started with a Fire is a journey of overcoming adversity and embracing what truly matters — family, love, and a sense of belonging.
A taste of the story
From the pages of It Started with a Fire
“The fire that threatens to destroy them is the thing that changes everything. Jess had never imagined that standing in the ruins of everything she had built could feel like the beginning of something — but there, amidst the smoke and the ash, she saw it clearly for the first time.”
- It Started with a Fire
- Jane Taylor
When the newly built student accommodation at the Lynton Stone Art Centre goes up in flames the night before the first cohort of students is due to arrive, Jess Stone’s carefully ordered world is thrown into chaos. With five talented young people suddenly without a place to stay, the community rallies — and Jess finds herself opening her home to Sian, a spirited young American student from California who arrives at the worst possible moment and lights up everything around her.
As the academic year unfolds, Jess navigates insurance investigations, the return of a ghost from her past, the terrifying uncertainty of a health scare for Lottie, and the quiet, aching loneliness of a life she has never quite allowed herself to fully live. And then, on a moonlit bench in the centre’s garden, she meets a stranger — and nothing will ever be quite the same again.
It Started with a Fire is a warm, deeply felt novel about the families we are born into, the families we choose, and the moments that have the power to change us forever.
