It Started with a Fire

When fire tears through the brand-new student accommodation at the Lynton Stone Art Centre, Jess and her lifelong best friend Lottie are faced with a crisis that could undo everything they have worked so hard to build.The centre was meant to be a place of opportunity, creativity, and fresh starts for five talented young artists arriving from different walks of life. Instead, on the very day their journey is due to begin, Jess and Lottie must find a way to keep the dream alive.As the students are welcomed into unexpected homes, new friendships begin to form, old wounds quietly resurface, and the art centre becomes more than just a place to learn. For Jess, whose life has long been shaped by loss, control, and carefully held memories, the sudden arrival of new people brings warmth, challenge, and change in ways she never expected.Full of heart, humour, friendship, and emotional depth, It Started with a Fire is a moving contemporary novel about found family, creativity, grief, love, and the courage it takes to let life in again.