Girl of Fire & Thorns by Rae Carson Series: Fire & Thorns #1
Published by Greenwillow on September 2011
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
Pages: 423
Format: ebook
Source: My copy
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Once a century, one person is chosen for greatness.
Elisa is the chosen one.But she is also the younger of two princesses, the one who has never done anything remarkable. She can't see how she ever will.
Now, on her sixteenth birthday, she has become the secret wife of a handsome and worldly king—a king whose country is in turmoil. A king who needs the chosen one, not a failure of a princess.
And he's not the only one who seeks her. Savage enemies seething with dark magic are hunting her. A daring, determined revolutionary thinks she could be his people's savior. And he looks at her in a way that no man has ever looked at her before. Soon it is not just her life, but her very heart that is at stake.
Elisa could be everything to those who need her most. If the prophecy is fulfilled. If she finds the power deep within herself. If she doesn’t die young.
Most of the chosen do.
“Honor from death,” I snap, “is a myth. Invented by the war torn to make sense of the horrific. If we die, it will be so that others may live. Truly honorable death, the only honorable death, is one that enables life.”
This book has been on my to-read list for ages. To be honest if it had been made available as a kindle book in Australia I probably would have read it eons ago but have only just gotten onto it because I spied it in the library while I was there recently. Whinging about the status of ebooks in Australia aside, I was excited to finally read this book and while it didn’t quite live up to some of the hype and expectations I had, it was still a fantastic fantasy read.
The story starts with our heroine’s arranged and political marriage to King Alejandro. At the age of 16, princess Elisa has been honored from birth to be the “bearer” for her generation. The bearer is the person who only once every 100 years is blessed with a godstone on their naming day and are destined for greatness. When you first meet Elisa, greatness seems incredibly far fetched. Instead you meet a heroine who appears to have been molly coddled her entire life and is to be blunt a selfish gluttonous princess who has never had to do anything she didn’t want to in her entire life. Life changes dramatically for Elisa after some extreme changes in circumstances and along with toughing things out for the first time in her life she discovers her purpose to help save her people from magical enemies.
I’m not sure I was really a fan of Elisa though I know many bloggers have hailed her as a likeable heroine. I found things a little too predictable with her growth. After whinging about her weight and frumpiness for the first half of the novel, she then managed to have the fortitude to tough things out in the desert without complaint and get fit and slim with what appeared to be virtually no effort on her part. I also didn’t like that she seemed to fall in love with her captor at one point and instead of feeling fear towards him upon first meeting she mooned over his eyes, this just isn’t realistic in my books! Small complaints aside, Elisa does grow dramatically throughout the course of the story and she really does step up and become a strong honourable heroine by the end of this book and I look forward to seeing how she goes in the remainder of the series.
The actual story was really fantastic, the plot moves at a fast but manageble pace and there is lots of fantastic action scenes to keep the reader intrigued the entire way through. There were some references to me that came a hairs breadth away from religion and christianity but it managed to only make me uncomfortable briefly and for the whole I could enjoy the novel irrespective of my religious beliefs. The story is wrapped up brilliantly and left just enough teasers for book 2 which I now can’t wait to get my hands on!
This is a great fantasy novel for people that just don’t have the time to read adult high fantasy due to the page count. While it isn’t the best one I’ve read recently, it still deserves a look in and I’m extra impressed considering its a debut author!
– Great debut fantasy novel.
Fire & Thorns
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