"Fire" by Kristin Cashore

Title: Fire

Author: Kristin Cashore

Series: Seven Kingdoms, #2

My rating: 4 of 5

(Book read from July 11th to July 13th, 2013.)

Summary:

It is not a peaceful time in the Dells. In King City, the young King Nash is clinging to the throne, while rebel lords in the north and south build armies to unseat him. War is coming. And the mountains and forest are filled with spies and thieves. This is where Fire lives, a girl whose beauty is impossibly irresistible and who can control the minds of everyone around her.

 

My Thoughts on the Book:

 

   

If I rate this book only on originality, this should be a 5-star book, because I absolutely loved the author's idea of monsters, so, so brilliant & amazing & imaginative & original, yet also terrifying.

But, although I still loved this book, it was just something missing here & there.

I loved the opening of the book, it was amazingly done, yet so sad & yeah, totally terrifying.

I really liked Fire as a character, she's quite the strong heroine, and I was sad about her & what she is, and how all of that influences her life, since she can't really have an ordinary life.

Thinking back, a lot of the things in this book made me quite sad, no matter if they've happened before, and they're only mentioned or revealed, or they're happening at the moment in the book. Yeah, this was a heartbreaking book.

As for Archer, although maybe a little bit annoying, he was still likable enough, and to be honest, I just felt so sorry for him. I won't mention exactly why, because that will spoil the story, but yeah, I was sad about him.

I also really liked all the secondary characters, although I won't mention them by name, since they were a lot. But, the one I have to mention is of course Brigan. I liked him a lot as a character, although I felt sad about him, too, but at least he has some happiness in his life. I liked the interactions between Fire & Brigan, they were sweet.

 

Of course there's the whole political intrigue & war, and all of that, and what Fire does to help them all, and I enjoyed all of that. The epic "showdown" was great, and oh, so sad & heartbreaking, but I loved it.

What I didn't like was what happened after that. I just felt that it kinda dragged the story, and it should've happened a little bit quicker, and all of that, it just really dragged for me, and I was becoming irritated & I kept thinking "Come on, just end already!" - so that's the kind of thing that will diminish my enjoyment in a book. Before this, I would've probably rated the book 4.5, although I'm not 100% sure.

Still, Fire is a great companion to Graceling, and once more Kristin Cashore shows her original imagination & talent for writing a great fantasy story, set in an amazing fantasy world, and I recommend it a lot!

 

Challenges:

 

2013 TBR Pile Challenge

2013 Books-In-A-Series Reading Challenge