Book Review: The Girl of Fire and Thorns

The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Source: library

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.

I almost didn't read this one after reading a couple of bad reviews. I'm so glad I did, because I ended up loving it. Just goes to show that you should take reviews with a grain of salt. If something sounds good to you, give it a go; everyone likes different things, even if they agree most of the time.

The Girl of Fire and Thorns reminds me a bit of Tamora Pierce's writing. There is a strong female lead and plenty of action. Elisa was a hard character to like at first, because she seemed so down on herself for certain things with no real plans to change anything about it. But she definitely grew stronger as the story went on, and became a character that young girls could look up to, which I love to see in YA fiction.

There was honestly nothing in this book that I didn't care for, which is unusual for me. Usually when I'm writing reviews all the bad stuff is forefront on my mind, and it's hard for me to write positive things, even for books I liked. This book had no negatives for me, and I'm definitely looking forward to reading more by this author.

Oh, I almost forgot to comment on the religious aspects of this book.  It felt like I was reading a Christian fantasy.  There was a lot of God talk, and although Christ was not mentioned at all, it just had a very Christian feel, to me.  I guess since it's fantasy, and could be any world at all, it could be talking about any God at all.  But like I said, it just had a feel to it.