By: Rae Carson
Category: Young Adult Fantasy/Adventure
Stars: *****
"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, and 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 her to be 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."
So as I was typing the words on the flap, I realized why it took me so long to pick up this book in the first place-it doesn't tell you anything about what the story is actually about (mostly)! Still, what drew me to the book was the cover http://www.amazon.com/Girl-Fire-Thorns-Rae-Carson/dp/0062026488/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1326921018&sr=8-1 Yeah, I'm one of those-I get suckered in by covers-often to my disappointment.
This book captured me from the first page, though, and pulled me right along. The story centers around the youngest princess of a successful kingdom, a quiet girl who enjoys her sweets (as others are quick to point out her...girth), lives in the shadow of her perfect and beautiful older sister, and living with a small blue sapphire inserted into her naval-a Godstone, a sign that she has been chosen to do remarkable things...even if no one is certain what exactly those things are.
Elisa is to be secretly married off to king Alejandro from a neighboring kingdom, though things don't go right from the beginning. She's not attractive to Alejandro (he uses the 'lets just be friends' speech!), they're attacked on their way home, and once there, she's shoved head first into the intrigues of the palace.
Things go from bad to worse when it's discovered she has the Godstone and is kidnapped by a group of rebels who think that she could be the key to getting what they want-freedom from the king, and land of their own. Along the way, she meets Humberto, a member of the rebel group, with whom she feels a connection that she hasn't felt with Alejandro.
The characters are great in this story, and Elisa really develops as a character. You get to see her grow from a weak young girl to a woman who could become a wonderful queen. There are characters you love to hate, or want to shake sense into. The culture of the world is well described, with a strong Spanish and possibly Catholic influence (at least, that's what I got from it).
For a first book, Rae Carson did an excellent job and I'm hoping that this is the first book in a series, because it certainly could be. On the other hand, if she finished it here, it's still a good as a stand alone novel.
PS: I let my mom borrow it, and she read it in less than a day, and loved it. And it's gotten good reviews on Amazon. So that says something at least. ^_^
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