Fire by Kristin Cashore

Book Rating

Blurb

SHE HAS BEEN HIDDEN AWAY.
Now she is choosing to use her power.
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.
Everyone...except Prince Brigan

Review

Fire is a prequel novel to Graceling I will like to say first. You don’t have to read Graceling first. This book is an intriguing. It has war, romance, mystery, and coming out of one's shell and self-acceptance. The plot and idea of the story are so enjoyable to read. When I began reading this, I was caught right away because of the opening scene of the chapter. I didn’t want to stop reading it. So I read it nonstop, and it kept my attention the whole time. The book’s setting definitively helps the story. The warring factions and who they try to recruit. Even though this is not historical fiction, it has that more 18th-century technology and setup of government as an absolute monarch. Though, not all the culture is like the 18th century. Such as women being a part of the military, and they are more equal like in recent times. The Dellian people have their language and culture. For funerals, they burn the bodies and sing what is called the Dellian Lament. There are the main antagonist's plot and the secondary antagonist's plot that intertwine but are separate.

I love the characters. Especially Fire and Brigan. I love how Fire started out with self-doubt and no acceptance of her being a human monster. I love how she over time through the war she starts accepting the fact that she is a human monster and that doesn’t mean she has to be evil. She starts out not wanting to use her abilities for the war but over time she realizes that she can use the abilities of a human monster to help the war. I love Brigan even though he was cold in the beginning. The other characters are amazing and are well developed. They were entertaining to read. They had me laugh, and they had me frown.

I highly recommend this book. Especially those who love Fantasy genre and the Romance genres. There are times when sex is implied, but it is not explicit. So that is why I would categorize this in Teen. It is still a wonderful read, and I also recommend it to adults too. This book definitely categorizes as a favorite for me. Hope you give this a chance.