The Girl of Fire and Thorns

The Girl of Fire and Thorns (Fire and Thorns #1)

Rae Carson

Pages: 424

Publisher: Greenwillow

Format: Hardcover

Source: Library

Age Group: Young Adult

Date Published: September 20, 2011

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.

OKAY, so I've been told a couple of times to read this book, and then I found it at my library and then I read it and could not put it down. This book is insanely captivating. The plot and story is like old-school YA. Not a ton of romance, or vampires/werewolves/aliens/what-have-you, it's like action. With an awesome heroine, who does ALL OF THE SAVING. She don't need no man. (I wanted to say that so bad) And the character development is brilliant. And so is the world-building. And the plot wrenches one's poor little heart, and I barely have one left- my English teacher even likened it to the color of my hair (very, very dark)- and it still wrenched. It was THAT AMAZING.

So, Elisa is turning 16, and it's her wedding day. She's a princess and is being married off to some foreign king. She's really petulant and whiny, and finds solace in food. That is to say, she's described as a big girl. She marries the king (who is very nice and not so bad to look at either), and they go off (with her nurse and maid, and, you know, his entourage) to his kingdom. I forgot to mention she has this thing in her bellybutton called a Godstone- which means that she has been chosen by God to do something great. The Godstone answers her prayers and gives her warnings by heating up or getting really cold. It's neat and really, really different. She ends up meeting this awesome guy named Humberto (who is her age, unlike the king, who has a young son), and there is kind of a romance there. Most of the plot is centered on this impending attack from this group called the Invierne, and Elisa's role in helping defeat them.

Like I said earlier, Elisa was really immature at the beginning of the book. But, as the story went on, she matured and became an amazing leader and a really strong heroine. Now, I've read reviews where people said they didn't like her 'til the end, but I felt for her the entire book. She was never annoying, she was just sheltered and lonely, and she had to come out of her shell. I thought it was really cool that, as her personality changed for the better, she lost weight and took better care of herself. And the fact that she basically has to pray to keep her life together (this is literally a thing near the end of the book because of her Godstone) is really neat. The whole book is just really fun to read and so interesting.

I love how different is from other YA. I hadn't even realized I was tired of what I was reading until I read this book! It is amazingly well-written, and I highly recommend it! This is DEFINITELY a 5 'stache book :D