Author: Rae Carson
Edition: Paperback
Published: September 20, 2011
Publisher: Greenwillow
Pages: 423
Source: Bought from Fully Booked
Category: Romance, Fantasy
Trailer: Here.
Synopsis:
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've always been a fan of high fantasy and and anything that would fall into the bucket of kings and queens will definitely win my heart. So does this one.
Elisa is a fat princess who bears the Godstone. She's sixteen and married to King Alejandro in exchange for her father's troops. She is no warrior but she's smart. One fine day, her maid kidnaps her and brings her to a dessert where she meets new friends and where she sees what is the really situation of her people. Everyone believes she's the one to save them but she knows nothing about the power of the Godstone, she has to defeat several animagis that perform sorcery and she has to find a way to save Humberto and friends from getting killed.
I loved the fact that Carson wrote a novel that shows its foundations: women empowerment. It is not everyday that one can come across with a novel like this. Aside from the rich world-building she molded for the story to happen onto, the plot itself is phenomenal. The vividness of the desert, the mountains and the castles is just breath taking and each character is full of life that it leaps from pages straight to the heart.
The characters are so real that I almost feel like they are clutching my insides every turn I make on the novel. Elisa is my favorite, not because she is the protagonist but the why Carson presented her made me love the character. Elisa is fat and she most of the time feel useless. But she gradually changed as the novel progressed and it really took time and magnitude of physical effort before she noticed her overhaul. Elisa carried women in such a way that passion, wit, determination and resiliency became high lights of strength. Not only that, Aneaxi, Ximena, Mara and Cosme are women that showcased strength emotionally and physically and that no matter how hard life is, we are all capable of love and respect. And the men in the novel showed different levels of emotion, it rings and vibrates as loud as their heartbeats. It gained respect. Alejandro, Hector and Humberto may be different characters altogether but they are all strong, true and capable of expressing love.
Carson surely knows how to entice a reader. I almost heard the rip in my chest because of so much pain. She had eliminated a few lovely characters that seriously made me recoil, but ended up loving it still. I may also have a few things I didn't agree on like how in the world Elisa had been kidnapped in a well-guarded palace with a petite maid, but the pain of the deaths compensated it. Sad reality but it made the novel stand out.
The Girl of Fire and Thorns is steadfast. It exudes strength and heart that I've never seen before. It is a book that would make you glide page to page to be buried in its rich and wonderful world. I am so pleased with it that I am really looking forward to reading Crown of Embers!
Cheers, Rae!
VERDICT:
“From the mouth of the innocent flows truth.”
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