Fire

Fire by Kristin Cashore

Book 5 of 100 for the 100+ Reading Challenge
Book 4 of 50 for the RYOB Challenge
Book 3 of 50 for the YA Reading Challenge
Book 2 of 10 for the Book Awards IV Reading Challenge

Award: Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2009

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Fire is Kristin Cashore's companion book to Graceling and takes place about 30 years prior. For me, there really was no need to make them companion books with one cross-over character. Instead, I really liked this book entirely for what it is by itself. In Fire, Cashore has created a tangibly exotic world with well-drawn characters and a suspenseful plot.

Fire is a seventeen year old woman who lives in the northern part of the kingdom. She is a fiddler, a horsewoman, and a pretty decent archer. She's also the last of the human monsters--half human, half monster--in a world where monsters have indescribable beauty and are both revered and hated. Fire has the ability to read minds and to alter the way people think and feel. But because of her past, she refuses to use her powers until the kingdom is threatened and those she loves are in the greatest danger.

I liked this book even better than Graceling.  I think Cashore does a fabulous job putting the reader right into the action and helping us understand the personalities, strengths, weaknesses, and emotions of the characters. I thought Fire was a great heroine but I also loved the different men in her life and the complex relationships she had with each of them. There was enough romance in this book to keep me turning pages far too late into the night. Because of sexual themes and violence, I would recommend this book for high school age and up.

Also reviewed by:

• Book Nut
• The Book Nest
• At Home With Books 
• TV and Book Addict
  
• Reading Keeps You Sane 
• One Librarian's Book Reviews 
• Presenting Lenore 
• SciFiGuy.ca 
• Melissa's Bookshelf 
• In Bed With Books 
• A Patchwork of Books 
• Alaine - Queen of Happy Endings
  

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Source: Purchased