Fire by Kristin Cashore

Synopsis:
She is the last of her kind...

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.

Exquisitely romantic, this companion to the highly praised Graceling has an entirely new cast of characters, save for one person who plays a pivotal role in both books. You don’t need to have read Graceling to love Fire. But if you haven’t, you’ll be dying to read it next.

My Review:
Another great read by Kristin Cashore! I love how she creates strong female characters that fight for themselves physically and are very intelligent and have a mind of their own. I started to listen to the audibook because “Graceling” was so well done and I thought this would be the same. I was wrong. This audiobook was done by Penguin instead of Full Cast Audio and they had one British woman do all the narration and the voices and it just felt all wrong to me. But reading the book was great and if you want a story about a woman’s adventure through life, loss, and love then this is the book for you. This book is a companion to “Graceling” but it is a story that stands on its own. While this book was entertaining to read I would not consider it light what with all the battle scenes, number of injuries, and emotionally draining situations the characters went through. I hate to compare it to “Graceling” but in terms of characters and storyline I have to say I liked “Graceling” so much more. I also think there was a bit more humor in “Graceling” which lightened the mood a bit in tense situations and there just was not much humor in “Fire.” But I love this series and I can’t wait for Cashore to write another book so I will be waiting with fingers crossed for another adventure through Seven Kingdoms soon!

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Synopsis:Katsa has been able to kill a man with her bare hands since she was eight—she’s a Graceling, one of the rare people in her land born with an extreme skill. As niece of the king, she should be able to live a life of privilege, but Graced as she is with killing, she is forced to work as the king’s thug. She never expects to fall in love with beautiful Prince Po. She never expects to learn the truth behind her Grace—or the terrible secret that lies hidden far away . . . a secret that could destroy all seven kingdoms with words alone. With elegant, evocative prose and a cast of unforgettable characters, debut author Kristin Cashore creates a mesmerizing world, a death-defying adventure, and a heart-racing romance that will consume you, hold you captive, and leave you wanting more.

My Review:
I loved this book! I actually listened to the audio book and thought it was spectacular. At first I did not like the fact that it was narrated by a man because in my mind if the main character is s woman than it should be a woman's voice. But I soon go over hat once I listened to the first few chapters and realized how amazing it was. All the voices were gender and age appropriate and they really brought the characters to life for me. Not that this is hard to do considering what an amazing world Kristin Cashore created. I loved that the main character Katsa was not only a strong and independent woman but that she could fight and defend herself because of her killing grace. This brought complexity to her character because she had to grapple with having such immense power to do good or evil while being an outsider and discriminated against. I just love Po and Katsa together because they did not have a traditional relationship where the guy gets all bent out of shape if his girl gets hurt. He understood her and knew she did not need protection but that she welcomed danger.

I thought it was interesting the way in which Cashore explored issues of marriage and having a family in what is considered to be a young adult book. But it makes sense because everyone has to come to a decision about this one day and it is good to explore the reasons why those things are important to a person at an early age.

I so wanted to cry toward the end because of something that happens to one of the characters. It really made me consider what it would be like if something so important was taken away from you and how to survive that loss. Overall great book and I was satisfied with the way it ended only because I know there is a third book in the “Seven Kingdoms Series” which will continue with the story.