The Girl of Fire and Thorns
Author: Rae Carson
Publisher: Greenwillow
Series: Fire and Thorns #1
Pages: 423

Summary:

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. (Goodreads)

My Thoughts:

I should have reviewed this book a long time ago right after I read it so that it was more fresh in my mind. I'll try anyway. I do remember that I enjoyed it. This is another book with a bunch of mixed reviews.

Elisa has been chosen to bear the Godstone in her navel. She doesn't know why she was the chosen one and doesn't understand how she will ever live up to her destiny. When she turns 16 she is married to a very important and handsome king, but he wants to keep the marriage a secret for now. Elisa is hunted for her Godstone. The enemies want that power for themselves and they are willing to kill for it. Will she be able to fulfill the prophecy or will she die like so many of the chosen before her?

I really liked that Elisa wasn't the typical beautiful, dainty princess. She was overweight and had a love for food, but she was also very intelligent. I'm not totally sure why she had such a relationship with food as that was never explained unless that's just the way she was. Another thing I liked was that this wasn't really a love story. It was more of a story of transformation. You really get to watch Elisa grow into a strong, confident, capable, and determined woman who was ready to battle.

All of the characters were great and they were all different and had their own personalities. The cover is beautiful and the title of the book is nice although I can't really figure out what the title has to do with the story itself. I may be totally missing something but I just don't get it.

I did like this book and I will be getting around to the second one some time. Have any of you read this book? If so, what are your thoughts?

*I purchased this book myself.

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When did you first know you wanted to write?

It was 1966 and I was ten years old. My dad was in the armed forces and was

transferred a lot. About every three years we packed everything up and headed for

another army base in yet another province. This time the destination was Camp

Petawawa in Ontario, a good two-day trip by car from where we lived in Quebec.

Besides my parents, and me, I had a baby sister and two older brothers who were

sixteen and seventeen. The boys were tall and gangly and both so ticked about

having to move again, they were sullen and rude. Oh wait, come to think of it, they’d

been that way for at least four years. (Having raised two teenagers myself, I now

know rude and sullen is just business as usual for that age group.)

We also had a German Shepherd so huge, he looked like a science experiment

gone terribly awry. And of course there was our ginger cat, Sandy. So picture these

six people, two animals, luggage, and food for two days. Now imagine all of them

crammed in a 1958 Volkswagen Beetle because that’s what my dad drove.

We stowed what we could in the front trunk of the Beetle and then strapped the

rest of the luggage on the roof rack. My mom and dad sat in the front; my sister

nestled in my mom’s lap while I perched on the gearshift atop a feather pillow. My

brothers squeezed into the back seat, knees pressing into the seats in front. The dog

lumbered into the back with them, and contentedly settled his hundred or so odd

pounds across their skinny laps.

But hold up! What about the cat? Where did he go, you ask?

Not a problem! When you moved as much as we did, you get to be quite inventive.

My father had built a wooden box. The bottom and the back end had solid walls.

But the front, sides and top were constructed out of chicken wire. Mom put in some

litter and a bowl of water and a can of tasty cat food. Then they popped old Sandy in

the box and plunked the box on the roof of the Beetle. Dad piled some luggage along

the side and back of the box, but left the front facing traffic, free and clear so Sandy

would get lots of fresh air.

Then we took off down the Trans-Canada Highway at sixty miles an hour.

Eight hours later we stumbled out of the car. Mom told my father to get Sandy down

so he could “stretch his little legs”. Dad laboriously unknotted the rope he’d used to

tie down the box, and finally lowered the box to the ground. We all huddled around

staring down into the box.

“Oh the poor little mite must have been starving!” cooed my mom. “Look if he hasn’t

eaten all that food and water I put in!”

The bowls were indeed empty. The force of the wind had swept the litter box

toward Sandy, pinning him against the back wall. His eyes were as wide and

haunted looking. The fur on his face and head was stiff and encrusted with all the

water, cat food, and litter that had blown into it during his journey through hell.

Mom shook her head and said worriedly, “I hope he was a good boy and used his

litter box.”

It was then, that I first itched for a piece of paper and a pen. I knew somebody had

to record and attest to the sheer madness of the moment. As soon as we all filed into

the Pink Flamingo Motel looking like extras from the movie Deliverance, I grabbed a

pen and started writing.

And I’ve never stopped. Although when my kids were young, I mostly wrote stories

in my mind. I waited until they left home before I put pen to paper and wrote my

first novel, Dying For Sex. But I think you’ll find that I haven’t lost my sense of the

ridiculous and that this funny murder mystery will keep you laughing and guessing

till the very end.

About Lynn Albrecht:

Lynn C. Albrecht started her career in broadcasting. Quickly realizing she was not going to be the next Lisa Laflamme, she entered the world of corporate communications. After years of writing videos, speeches, advertising, and dressing in power suits with shoulders pads that made her look like Hunter Hearst Helmsley, she had a great epiphany. She ditched the shoulder pads and returned to school. Five years later, she was released into the unsuspecting healthcare system as a social worker. She works at St. Mary’s General Hospital in Kitchener, Ontario.

Lynn lives in Baden, Ontario with her infinitely patient husband, John Belton.
Dying For Sex is her first book. She is currently hard at work on the second Lindy Sutton mystery.

http://lynncalbrecht.com

https://www.facebook.com/lynncalbrecht

About Dying for Sex:

Lindy Sutton has her hands full. In between having her clown act clobbered by pint-sized critics, keeping a group of sex-crazed octogenarians from starting brawls in the raciest bar in town, and trying to keep her crazy Aunt Pip from being tossed out of Laughing Pines retirement home, she still has to contend with her son’s garish band bus parked in her driveway. Could things get any worse? Yup! Margaret Quaid, the social worker at Laughing Pines is found dead of an apparent overdose and the drop dead handsome detective on the case, thinks she stole the drugs from the retirement home and was pretty active in the world of wife swapping to boot. Lindy’s temper soars, along with her long dormant hormones, as she sets out to clear Margaret’s name, find the murderer and make the sexy detective eat crow. Aided and abetted by the aging but flamboyant Chappy Lowton, her eccentric and sarcastic sister, her best friend Patty, and that hoard of sex-crazed geriatrics, Lindy wades into the world of swingers only to find that there are plenty of people with a motive to kill the social worker. http://lynncalbrecht.com