Fire by Kristin Cashore

Fire (Graceling Realm, #2)

by Kristin Cashore

It is not a peaceful time in the Dells.

The young King Nash clings to his throne while rebel lords in the north and south build armies to unseat him. The mountains and forests are filled with spies and thieves and lawless men.

This is where Fire lives. With a wild, irresistible appearance and hair the color of flame, Fire is the last remaining human monster. Equally hated and adored, she has the unique ability to control minds, but she guards her power, unwilling to steal the secrets of innocent people. Especially when she has so many of her own.

Then Prince Brigan comes to bring her to King City. The royal family needs her help to uncover the plot against the king. Far away from home, Fire begins to realize there's more to her power than she ever dreamed. Her power could save the kingdom.

If only she weren't afraid of becoming the monster her father was.

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This romantic companion to the highly praised Graceling has an entirely new cast of characters, save one. You don't need to have read Graceling to love Fire. But if you haven't, you'll be dying to read it next.

Reviewed by Kelsenator on

4 of 5 stars

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Check out my full review on my blog Kelsey's Cluttered Bookshelf

This is set years before Graceling, and on the other side of the mountains from the first area. There are no people with Graces here, just monsters. The monsters are like normal animals to some extend, but they are rainbow coloured, beautiful and will eat you as soon as they can. Even rarer are the monsters in the form of people, who are too beautiful for most others to handle. Fire is one of these, with bright flame red hair, a beautiful face and the ability to hear and control thoughts.

The description is definitely right in saying you don’t need to have read Graceling to get this one. There is the mention of a certain young boy from the first book, and he does play a small role in this which was pretty cool. The story itself, there was a lot to it! So much kept happening, and changing, and developing, spies and allies and a possible war looming as well as the characters meeting and bonding. I had a hard time putting it down because I wanted to know what was going to happen next.

Fire was a pretty cool character, but just like Katsa, she didn’t want children or to marry. But she did have her reason, of not wanting to pass on the monster genes that were inside of her and have another monster like herself wandering around. Her cruel father is an example of this power gone wrong, and she wanted to prevent that from happening again. She actually does become moody at one point because other women can have children and she won’t, and it was so sad to read.

So although this wasn’t what I expected after reading the first book and I really wasn’t expecting the monsters, it was well written and kept my attention the whole way. I ended up loving Fire’s character and her strength and watching her development into using her powers to help others.

Try out this awesome fantasy series, there’s lots of action, some romance and great characters!

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 27 May, 2012: Finished reading
  • 27 May, 2012: Reviewed