Fire

by Kristin Cashore

Dedication: "For my little sister Catherine, the (Corinthian) pillar of my heart"

First paragraph: "Larch often thought that if it had not been for his newborn son, he never would have survived his wife Mikra's death. It was half that the infant boy needed a breathing, functioning father who got out of bed in the mornings and slogged through the day; and it was half the child himself. Such a good-natured baby, so calm. His gurgles and coos so musical, and his eyes deep brown like the eyes of his dead mother.

Review: Fire, a human monster living in the Dells, has spent her whole life avoiding her powers for fear of becoming like her power hungry father. She only uses it for self-defense until the rumors of war are too strong to avoid. The King and Prince of the Dells recruit her to see into the minds of their prisoners in order to find out what plans their neighboring enemies have in regards to conquering their kingdom. She battles with herself and those around her in order to avoid using something she's feared for so long.

Fire is the prequel to Graceling. There isn't much in common between the two books except a graceling boy who appears in the prologue of the book.

Fire was an adventurous story with another strong female protagonist fighting for what she loves. This story wasn't as good as Graceling but it was still better than a lot of books. There were a few characters who irritated me but I guess it wasn't all their fault seeing that Fire can do things to people's minds and cause them to become irrational creatures. I just wished they wouldn't have been so clingly.

There was one character I thoroughly enjoyed - the Lord Prince's character and his gradual change from bitter enemy to strongest ally really made this story for me.

There were times when I wanted to kick Fire and tell her to quit acting like a teenager, but let's be honest, she is a teenager and she handles her responsibility quite gracefully for a 17 year old.

All in all it was a page turner that I finished in about a day's time. It had a decent plot, a decent spread of characters, a decent amount of heartache and joy, it even had some unseen plot turns that I never would have expected. Glad I picked it up.

Click here for Kristin Cashore's website on her books Graceling, Fire, and soon to come out Bitterblue