Review: The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson

Book: The Girl of Fire and Thorns (Fire and Thorns #1)
By: Rae Carson
Published: September 20, 2011
Published By: Greenwillow

Description: 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.

My Thoughts: Wow!!! That's all I really have to say here.

Elisa is a princess. A seemingly overweight (fat) princess who eats away her troubles and will soon be married to a King. She has no real self confidence it seems but is very kind and of course, she's the chosen one; the one with the Gemstone in her belly.

She soon learns that her marriage must be a secret one, for there is a lot at stake in the King's country. Even more, there are a lot of people who want the bearer of the gemstone, dead or alive, so she must keep the gemstone a secret. Add to that the mistress that very publicly has the heart of her new husband (who of course no one knows is her husband), who secretly spies and shoots daggers at her and you have the recipe for disaster. After she is kidnapped when the mistresses lady in waiting learns that Elisa bears the stone we reach a real turning point in the book.

Elisa is taken across desert and mountain to "save" a tribe of people. Of course she has no idea how she's supposed to do all this and the real treat is seeing how much Elisa changes and grows from a weak, fat, no confidence, pushover princess to...well you'll have to read and find out. Lets just say I'm no longer annoyed by this main character in the end.

There are 2 guys, the Husband/King who's handsome but I hate him because he has a mistress who he allows to be around his wife (i hate cheaters). He allows her to touch him and kiss him when his wife isn't far away, although he 's not daft (I always wanted to use that word. I hope I used it the right way) enough to show too much attraction to her. He's also pretty weak, him being a king and all.  The other guy is one of the kidnappers. He's great and I love him!!He protects her and is an all around sweet guy (if you ignore the kidnapping part). I'll admit the fact that I didn't like how quickly Elisa was willing to trust a kidnapper and see his beauty, but I let that go in the whole scheme of the book.

There's some real self discovery going on in this book, and real perseverance. Of course there was some love (this is YA after all) although not really any love triangle and not really any insta-love, but a few qualities that you could force into believing they exist. I loved it because it seemed kind of real. More like "I think I like you, so maybe I should see if I really do despite the fact that I have this husband who I don't really love, but could possibly learn to love eventually."

This is a good book that lives up to the hype. I would definitely read the next one in the series. I give it 4.5 stars.