Review: The Girl of Fire and Thorns

The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson 

Publisher: Greenwillow
Published: September 20th 2011
Pages: 423
Source: Library
Genre: Fantasy, Romance
Goodreads

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.

For quite a long time I had no intention of reading this book, but I heard some really good things from a blogger, and I decided I had no choice. The Girl of Fire and Thorns was much different than I thought it might end up being. The story is extremely different than anything I have ever read. The main character, Princess Elisa, is the barer of a powerful stone bestowed upon her by god. At the very beginning of the story she is married to a man she has never before met, and whisked away to his castle far away from her home. Elisa is not the kind of person to be likely to hold such a power such as the god stone. After some time in the castle beginning her new life, she is taken away by kidnappers were the real action begins.

My favorite part of this story is how unlikely the main character is to be someone great. Elisa is the kind of person someone might say eats her feelings. She is in no way the kind of person someone would say is 'thin' she is quite the opposite. Despite this Elisa is extremely smart about things such as war and language and she has a very strong will to keep going. I loved this about Elisa, and she eventually does show her strength  and the power she holds inside herself.

The emotions in this book were really pure and simple. I really liked how realistic this book felt in that way, and Elisa never felt like a fake person in any situation.

I really liked the relationship building between the main character and several of the other characters in the story, including her relationship with her husband, and then those who she meets later in the book, including Humberto and the other traveling escorts.

I really got attached to this book. There was a point in which something happens to one of the characters that I had grown to like, and I got SO SAD. So Sad. This book is so addictive and interesting I could not put it down!