Title: The Crown of Fire and Embers
Author: Rae Carson
Publisher/Year: harper Collins 8/27/13
Length: 297 Pages
Series: The Girl of Fire and Thorns #2
Overview
The second book in Rae Carson’s award-winning The Girl of Fire and Thorns fantasy trilogy, perfect for fans of Game of Thrones and Kristin Cashore. Tamora Pierce called the first book, The Girl of Fire and Thorns, “A unique and engrossing read!” A seventeen-year-old princess turned war queen faces sorcery, adventure, untold power, and romance as she fulfills her epic destiny.
In The Girl of Fire and Thorns, Elisa won the war. She saved her kingdom. But no one prepared her for how hard it is to recover from a battle, or to rule a people who still don’t trust her. She’s still fighting—against assassination attempts and more—and her enemies lie both outside her court and within it. So Elisa will cross the ocean in search of the perilous, uncharted, and mythical source of the Godstone’s power. With her go a one-eyed warrior, a loyal friend, an enemy defector, and the man she is falling in love with.
My Thoughts
While this series reminds me of several others that i’ve read, I’m still enjoying it quite a bit. We have the continuation of Elisa’s journey – of the life that she’s found herself living now – where she’s the Queen and bearer of the Godstone, and the only one who can hope to make right all the troubles in the world. Lots for a seventeen year old girl to be responsible for right? Add in deceit, romance and lost friendships and you have quite the story.
We left off book one where Elisa was now that Queen of Joya D’Arena, her husband Alejandro was killed by the Animagi and she’s left to sort out what that means for herself and for the kingdom. Elisa’s proven herself to be quite strong and capable so that’s where she’s starting things off. She’s being led by those who think that they have more power than her though in the kingdom and that means that she has to prove herself worthy, while also trying to defend her people from the Inviernos – a people who were likely the first on the earth and have been trying to take back power and land.
This is an exhausting journey that we’re on, and we see the reappearances of several of the main characters from book one. Cosme is now a Queen as you’ll recall from the first book, and she sends a delegation to Elisa and we see that they become incredibly valuable, especially when Elisa’s life is in danger time after time. We also see Belen the traitor come back into the mix and his story gets more complicated each day. We still don;t know if he can be trusted and that’s a big piece of this story.
The other plot lines are even better. There’s a romance and a true love blooming for Elisa with someone who she’s not quite sure returns those feelings, and the same person that is perhaps being linked to her sister now in the hopes of another strong political bond.
If that weren’t enough, our author throws in another story line where we are learning more and more about teachings that were banned that may hold the secret to a lot of what everyone’s been fighting for. So that means that Elisa and her crew are off on a search for a mythical land and power source in the hopes that they will come out on top.
Where we are left a t the end of this second book is a place where the friends are all split again – some by their own means and some were kidnapped. We don’t know where things will end up, who’s going to be a true ally and who’s going to prove to be working for their own motivations. We just know that Elisa must succeed or there will be nothing left for anyone to fight for. So that means…..we have to move onto book 3 and see what comes of it all. enjoy!