Book Review: The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson

Princess Lucero-Elisa of Orovalle is the younger of two princesses and quite used to being useless.  Ignored by her father the king and treated with contempt by her beautiful, graceful, politically shrewd older sister, Elisa has spent the last 16 years of her life filling the loneliness inside her with pastries, friendless and neglected by everyone at court except her beloved nurse Ximena and ladies' maid Aneaxi.

She is also the bearer of the Godstone.  The champion chosen and blessed only once a century, Elisa carries a sapphire jewel in her navel, a jewel that warms and comforts with prayer and grows cold as ice when danger is near.  She is uncertain of her destiny, but Elisa is quite certain that the Godstone chose its bearer wrongly - she is no champion.

Elisa is also a new bride - a political marriage arranged by her father to the charismatic but indecisive Alejandro de Vega, king of Joya, in exchange for troops in support of the war against the mysterious, wild hordes and deadly animagi of Invierne, she has no idea who or what she is expected to be.  When her new husband gently informs her that she is to be presented at the Joya court as his 'special guest' and her role as his wife is to be kept a secret, Elisa does not know how to react, much less what to do about her uncertain status.  Alejandro insists that this is to protect her, but she has no idea from what it is she is being protected.

But when Elisa arrives in Joya, she discovers that she is the only one who has been kept ignorant of her Godstone's destiny.  Kindly priest Father Nicandro reveals that there are a series of prophecies about the bearer of the Godstone, and that each champion must fulfill an act of service that will reveal itself in time.  Elisa also discovers it's not just her marriage to Alejandro being kept a secret from the people of Joya - so is the fact that she bears the Godstone.  She and her Godstone are the secret weapon in the war with Invierne - and the animagi and their spies must not discover her existence.  But is Elisa ready to do what it takes to become a champion?

Nominated for the 2012 Morris award (given to an author of teen books for a first novel of awesome), The Girl of Fire and Thorns is an intricately plotted epic fantasy with a fully realized, complex world full of political intrigue and manipulation, murder, spies, sandstorms, jungle and dessert battles, kidnapping, conspiracies and betrayal, seriously scary sorcerers who use blood and sacrifice to channel fire, a touch of romance, fierce and loyal friendships, and a very mysterious Godstone and its princess.  If you loved Kristin Cashore's Graceling and Fire, enjoyed Hilari Bell's Farsala trilogy, or think Robin McKinley's books are amazing (The Blue Sword = swoon!), you won't want to miss Rae Carson's first novel!

Megan
(now reading All These Things I've Done by Gabrielle Zevin - chocolate and caffeine have been outlawed in a New York City that's very Gotham, and main character Anya Balanchine, daughter of a notorious crime boss and chocolate smuggler, is trying very hard not to fall in love with the swoon-worthy son of the new DA!)