The Girl of Fire and Thorns: Book Review

Novel: The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson
Release Date: September 20th, 2011
Publisher: Greenwillow Books

Format: ARC

Source: Book People Teen Reviewing

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 needs 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.
(Synopsis from Goodreads)


Willa's Rambles:
   Favorite things about this book: The cover. It's beautiful! I love how the words are different sizes and that blue swirly thing in the back ties it all together. Plus, Elisa's dress is gorgeous. I do admit, at the beginning I was questioning Elisa looking like she does on the cover, but after a while (almost the entire book) I got the idea that it was Elisa at the end of the book, not the beginning.
   In The Girl of Fire and Thorns, Elisa's world is in the future, and the religion I relate most to Catholicism (tell my if I'm wrong) and the monarchy to any book with Kings and Queens. Many of the society changes I relate to Mexico and South America (again, tell me if I'm wrong). Rae Carson describes the landscape of this new world to the texture of the grass, and you can picture it in your mind from the first page. 
   Elisa is a character that massively develops from the first chapter. She grows from being this brat in a way.  She just thinks that everything will come to her, but by the end, she is fighting for not only herself and her family, but for a country that needs her. Elisa has realized that people are more likely to trust a woman in power when she is strong and capable, so that is what she is.
   I loved The Girl of Fire and Thorns, simply because it was beautiful. The scenes were beautiful, the landscape was incredible, and the characters reminded me of real people. They all had flaws and weaknesses and others in their world made up for those flaws. The cohesiveness of this book made me want to jump inside Elisa's world and watch her rule the land.