Monday, September 17, 2012

The Crown of Embers by Rae Carson

"In the sequel to the acclaimed The Girl of Fire and Thorns, a seventeen-year-old princess turned war queen faces sorcery, adventure, untold power, and romance as she fulfills her epic destiny. Elisa is the hero of her country. She led her people to victory against a terrifying enemy, and now she is their queen. But she is only seventeen years old. Her rivals may have simply retreated, choosing stealth over battle. And no one within her court trusts her-except Hector, the commander of the royal guard, and her companions. As the country begins to crumble beneath her and her enemies emerge from the shadows, Elisa will take another journey. With a one-eyed warrior, a loyal friend, an enemy defector, and the man she is falling in love with, Elisa crosses the ocean in search of the perilous, uncharted, and mythical source of the Godstone's power. That is not all she finds. A breathtaking, romantic, and dangerous second volume in the Fire and Thorns trilogy. (Goodreads Summary)

Flo's Review

WOW, this book! This was one that I had to sit on for a day or two before I could decide what I wanted to write in the review. The journey to the The Crown started for me a few weeks ago when, in one day, I entered FOUR contests to try to win a copy. Yes -- I really wanted to read it! Even Rae Carson, the author, tweeted me good luck on my endeavor. Because we are are an awesome community of YA book bloggers, Kate over at Ex Libris saw my toils and offered to travel her copy to me. THANK YOU, KATE! Go check out her blog, too, it's really cool.

But back to this book. If you remember, I loved the first book in this series, The Girl of Fire and Thorns. What I loved most about it was that Carson doesn't shy away from writing an honest, gritty war story. The Crown of Embers continues in this same vein. It's a war story. Yes, with all sorts of elements -- faith, sorcery, romance -- but at its heart, it's about a young queen and the choices she has to make for herself and her land.

Let's go back to the romance, though, because you know I'm a sucker for it! The romantic tension in this book? Soo palpable! It was fantastic and definitely one of the best parts of the book. Like with Fire and Thorns, there were a moment where I said to myself, "Wait...did that just happen??" I admit that for some of the first part of the book I was just kind of pushing through, but by the end I couldn't put it down...and I didn't. I stayed up til 2:30 a.m. with this one.

I loved how Elisa brought it all together at the end, setting it up for the final book in the trilogy The Bitter Kingdom

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