You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.18 AVERAGE
4.18 AVERAGE
Review also posted on BOOKHEADCASE.
So I'm going to start out this review by saying I have never ever read an entire book on my phone. Sure, I would whip it out and read if I'm in the salon or while I wait in the car for a friend but it's with the full knowledge that I'm just passing time. The Crown of Embers is the first book I have read on my iPhone 6 in its entirety.
Why is this important information, you ask?
Well, I want it to exemplify just how much I wanted to read Rae Carson's second Fire & Thorns book. And because Thriftbooks didn't have the series available and I didn't want to buy it off of Amazon, I utilized the Scribd app (and justified why I spend $8.99 on the service every month).
The Crown of Embers does not disappoint one bit. It is everything I like about The Girl of Fire and Thorns and MORE. Because oh my god, this book has romance. And not just your run-in-the-mill romance. This is sexual tension at its finest. As a reader, there is never a point where I think, come on people just get it together! No, this sexual tension starts as a spark and then becomes a forest fire. It's innocent yet provocative. There's angst but not enough to make you want to pull your hair out. Ahhh, it is just SO good.
The character development is also great. I especially love what Ms. Carson does with Mara. Not only is Mara's character development wonderful, but it also gives Elisa a dimension not evident in the first book. It's nice to see glimpses of Elisa as a normal 17-year-old girl, giggling about boys and just taking a break from perils of her life. (And man, there are a lot of perils!) Mara brings that out of Elisa and gives us readers another element that we can relate to.
Hector is another character that I absolutely adore. Anytime he speaks or is talked about, I eat up the words because he is just so gosh darn intriguing! As an aside, for some reason, Elisa's sister really annoys the crap out of me. She's barely in the series but it seems that whenever she "shows" up or is mentioned, I want to punch a wall. Maybe that's just me? Elisa, on the other hand, continues to astound me with her bravery and cleverness.
My only issue with the book is that a major storyline ends pretty anti-climactic and a big chunk of the novel seems a bit directionless. But maybe the latter is a characteristic of book 2s because the author has to lay the foundation for the finale.
RATING:
4 OUT OF 5 STARS
If you haven't read the first book, get on that and then brace yourself for an even better ride with this one.
So I'm going to start out this review by saying I have never ever read an entire book on my phone. Sure, I would whip it out and read if I'm in the salon or while I wait in the car for a friend but it's with the full knowledge that I'm just passing time. The Crown of Embers is the first book I have read on my iPhone 6 in its entirety.
Why is this important information, you ask?
Well, I want it to exemplify just how much I wanted to read Rae Carson's second Fire & Thorns book. And because Thriftbooks didn't have the series available and I didn't want to buy it off of Amazon, I utilized the Scribd app (and justified why I spend $8.99 on the service every month).
The Crown of Embers does not disappoint one bit. It is everything I like about The Girl of Fire and Thorns and MORE. Because oh my god, this book has romance. And not just your run-in-the-mill romance. This is sexual tension at its finest. As a reader, there is never a point where I think, come on people just get it together! No, this sexual tension starts as a spark and then becomes a forest fire. It's innocent yet provocative. There's angst but not enough to make you want to pull your hair out. Ahhh, it is just SO good.
The character development is also great. I especially love what Ms. Carson does with Mara. Not only is Mara's character development wonderful, but it also gives Elisa a dimension not evident in the first book. It's nice to see glimpses of Elisa as a normal 17-year-old girl, giggling about boys and just taking a break from perils of her life. (And man, there are a lot of perils!) Mara brings that out of Elisa and gives us readers another element that we can relate to.
Hector is another character that I absolutely adore. Anytime he speaks or is talked about, I eat up the words because he is just so gosh darn intriguing! As an aside, for some reason, Elisa's sister really annoys the crap out of me. She's barely in the series but it seems that whenever she "shows" up or is mentioned, I want to punch a wall. Maybe that's just me? Elisa, on the other hand, continues to astound me with her bravery and cleverness.
My only issue with the book is that a major storyline ends pretty anti-climactic and a big chunk of the novel seems a bit directionless. But maybe the latter is a characteristic of book 2s because the author has to lay the foundation for the finale.
RATING:
4 OUT OF 5 STARS
If you haven't read the first book, get on that and then brace yourself for an even better ride with this one.
First book of the ALA Read-A-Thon officially read, and oh my god was it a great way to start. Crown of Embers was just as good as the first, but thankfully not as soul-shattering. Although, I did cry at one part. Rae Carson is beyond brilliant!! Full review to come.
Amazing. It's rare for a second book in a trilogy to be better than the first but this does the job just fine. Congratulations to Rae Carson!
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This series is so good! I think the first book was better overall but I liked the romance in this one more
adventurous
Let’s recap the actiony bits of The Girl of Fire and Thorns, shall we? Elisa is forced to marry the king of a foreign country, then she gets kidnapped, then she leads a rebellion, saves an entire kingdom, defeats evil magical dudes.
Her husband has died, so Elisa is now queen of the Joya de Arena. She’s got a group of advisers who are all trying to do tell her what to do, mostly for their own benefit, and crazy magical enemies who sneak into town, demand she give herself up, and then set themselves on fire and die. Not exactly a reassuring way to start your already tenuous reign. The Crown of Embers was a mixture of political worries about who to trust, what to do, who are these people and what do they want and setting up for the last book in the trilogy. Elisa is learning to cope with her new role as queen and frequent assassination attempts, she is still trying to figure out what her service to God will be, and also, she’s 17-years-old and looking for someone to love her.
Part of what I love about this series is Elisa herself, because I find her so relatable. In book 1, Elisa was fat, and ate too much and worried about her body. After the events of GFT, running around the desert and planning attacks and marching, she’s not fat anymore, but she’s also not a model. She’s grown up self-conscious, and her body and attractiveness are part of her constant internal monologue. She compares herself to her sister Alodia and those around her, and wonders if anyone will ever want her. All these self-deprecating thoughts are reinforced by her interaction with the courtiers and politicians, where the perky, attractive, mean-girl types stare at her while she eats or make comments about her past appearance or habits. If you’ve ever struggled with weight, as I do, then Elisa’s reactions and her overall demeanor are very realistic. I constantly found myself thinking, “You’ll show them, Elisa. You’re great!”
Another thing I really love about this series is that while it’s not an overtly Christian fantasy series, it is a theme, woven securely and flawlessly into the pattern of the book. It’s not screaming “look, look at me, I’m a book for young adults and I’ve got magic and swords and GOD!!!” Faith is central to the plot while not being preachy. As in life, our faith is part of us, it defines us, but it is not necessary to beat one’s readers over the head with every reference to God and prayer. I also loved Elisa’s own struggle. As a living bearer of a Godstone, she is supposed to perform some great task for God, but she doesn’t know what. She thought she did it in GFT, but turns out she hasn’t done it yet. She prays constantly, but like everyone of faith, she sometimes feels close to God and sometimes far apart. Everyone is always telling her what to do and saying it’s God’s will, when it’s really just what they themselves think is right, especially her guardian, Ximena. My favorite line is when Storm tells her what he wants her to do, and when she refuses, he says, “Make no mistake. It is the will of God.” Elisa’s internal response is, “It’s utterly infuriating, the number of people I’ve encountered in my life who claimed to be the authority on God’s will.”
ROMANCE SPOILERS AHEAD (except not really).
In GFT, Elisa was forced to get married to the king for political advantage, and then she went into the desert and fell in love with lovable rogue Humberto, who died, and she did great heroic things and then went back to the king, but he died. She kind of notices Hector, her guard, but there are a lot of love triangles at play here and I remember thinking, “Wow, I have no idea who she’ll end up with” about halfway through GFT. But then two of them die and the astute reader can guess which man COE will feature as the main love interest for our young queen. Elisa and Hector spend much more time together, because he’s her personal bodyguard. He also lets his guard down around her more, and the reader can clearly understand his feelings. Elisa realizes her own feelings for Hector, much later than I would have thought possible, so really the king and Humberto were the romantic placeholders all along, which is exactly the kind of twist I like because it’s real. (Not the abduction and kingdom inheriting part, but the situation where a girl likes someone, the situation changes and she meets someone else, they fall in love, but it doesn’t work out, and then she meets who she was supposed to be with all along.)
As far as the writing, it was solid, and unlike Girl of Fire and Thorns, the use of present tense didn’t bother me this time. This is partially because it’s grown more prevalent in the YA community over the last few years, so my brain is slightly more used to it now than it was last winter. I loved the character development, as Carson really dove into Elisa’s relationships not just with Hector and Ximena, but with Prince Rosario, the maid Mara, and many others. It reinforced her as a queen who is able to draw her people to her with the warmth of her personality, even when she thinks no one is watching.
All in all, this was a wonderful book, and one I am excited to reread in the future. I can’t wait to see how the last book pans out, because there is a total cliffhanger ending!
Her husband has died, so Elisa is now queen of the Joya de Arena. She’s got a group of advisers who are all trying to do tell her what to do, mostly for their own benefit, and crazy magical enemies who sneak into town, demand she give herself up, and then set themselves on fire and die. Not exactly a reassuring way to start your already tenuous reign. The Crown of Embers was a mixture of political worries about who to trust, what to do, who are these people and what do they want and setting up for the last book in the trilogy. Elisa is learning to cope with her new role as queen and frequent assassination attempts, she is still trying to figure out what her service to God will be, and also, she’s 17-years-old and looking for someone to love her.
Part of what I love about this series is Elisa herself, because I find her so relatable. In book 1, Elisa was fat, and ate too much and worried about her body. After the events of GFT, running around the desert and planning attacks and marching, she’s not fat anymore, but she’s also not a model. She’s grown up self-conscious, and her body and attractiveness are part of her constant internal monologue. She compares herself to her sister Alodia and those around her, and wonders if anyone will ever want her. All these self-deprecating thoughts are reinforced by her interaction with the courtiers and politicians, where the perky, attractive, mean-girl types stare at her while she eats or make comments about her past appearance or habits. If you’ve ever struggled with weight, as I do, then Elisa’s reactions and her overall demeanor are very realistic. I constantly found myself thinking, “You’ll show them, Elisa. You’re great!”
Another thing I really love about this series is that while it’s not an overtly Christian fantasy series, it is a theme, woven securely and flawlessly into the pattern of the book. It’s not screaming “look, look at me, I’m a book for young adults and I’ve got magic and swords and GOD!!!” Faith is central to the plot while not being preachy. As in life, our faith is part of us, it defines us, but it is not necessary to beat one’s readers over the head with every reference to God and prayer. I also loved Elisa’s own struggle. As a living bearer of a Godstone, she is supposed to perform some great task for God, but she doesn’t know what. She thought she did it in GFT, but turns out she hasn’t done it yet. She prays constantly, but like everyone of faith, she sometimes feels close to God and sometimes far apart. Everyone is always telling her what to do and saying it’s God’s will, when it’s really just what they themselves think is right, especially her guardian, Ximena. My favorite line is when Storm tells her what he wants her to do, and when she refuses, he says, “Make no mistake. It is the will of God.” Elisa’s internal response is, “It’s utterly infuriating, the number of people I’ve encountered in my life who claimed to be the authority on God’s will.”
ROMANCE SPOILERS AHEAD (except not really).
In GFT, Elisa was forced to get married to the king for political advantage, and then she went into the desert and fell in love with lovable rogue Humberto, who died, and she did great heroic things and then went back to the king, but he died. She kind of notices Hector, her guard, but there are a lot of love triangles at play here and I remember thinking, “Wow, I have no idea who she’ll end up with” about halfway through GFT. But then two of them die and the astute reader can guess which man COE will feature as the main love interest for our young queen. Elisa and Hector spend much more time together, because he’s her personal bodyguard. He also lets his guard down around her more, and the reader can clearly understand his feelings. Elisa realizes her own feelings for Hector, much later than I would have thought possible, so really the king and Humberto were the romantic placeholders all along, which is exactly the kind of twist I like because it’s real. (Not the abduction and kingdom inheriting part, but the situation where a girl likes someone, the situation changes and she meets someone else, they fall in love, but it doesn’t work out, and then she meets who she was supposed to be with all along.)
As far as the writing, it was solid, and unlike Girl of Fire and Thorns, the use of present tense didn’t bother me this time. This is partially because it’s grown more prevalent in the YA community over the last few years, so my brain is slightly more used to it now than it was last winter. I loved the character development, as Carson really dove into Elisa’s relationships not just with Hector and Ximena, but with Prince Rosario, the maid Mara, and many others. It reinforced her as a queen who is able to draw her people to her with the warmth of her personality, even when she thinks no one is watching.
All in all, this was a wonderful book, and one I am excited to reread in the future. I can’t wait to see how the last book pans out, because there is a total cliffhanger ending!
I have really come to love this series and hope the final book brings it to an excellent close!
Oh my gosh! I LOVE this series so freaking much!!!! This second book did not slow up or feel at all like a second book. The growth of the characters and the romance was superbly done, as was the world building and the intrigue. It is rare that I would like to travel to the worlds of books, but I would love to go to this world. It seems strong and terrifying at times, but also breathtakingly beautiful. I am also happy that Elisa found the power in herself to be a good queen and that she can make her own decisions in her own right. Can't wait to read Bitter Kingdom because that cliffhanger though!
My favourite early-in-the-morning or bus-book right now. Elisa has to take on her role as a queen in her new home kingdom and avoid plots at the court, threats from outside the borders, civil war and also find a husband with whom to forge a likely alliance.
The story of Elisa growing into her queenhood is entertaining and captivating. I can even stomach the love story because I've been rooting for the main couple since book one, somehow.
The story of Elisa growing into her queenhood is entertaining and captivating. I can even stomach the love story because I've been rooting for the main couple since book one, somehow.