Fire by Kristin Cashore

 

Title: Fire

Author: Kristin Cashore

Narrator: Xanthe Elbrick

Series: #2 in the Gaceling Realm series

Genre: YA Fantasy

Publisher: Firebird (October 5, 2009) 

Source: Library Find

Rating: ☕☕☕☕

Synopsis: It is not a peaceful time in the Dells. The young King Nash clings to his throne while rebel lords in the north and south build armies to unseat him. The mountains and forests are filled with spies and thieves and lawless men.

This is where Fire lives. With a wild, irresistible appearance and hair the color of flame, Fire is the last remaining human monster. Equally hated and adored, she had the unique ability to control minds, but she guards her power, unwilling to steal the secrets of innocent people. Especially when she has so many of her own.

Then Prince Brigan comes to bring her to King City, The royal family needs her help to uncover the plot against the king. Far away from home, Fire begins to realize there's more to her power than she ever dreamed. Her power could save the kingdom.

If only she weren't afraid of becoming the monster her father was.

My Thoughts:   After completely loving the first book in the series I had very high expectations of this book and I'm sad to say I found this book a bit boring. Although it's the second book in the series it's technically a prequel. I'm not sure if that's why I didn't like it as well or because Fire just wasn't Katsa. I thought Fire, as a heroine was *meh 🤷‍♀️.

I chose to listen to this book whereas I read the ebook when I tackled Graceling. There was a lot of dialog that happened in people's minds because of Fire's ability and Xanthe Elbrick's Fire mind voice was, well, dull. Hypnotic but not in a good way.

I didn't care about any of the characters like I cared about Katsa and Po. The only character I seemed to care about was Fire's horse, Small. It was interesting to see King Lec's beginning though. The next book is back in the same time as Graceling and about Po's niece Bitterblue so I'm looking forward to it.

In a Nutshell: I will read the next book but I'm not sure if I'll listen to it or actually read it on my kindle. I don't think the audio enhanced my experience for this book.