The Crown of Embers

Monday, September 17, 2012



Title: The Crown of Embers
Author: Rea Carson
Format: Hardcover, 410 pages
Genre: YA, Fantasy, Adventure
Publication Date: September 18, 2012
Published by: HarperCollins Canada
Source: ARC received from Publisher for honest review
Rating: 4/5

Purchase
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Synopsis
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.


My Thoughts
Crown of Embers is the sequel to the very popular Girl of Fire and Thorns that was released last year. I was very impressed with this sequel, especially since I loved the first book so much. I went into this book a little hazy on the details of the ending of Girl of Fire and Thorns, but I was surprised when I found myself remembering as I read. Rea Carson did a lovely job of retelling the events of the first book without overpowering the reader with facts. One of my largest pet peeves when reading a series is when an author bombards the reader with facts of the previous books and forgets to grab the readers’ attention through the storyline. This book grabbed me from the very beginning.

The action start right from the start and we begin to remember why Elisa is such a loveable and charismatic character. Elisa has the ability to seem very humble and innocent in the face of situations that are extremely dangerous and life threatening. It is a commendable character trait and is admired of her character. I absolutely loved the growth Elisa experienced while I read the book. She went from a scared young Queen to a woman of strong motives and a lot of independence. All of these are characteristics that weren’t as strong in the first book. 

When I finished Girl of Fire and Thorns I thought that the love story would stop there because of the way the book ended, but I was pleasantly surprised that there was a new love interest and I felt myself liking this match up a lot more than previous matches. This time around there was more sexual tension and I loved their relationship throughout the entire book. 

I found the ending to be a little predictable but that didn’t take away from my overall thoughts on the book. The end solidified that there will be a third book and because of the ending I can tell you that it will be a great read. I am very excited to see where these characters end up in the third novel and I cant wait. 

I will give a warning to readers that this series would be classified as high fantasy. Meaning that the world that Rea Carson built is very complex, extensive and a little complicated, especially regarding the terminology. On many occasions I found myself confused with all the names of everything and the countries themselves. But after a while I got used to it :)

Overall I really enjoyed this book and  would recommend it to fans of Tamora Peirce and J.R.R Tolkien’s The Hobbit.

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