Book BFF Melissa: {Review} The Girl of Fire and Throns by: Rae Carson

Pages: 423
Publication date: September 20, 2011

Publisher: Greenwillow

How I got the copy: bought

Rating:  3 Stars
  

       
  

From Goodreads:

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 seeks 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.

    Holy character development batman!  There was so much growth for all the characters in this book it was fantastic.  And unfortunately, one of the very few things that kept my interest.  I wasn't a big fan of the plot.  Not sure if this is because I'm not a big fantasy reader or if I just didn't like it.  

The world was a little confusing to me (kind of like how Shadow and Bone was confusing at first).  But the world was definitely cool and unique.  I pictured it to be this Spanish Aladdin world mixed with the TV show Reign on CW.  

Ya there was a lot of weird stuff going on in my mind during this book.  Like how I pictured a troll doll everytime she mentioned the blue godstone in her belly button.

(If Karou and Elisa had a sister.)

 A lot like that.  But besides her trollish belly button, I really liked the main character Elisa.  She's such a strong leader even when she thinks she's weak.  And she treats everyone with respect...except herself that is.  She's constantly putting herself down for being "fat" and that was the one thing I couldn't stand about her.  Everyone has body image issues and I'm glad the author addressed that, but it got very tiresome after awhile.  Maybe if it had been done differently I would have been more receptive to it.

The other characters didn't annoy me though.  I loved Cosmé.  She reminded me a lot of Raven from the Delirium trilogy where she was harsh and blunt, but helped push the main character to develop.  The nurse, Ximena, was also pretty kick ass which was great to see a strong female role model/mentor for the MC as well.

Humberto was adorable.  Kind of like Tucker from Unearthly.  I just wanted to hug him and tell him everything would be ok.  Alejandro on the other hand, I wanted to slap him silly.  Make a decision, man!