I had very high hopes for this book after loving Graceling so much, I can’t believe it’s been so long since I read it!

Unfortunately, I felt a little let down by the entire thing. The book in general was very slow to get going, with a prologue that didn’t seem relevant until almost the end of the book. I think I was probably about three quarters through the book before I really felt like the action started, and it then seemed like a rush to fit everything in before the end. I would have liked the book to be another 100 pages longer to get some more details in the part of the book which really needed it!

My other main bug bear with this book was the unusual moral stance that the author took. Most young adult books take a very conservative stance on sex and relationships and tend to preach the ‘no sex before marriage’ ethos, or something similar where all the characters are in love before they even kiss. But Cashore took a more casual stance towards this, with her main character having much looser morals. I don’t think this was necessarily a bad thing, just not what I expected. I understand that Cashore is probably going for a feminine empowerment message with a strong female lead character like in Graceling, but I don’t think this made Fire seem stronger, I think in a way it made her seem weak.

Once I got through the initial long introduction section of the book, I did very much enjoy the storyline, I just wish it had been fleshed out more at the end. I know that there’s a third book in this series, so hopefully Fire may make an appearance there. Who knows? I don’t think I’ll be rushing out to buy the book, but I’ll definitely add it to my Christmas list.