Fire by Kristin Cashore

Rating: 5/10

 I was finally able to finish reading Fire (Graceling Realm Book 2) . If you read my previous post, you will know that I had trouble getting through the middle of the book. I just had to sit down and barrel my way through until the book got better. It took a while, and I had to make sure there were no other distractions around. However, once I got past a certain part that I believed would be the end and the book continued, my interest was again piqued.

The book starts out great in a new Realm with a new species called Monsters. Now, these Monsters are not ugly but just the opposite. They are the most gorgeous creatures you could ever lay your eyes on. Our new heroine, Fire, is the last human Monster left. We are introduced to her and her surroundings much better than we were with Katsa in Graceling .

I instantly fell in love with her character the more I got to know about her. However, toward the middle of the book, some of her characteristics got slightly ridiculous. I really disliked the way her relationship was portrayed with Archer, and I believe she could have shown a little more strength. Also, once Brigan was introduced I felt that he would be a character that I could really like. However, we weren't really given that much information about him to make him interesting, which left him coming off as kind of boring. He seemed so one dimensional, and I would have liked to have learned different aspects of his personality. His daughter Hanna also was the same. The only character that was really developed in the book was Fire. I did enjoy the back story to Graceling and King Leck. I also really liked how Fire was much more likable and relatable than Katsa.

Once I got to the middle of the book, the story just dragged because there wasn't much that was important happening. I believe that this time could have included some smaller side stories with other characters in the book instead of focusing on Fire the entire time. For example, it would have been nice to have the story from Archer and Brigan's point of view or even one of Fire's guards as well. There was a big twist towards the end of the book that could have been more than what it was if the characters had interacted more before. The twist was supposed to inspire a sense of excitement, but I didn't really care. It didn't add much to the story. I was also somewhat disappointed with the ending of the book. After everything that happened, the ending just seemed dull. The book could have ended much sooner and nothing would have been lost.

Overall, I give Fire (Graceling Realm Book 2) a score of 5 out of 10. It was a little worse than Graceling simply because Graceling started out bad and eventually got better and then somewhat worse again, whereas Fire started out really great and continued to get worse. This book really got my hopes up at the beginning, but it's like Cashore ran out of interesting points to make. I will definitely NEVER read this book again. I am looking forward to Bitterblue (Graceling) as it is the sequel to Graceling which ended on an OK note. Maybe Cashore will get it right with this one....Anyway, after Bitterblue, I will be reading Halfway to the Grave (Night Huntress, Book 1) by Jeaniene Frost. Hopefully, I like this one much better than Graceling.