I am still in love with this so so so much. It continues to be unique and authentic. I was a little sad the princess began to sound like she's looking like any average ya heroine, removing one of the qualities I loved best about her in book two. I continued to be in awe of the size of the cast and the odd/glorious twists and turns the author decides to take.

I am in love with Hector and the Little Prince and our heroine, too. I am still in grand adoration for this writer showing, across long, hard, arduous times how you earn people. And thus Storm has a place in my heart just like the Not!Maid from the first one did. Yes, the romance was a little predictable, but it never dwarfed the actually story or what the character complications *should* be.

I'm fantastically wanting of the next book. ( )

How unlucky in love can you be? Lucero-Elisa lost her husband and the man she loved in the last book.

She was the second born princess in her father's kingdom so she was married off at the age of sixteen to King Alejandro of the not-so-near country of Joya d’Arena. He was handsome and kind but they never consummated the marriage because Alejandro had a mistress whom he was in love with. Oh, and he forgot to tell anyone in his country that he got married. Apparently, he married her because her father and sister needed to get her safely out of the country because she is the bearer of the Godstone and they agreed to send troops to Joya d’Arena to help Alejandro with his upcoming war with Invierne. One every hundred years someone is chosen by God to Bear the Godstone which is embedded into the stomach just below the skin. Each bearer has some kind of unknown destiny to fulfill. Some succeed and some don't.

Her Godstone makes her a target of Invierne spies who seek to either kill her and take her stone or use her to win their war.

She was kidnapped by a maid named Cosmé who turned out to be a spy but not for Invierne but for the hill people of Basajuan, an ignored territory on the border of Invierne where it's people are getting massacred by the fire-throwing magic wielders of Invierne called Animagi. Cosmé and her people believe Elisa's destiny is to use her stone to somehow defeat the Animagi. Elisa decides to help them and fell in love with Cosmé's brother Humberto who ended up getting killed in front of Elisa.

Fast forward to Elisa returning to Joya d’Arena only to have Invierne invade. Alejandro jumped in front of an Animagi when he flung his magic fire at Elisa. Elisa was finally able to tap into the power of her Godstone which turned all of the Animagi who invaded the city into dust but Alejandro died a few weeks later of his injuries. He signed a decree making her his heir which made her the queen.

In this book, Elisa is the queen over a broken kingdom. Her advisors are all working their own agendas and some are even working sneakily against her so she doesn't know who to trust. She only has a few people she trusts: Ximena and Mara her two attendants, Father Nicandro, Father Alentin and the Captain of her royal guard, Hector.

She develops feeling for Hector who has been there for her since the first day she moved to Joya d’Arena. I just kept wondering when Hector was going to get the axe.

This book is another wild and scary adventure. A few interesting characters were introduced in this book but I don't want to spoil too much for anyone who wants to read this trilogy so I won't into any of them here.

I'm getting ready to read the final book now. ( )

This book was a pleasant surprise. I didn’t expect to like this as much as I did. After the ending of The Girl of Fire and Thorns, Elisa is a Queen trying to rule. But she is only seventeen and her age and her place of birth undermine her authority. The Lords of her Quorum try to outmaneuver her at every step, trying to prove her incompetence, coaxing her to consider appointing a regent or marry for an alliance. On the other side, there are multiple assassination attempts on her in her own capital, and the question remains if the enemies are outside or within. Amidst all this, there is also the pull towards fulfilling her destiny as God’s Chosen One. Will she be the Queen she wants to be? Will she survive? Who should she trust?

The character development of Elisa is amazing in this book. Most of the first half, lots of things are happening around her and she is young and vulnerable and not in control. The intrigue and betrayals and politics of the court stifle her confidence but she starts asserting herself once she is out of the capital. She makes plans, decides what she wants to do, proving to herself that she can be the Queen she is meant to be. Her growth is remarkable and the ending was awesome.

Hector – I didn’t see this coming. He was Elisa’s good friend in the first book but it grows into so much more. They trust each other, want to keep each other safe and respect each other immensely. I can’t speak much more without spoilers but their romance and their conversations are just intense, angsty and so full of love, it’s adorable.

I also loved Mara’s character. She and Elisa develop a great friendship and I want to appreciate how both of them discuss their personal lives and are so confident about their bodies and sexuality. I really really adore female friendships and this bond is special. Storm was a surprise. I was skeptical about him for the most part but I might just have started to like him towards the end. I hated Ximena in this book. I couldn’t believe that she refused to see Elisa as anything other than the God’s vessel here to fulfill her destiny. She really got what was coming to her.

The ending is both terrifying and exhilarating at once and I am very excited to see Elisa kick some ass in the next book and finally achieve what she deserves.

( )

I just love to read a book that is crawling with tropes, but does all the things I've come not to expect when I read this genre. It's honestly marvelous.

The Crown of Embers is the second book in Carson's Girl of Fire and Thorns series, and when we reunite with Princess Elisa, she's on unstable ground, politically speaking. Despite her triumph at the end of The Girl of Fire and Thorns, her kingdom remains in turmoil. It is suffering economically, and political intrigue is afoot. Externally, the world is closing in around her, and internally, Elisa doubts her abilities to lead. If only she could harness the power of her Godstone more effectively....

That's where we begin in The Crown of Embers. Elisa is overwhelmed, grieving, young, and lost. I loved her journey in this book because not only was it a journey book where once again we partake on a quest of sorts, but it was also an internal journey of personal growth and confidence. Where The Girl of Fire and Thorns took us across the desert, The Crown of Embers takes us underground and across the sea. Atmospherically, this is a much different book than the first book was, showing the vastness of Rae Carson's worlds and her skill at world building. Like in book one, her journey challenges her physically, mentally, and emotionally and she is forced to take on challenges above her skill set and needs to survive them. One of the things I really like about Rae Carson's writing is that she not only challenges her characters, but she allows them to struggle. Elisa doesn't overcome her obstacles lightly - there are consequences to her actions and she often comes out of scrapes with injuries. Even the magic has consequences here, which as a fantasy reader is so important to me and is becoming more and more difficult to find.

If you haven't already gathered this from raving reviews of Walk on Earth a Stranger and Like a River Glorious... I adore Rae Carson's writing and this year she's shot to the top of my favorite authors list. Her ability to take tired worlds and stories and make them fresh without falling into systematic traps is simple wonderful.

I'm struggling to find something to criticize about The Crown of Embers. I thought the twists were good - maybe not surprising, but completely satisfying. The writing was stellar, the character growth was steady and believable not only for Elisa, but for Mara and Hector and characters around her. The romance may have felt a little instalove-esque, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing or inaccurate. For one, Elisa turns seventeen at the beginning of this book. She's young and has had so much pain and instability. The emotional attachments she makes... made a lot of sense to me, and I sense that it will be a driving factor in the ongoing series rather than a tryst that distracts from the plot. The speed of the developing romance may irk some, which is why I mention it. For my part, though, I thought it was fine.

All in all, The Crown of Embers was a fantastic second book in the series. I liked it better than The Girl of Fire and Thorns and I'm so excited to have now TWO of Rae Carson's series that I'm reading, because I would read her grocery list honestly, I just love her characters, story structure, and world building so much. If you are a fan of popular fantasy series like the Grishaverse and Throne of Glass, this series is fantastic. Lighter on the romance, but with another impressive, strong, and flawed protagonist who's bound to take her world by storm. ( )

Wow! Talk about a book that definitely does not suffer from middle book syndrome. The Crown of Embers never slacked up. It was non-stop action. I absolutely loved the entire cast of characters (both old and new). And the love story - can we just say that when Rae Carson finally gave Elisa love she did it with complete flair and absolutely took my heart away. ( )