Fire by Kristin Cashore

I stumbled upon Kristin Cashore via Graceling. This book, the second in the Graceling Realm series, has a bit of backstory, but not the same charm, for me, as Graceling did. I had a hard time reconciling that Fire's world and the world of Katsa were one and the same. There had been no mention of the same sort of monsters in the latter that inhabit the former.

What intrigued me about this book was that Cashore, yet again, works with a late adolescent female, and carves out a character that has both strengths and weaknesses, experiences bigotry and prejudice, yet inspires tremendous loyalty and devotion in those who break through her shell. There is, again, a non-traditional view of love, sex, and marriage, but I've long ago learned that how I have lived my life might not be the norm for others. I wonder how the younger end of the YA reading spectrum might relate to some of this, as well as the prominence of the problems Fire's umm... monthly monster week (aka that time of month).

I didn't feel as drawn to this book as the first, but it still was well written.  Use of some terms distracted me -- odd that they'd have the same month names in that world as our.  August, huh? There must have been a Caesar back in the history of the Dells.  I do recognize how hard it is to escape using words that time date or location date you in a fantasy world, but for some reason, this was particularly jarring for me.  Not enough to keep me from passing this on to my granddaughter, who is chaffing at the bit for it, and not enough to keep me from reading the next in this series, but enough to keep me from giving it higher stars (3 out of 5).