Book Review: Fire (warning: contains ranting about fans)

TITLE: Fire
Book 2 in the Seven Kingdoms series
AUTHOR: Kristin Cashore
PUBLISHED: 2009
CATEGORY: Young adult
GENRE: Romance, adventure, drama
SHORT PREMISE: Fire finds her place in the world.
MY REVIEW: Fire is a girl who can see into people's minds and is feared for her gift. While helping a prince and his family Fire finds acceptance and her place in the world.
I really enjoy Cashore's writing. It's absorbing, her worlds are fantastically laid out and you can see the amount of thoughtfulness and work she put into it. In a time of sloppy commercial get em out in 3 months books like House of Night, it's a very nice change. Sadly her readership is not as mature as she is. If I see one more person bitch about Katsa and Po not getting married and having kids (and saying that makes the books man-hating because apparently we haven't progressed as much as we claim) I will make a rant post that is longer then this. Katsa's story is DONE. She has found Po and her place in the world, and she was perfectly happy at the end of the first book. Why on earth do you need her to get married and have kids as some sort of validation? Also, that traveling stuff was CHARACTER DEVELOPEMENT and yes, it was neccessary for stregenthing Katsa and Po's relationship as well as giving you an idea of what the land Katsa lived in was like. Ugh, makes me mad every time I think about the amount of complaints Cashore gets and doesn't deserve.
Despite what you've probably heard, Fire is good. Is it as good as Graceling? Maybe not. Sometimes I admit I felt vague deja vu while reading it. But Fire IS NOT Katsa, she has a different personality and deals with things differently then Katsa would. Her relationship IS NOT like Po and Katsa 2.0. And if I hear any more griping about Fire not getting married either I will scream. Now, if you have actual legit complaints about writing style, or this character or that plot developement, then I hear you. But it is a rare reader of the book that has said something like that and the ones who do I love and will happily debate with.
This post has sort of become less about Fire and more of a rant, sorry. I just get very irritated whenever I see all the negative comments about the marriage thing as if that makes a well written book bad. Personally I really liked Fire and all it's political intrigue. I am definitely looking forward to Bitterblue (which has apparently been pushed back to 2012, damn) but I will continue to avoid forums about it because I know going into them will make me want to stab something. If you weren't bothered by Katsa not getting married or wanting children then you'll enjoy this probably, if you did not for whatever reason then you probably won't like it.
WHO SHOULD READ: Those that read and liked Graceling, fans of Tamora Pierce
MY RATING: Four out of Five graces