TITLE: Daughter of the FlamesAUTHOR: Zoe Marriott – Web, Blog
GENRE: Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance
PUBLISHED: Candlewick (Feb 10, 2009)
SYNOPSIS:
(Provided by Publisher)
What if your deadliest enemy were the only one who could save you?
Inside an ancient temple in the mountains, fifteen-year-old Zira trains in the martial arts to become a warrior priestess who can defend the faith of the Ruan people. Bearing a scar on her face from the fire that killed her parents, the orphaned Zira is taught to distrust the occupying Sedornes. Terror strikes when the forces of the tyrannical Sedorne king destroy the only home she knows. To survive, Zira must unravel the secrets of her identity, decide her people’s fate — and accept her growing feelings for a man who should be her enemy.
Inside an ancient temple in the mountains, fifteen-year-old Zira trains in the martial arts to become a warrior priestess who can defend the faith of the Ruan people. Bearing a scar on her face from the fire that killed her parents, the orphaned Zira is taught to distrust the occupying Sedornes. Terror strikes when the forces of the tyrannical Sedorne king destroy the only home she knows. To survive, Zira must unravel the secrets of her identity, decide her people’s fate — and accept her growing feelings for a man who should be her enemy.
REVIEW:
This fantasy novel was pretty good. I picked it up because of the nice cover and the martial arts of the fantasy world intrigued me. It was full of action beginning to end and was different in that aspect.
Zira/Zahira is an interesting character full of all the normal attributes of a 16 year old girl, flaws and all. But as the book progresses I love how she seems to just be possessed by her inner princess and turns out to be quite noble, strong and a great leader. For that, I liked this book. (And because the whole "normal-girl-who-realizes-she's-a-princess" thing has been done, A LOT. Zira really filled that transition deeply.)
But there were three things that were difficult for me. I’ll start by saying I love how Zira and Sorin met, I love his attitude in that part. He’s so mysterious and made my heart flutter. So my first issue was: as they are reunited I was disappointed that the author didn’t milk the emotions for all it was worth. I feel like we only got half the emotions, passion and love that this relationship deserved.
My second issue was that Sorin started out looking like’d be deep and interesting. But as the story rolled on, he fell flat. (I don’t know if it was intentional because of the certain poisonous events.)
Lastly, I love the added twist about Abheron’s actions at the end. (Don’t worry, no spoilers.) But It was a little abrubt and I’m not used to getting my way: I believe all people are inherently good. Maybe that’s not a bad thing… I guess maybe it should be a good thing.
RATED:
RECOMMENDATIONS:
Definitely a book that teen girls who love fantasy and action/adventure would like. Good, clean, fun.