Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson

Title: Walk on Earth a Stranger
Author: Rae Carson
Series: The Gold Seer Trilogy #1
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Release Date: September 22, 2015
Source: eARC provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review (thanks HarperCollins!)

Summary from Goodreads:

The first book in a new trilogy from acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Rae Carson. A young woman with the magical ability to sense the presence of gold must flee her home, taking her on a sweeping and dangerous journey across Gold Rush–era America.

Lee Westfall has a secret. She can sense the presence of gold in the world around her. Veins deep beneath the earth, pebbles in the river, nuggets dug up from the forest floor. The buzz of gold means warmth and life and home—until everything is ripped away by a man who wants to control her. Left with nothing, Lee disguises herself as a boy and takes to the trail across the country. Gold was discovered in California, and where else could such a magical girl find herself, find safety? Rae Carson, author of the acclaimed Girl of Fire and Thorns trilogy, dazzles with this new fantasy that subverts both our own history and familiar fantasy tropes.

Review

Walk on Earth a Stranger was every bit as amazing as the synopsis promises.

Leah’s character was the first thing to pull me into the story. She’s another extremely capable and selfless young heroine who was easy to like. When we first meet her, she’s off hunting to feed her family and her deeds only get more impressive as the story progresses. When her parents are murdered, she’s forced to flee her home and decides to meet up with her childhood friend going west to California to seek Gold. She disguises herself as a boy so as not to attract attention and she keeps up the ruse for most of the book. I always love when girls pretend to be boys (and do it well) so I thought this part of the story was fun. She didn’t fool everyone but for the most part, she was damn convincing.

I’m usually not a big fan of road trip books but this one worked for me. I think the Oregon Trial and Gold Rush era backdrop helped a lot with that. I’ve never read a book with this setting before so it was both new and exciting. There was a steady stream of events related to Leah’s journey that helped keep my attention although I will note that none were really related to her ability. Although her magic has a steady presence in the book and does come into play once or twice, it wasn’t really explored or utilized in the way I would have expected. This is something that I hope we get in the second book (and expect we will). But nevertheless, I enjoyed reading about the trials that Leah and her group did face. It was definitely enlightening to see what conditions on the trail might have been like and what people had to overcome in the pursuit of gold. I always loved glimpses into the past.

There wasn’t a whole lot of romance in this book, which is fine with me, but I wanted to make note of it for you romance fans. Leah does have a love interest but she assumes his interest lies elsewhere and so, if anything, it’s a source of angst for her until the miscommunication is cleared up. But either way, their relationship wasn’t a strong focus. I believe that will change though in the second book so romance to come!

I am definitely looking forward to the sequel. I think this book did a good job of setting up the characters and the world but still leaves a lot more to be desired. I can’t wait to see what Rae Carson has in store for us. This is definitely a worthwhile read!

The Girl of Fire and Thorns (Fire and Thorns #1) by Rae Carson

Title: The Girl of Fire and Thorns

Author: Rae Carson
Series: Fire and Thorns
Publisher: Greenwillow
Release Date: September 20, 2011
Pages: 423, Hardcover

Summary from Goodreads:

Once a century, one person is chosen for greatness.
Elisa is the chosen one.

But she is also the younger of two princesses, the one who has never done anything remarkable. She can't see how she ever will.

Now, on her sixteenth birthday, she has become the secret wife of a handsome and worldly king—a king whose country is in turmoil. A king who needs the chosen one, not a failure of a princess.

And he's not the only one who seeks her. Savage enemies seething with dark magic are hunting her. A daring, determined revolutionary thinks she could be his people's savior. And he looks at her in a way that no man has ever looked at her before. Soon it is not just her life, but her very heart that is at stake.

Elisa could be everything to those who need her most. If the prophecy is fulfilled. If she finds the power deep within herself. If she doesn’t die young.

Most of the chosen do.

I feel like I am a black smudge on the shining reviews of this book. I liked this book well enough - it kept my attention - but it didn't WOW me, which I was expecting after all the hype it got.

The plot was fairly well paced from page one; I never really felt a lag in the development of the story. There are a lot of people who want the godstone for themselves, and would happily rip it out of Elisa's navel rather than keep her alive. This danger was a central element to the story. Early into the book she is kidnapped from the palace and dragged across the desert to an abandoned people who are suffering at the hands of a foreign army with the power of animagus, sorcerers who wield the power of godstones in violence. They expect Elisa to be their salvation and Elisa must find a way to prevent their senseless slaughter.

I'd argue that whether or not you like this book depends on whether or not you like Elisa. And I couldn't decide if I liked her or not. On a few occasions I really admired her strength but too often I found her self-deprecating. As the bearer of the godstone, she was allegedly destined for greatness, but she felt unqualified for such responsibility. I can understand having doubts, naturally, but for much of this novel she expected failure without trying for any other outcome. She does conclude this book with more strength of will than she started with but it didn't come with the level of confidence deserved after achieving so much. I felt like she needed to give herself more credit rather than having another pity party. She had so many other redeemable qualities to sell herself so short.

I was pleasantly surprised to start this book and find that Elisa was an average looking and plump 16 year old girl rather than your more commonly found skinny-without-effort and prettier-than-she-realizes YA female lead. But  this healthy appetite of hers that I first found likable quickly revealed itself to be an unhealthy dependency on food. I am not going to talk about this more (because I am afraid I will rant) other than to say the focus was just too great and aimless.

My roller coaster impression of Elisa didn't effect my overall reading pleasure dramatically but it was a reason why I couldn't rate this book higher. The other reason was that I just didn't find myself as interested as other fantasy stories I've read recently, which could just be the timing of this read. I did like the other characters though, especially Cosme and Humberto and again the story had my attention easy enough. Thus ensues 3 stars. And I hear the sequel is better!