Pants on Fire!

I've decided that if you're a young woman whose 2009 sophomore novel includes the word "fire" in the title... you pretty much can't fail. If only Twilight had ended with Breaking Fire instead of the-book-that-must-not-be-named... I digress.

Kristin Cashore's companion novel to her fantabulous Graceling, this one simply titled Fire, is a great follow-up attempt to the creative and highly likeable Graceling. Although I don't share my trusted goth book store girl's opinion that it's actually better than Graceling, it's certainly a worthy read. The book jacket boasts, "This romantic companion to the highly praised Graceling has an entirely new cast of characters, save one."

That one, frankly, I could have done without. I think I would have actually preferred this as a stand-alone novel, but we'll see if "save one's" presence in Fire was necessary to set the stage for Cashore's final book in the trilogy, tentatively titled Bitterblue with no set release date.

And just in case you haven't yet hit this year's OTHER fabulous sophomore firey feature, Catching Fire... read it. Read Hunger Games first, then read Catching Fire... but be prepared for as many sleepless nights as it takes you to finish these books because you will NOT be able to put either one down!