I enjoyed Cashore's first book more than this one, but her first book is one of my favourite books I've ever read so that isn't saying much. Both this book and Graceling explore in very interesting ways what it means to be a woman in a world that is hostile to the fact of your existence. Fire explores the idea of het men being unable to control themselves in the face of female beauty by taking it to the most extreme place possible, in a way that fantasy fiction allows us to do. Anyway, I liked it!