Sarah Marie read and liked Margaret's review of Fire:

"Over the mountains from the kingdoms in Graceling are the Dells, where rebellious nobles plot against the young king, and where some animals are monsters: brightly colored, beautiful, often dangerous versions of normal animals. Fire is a human monste...more Over the mountains from the kingdoms in Graceling are the Dells, where rebellious nobles plot against the young king, and where some animals are monsters: brightly colored, beautiful, often dangerous versions of normal animals. Fire is a human monster, the last of her kind; she is irresistibly, wildly beautiful and has the ability to control minds, though she resists using it, remembering the terrible example of her brilliant, twisted father. When the king's brother Brigan arrives to ask her for her help against the rebel lords, she is pulled against her will into the turmoil enveloping the kingdom.

It took me a while to get into Fire, perhaps because it's rather different from Graceling (which I'd just reread). Cashore's writing style has become more polished, which is nice to see; the very interior narrative reminded me rather of Robin McKinley, in fact, which is a high compliment. The book as a whole is more inward-focused than Graceling; there's less action, which seems fitting given that Katsa's Grace was an exterior, physical one, but Fire's power is very much more internal and leads to even more internal conflict about how she should use it. By the end of the book, I was still feeling that it was a little overlong, but I had become fond of the characters and impressed by Cashore's characterization and style. I wouldn't say I liked either book more; I liked them differently.

The cover calls Fire "a companion to Graceling", which is a good way to describe it. Although the events in it precede those in Graceling, it's not a direct prequel. The books have only one character in common, and since the jacket copy seems not to want to spoil that, I won't either (although it's revealed very early).
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