Graceling by Kristen Cashore
Copyright © 2008 Harcourt. Fantasy.
This is the first of three books in the Graceling Realm Series, and precedes Fire and Bitterblue
Summary (Back Cover): Katsa has been able to kill a man with her bare hands since she was eight- she’s a Graceling, one of the rare people in her land born with an extreme skill. As the niece of the king, she should be able to live a life of privilege, but Graced as she is with killing, she is forced to work as the king’s thug.
When she first meets Prince Po, Graced with combat skills, Katsa has no hint of how her life is about to change.
She never expects to become Po’s friend.
She never expects to learn a new truth about her own Grace- or about a terrible secret that lies hidden far away…
Review: I was lucky enough to find this book at Barnes and Noble at noon a few weeks ago, and I finished it by 6:30 pm that night. This book is rather lengthy (471 pages), but I didn’t finish it quickly because it was an easy read, I finished it in record time because I couldn’t put it down. Personally, I love reading fantasy books that include kingdoms, strategy and conspiracies, and Graceling was the perfect combination of the three. Kristin Cashore did a fantastic job of filling her book to the brim with creativity from the names of the characters to the plot. I became a little too emotionally attached to the main characters, Katsa and Po, but that made the book that much more enjoyable for me. This novel is not written at a third grade level, but its non-threatening text allows for a wide variety of people to read it, and I highly recommend it to anybody that is intrigued by castles and fantasy.
The Real Bookshelves of Room 918 