Title: Graceling (Graceling Realm #1)
Author: Kristin Cashore
Pages: 471
Published: 2008
Rating: 3.5/5
Blurb (Goodreads):
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 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.
My Review:
A world where some people are born with two different coloured eyes and a power, whether it means they can swim for miles or hold their breathe for years. But if in Katsa’s case she is given the Grace of killing with her bare hands. No one could keep up with her or even imagine being able to match her fighting skills. Not until she meets Prince Po.
Things I liked:
Prince Po made this novel really good; he was funny and more relaxed than everyone. His dialogue was well written and witty. But seriously, Po as a name? Like out of every name in the whole universe, you pick Po. But thank God that Po saved himself and was charming as heck so I could ignore his silly name. And I am so sorry if your name is Po. It’s just reminds me of the Teletubbies too much. The plot of this book was enjoyable and original, I loved the idea of the Graceling people and the 7 kingdoms. It made me want to read more fantasy books, just so I can see more of these settings. My favourite part of this book was the fighting scenes between Po and Katsa, when they train together in it. I liked that Po was a match for Katsa and how he never backed down to her even though she was much stronger. The story was enough to make me want to read on, but i felt like it was missing something. Katsa’s character development was slow and paced well enough to be believable, I loved the way I could see her changing.
Things I disliked:
Uh, I just felt like some parts were slow like real slow. Like I think if I had to guess about half of the book was about them travelling somewhere. And when they finally got to wherever they were going, I felt like it was over too quickly, then they were travelling again. The plot twists were smart, but there was no time to react to them because they were over by the next page. I also just didn’t connect with Katsa that much as I normally do with the main character, sometimes I didn’t understand why she was acting the way she was.
Thinking about the full book, I think 3.5 is a reasonable rating from me. I did like this book a lot and I’ll read the next books. I know a lot of people that love this book a lot so I would recommend this book to fans of fantasy and people that loved Throne of Glass!
books are loyal friends 