Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

This was taken from goodreads.com/jess_readerwriter, I wrote the review freely and I apologize if the reviews are not written in a professional manner.

Synopsis: 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 . . . a secret that could destroy all seven kingdoms with words alone.



My rating: 5 stars of 5
Beautifully crafted
Amazing characters
Great story telling
New world
Slow
This book is now one of my all time favorite books.



Katsa, Graced with Killing, does her uncles dirty work for him in the Middluns kingdom. She is his threat and does everything he asks. Secretly, she goes and saves innocent people from imprisonment. She saves Grandfather Tealiff, for he was kidnappped for some unknown reason. After saving Grandfather Tealiff, his grandson, Prince Greening of Lienid, comes to the Middluns to find out information about him (Not knowing that Katsa saved him already). Katsa and Greening (Nickname, Po) meet and she takes him to his sick Grandfather.



While he stays in Randa City in the Middluns, Katsa and Po train, fight, and become friends. She finds out that his Grace is combat fighting but it's also something else entirely... As the story continues, Po tries to figure who kidnapped his grandfather and why. He starts to piece together information about King Leck. No one suspects him because of his kindness and because he isn't troublesome. He came into power in an odd way which is peculiar to Po and he starts to figure that King Leck is Graced with an extraordinary power. Rumors spread around the Seven Kingdoms that the wife and daughter of King Leck, Po's cousins, have hidden themselves in their room due to how upset they are that Grandfather Tealiff was kiddnapped. We later find out that they're hiding from King Leck. Katsa and Po set out to find Bitterblue and Ashen (Daughter and wife of Leck) and save them. Their journey takes up the rest of the book with twists, turns, spirals, and downfalls as they go on. Katsa learns more about her Grace and herself as well as Po. The rest you'll have to find out yourself.



This book was so real to me although it's sort of in Medieval times. Po is so kindhearted and happy. He's laidback and real. Katsa is fiery. She is always on the ready for a challenge and isn't really one to trust anyone.

The only thing I didn't like was the slight lack of romance and how quickly their conflict was overwith. Most of the conflict was their journey to find Ashen and Bitterblue but, once they were face to face with the enemy, things ended quickly enough that there wasn't much of a fight.



This book kept my attention, though slow through the first 200 pages or so. Definitely worth anyones time.