Main Characters: Katsa, Po, Bitterblue
Series: The Seven Kingdoms Series, Book 1
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. She never expects to fall in love with beautiful Prince Po. She never expects to learn the truth behind her Grace—or the terrible secret that lies hidden far away . . . a secret that could destroy all seven kingdoms with words alone. With elegant, evocative prose and a cast of unforgettable characters, debut author Kristin Cashore creates a mesmerizing world, a death-defying adventure, and a heart-racing romance that will consume you, hold you captive, and leave you wanting more.Man but this was a good book.
It took me a couple of weeks to work up the courage to crack this sucker open because the sheer size of this book kept me scared. LOL. But, my blogging buddy Mollie hasn’t led me astray in any of her recommendations so I pushed through my reservations and am so freaking glad that I did because I loved this book.
This story follows Katsa, who is graced with killing and Po, who is graced with fighting. They’re on a mission to find out who kidnapped Po’s grandfather and why they did it. The journey leads them to some pretty crazy answers and to say that I was highly entertained, is putting it mildly. I loved getting to know both Katsa and Po. I adored Po. From the very beginning, I adored him.
The thing that I loved most about this book was that though Katsa was young and she wasn’t perfect, Cashore did a great job of making me sympathize with her instead of getting rip roaring mad at her for acting foolishly like I get for a great deal of YA books. Even in The Hunger Games, I got annoyed with Katniss from time to time but in this book? I thought Katsa rocked from beginning to end. She was smart, she was fierce and she was deadly and I ate it all up. Screw wanting Katsa to be my best friend, I wanted to BE Katsa. LOL. She was that great.
This book is a great story that will have you at the edge of your seat, wanting to know what happens next. When you put this book down, you’ll be counting the minutes until you can return to reading it. I enjoyed getting to know Katsa, Po and Bitterblue turned out to be a great character as well. For a girl at such a young age, she sure was mature but having to deal with what she had to deal with made it understandable.
I enjoyed all of the fight scenes between Po and Katsa. I enjoyed watching their romance unfold and I totally enjoyed just getting to know all of the characters in this book. I’m anxious to read more from this series and I’m anxious to see what happens next for Po and Katsa, especially with what went down in this book.
If you’re looking for a book that will rock your socks then look no further than this book. It’s got everything you’d be looking for in a book, a great story line, wonderful characters and a romance that will make your heart sigh. Po was a great hero and Katsa was a fantastic heroine. I don’t really have any gripes for this story because I enjoyed it too much. Really, pick up this book and read it. You won’t regret it!
Book cover and blurb credit: http://barnesandnoble.com
Yay, glad you decided to pick this one up and that you loved it! Graceling is one of my favorites and even though Fire has different characters, I have a feeling you’re going to enjoy reading that as well. I love both books. I can’t wait for Bitterblue to come out because I want to know what happens to the characters in Graceling. Katsa and Po are both awesome.
Hey Chachic! Yeah, I’m so glad that I picked this book up too. I enjoyed it so much and am anxiously waiting to read Fire. I can’t wait to find out who the recurring character is…I have no clue who it could be, really.
i’m glad you enjoyed it so much! i hate it when i read a monster of a book and end up not liking it. i want those hours i wasted back. good thing that wasn’t the case with this book. i haven’t read this one yet, but maybe i’ll try to get my hands on it and read it during xmas break.
Hooray! Graceling sounds like a totally rockin’ novel! I can’t wait to sink my… eyes into this one. Hehe. 🙂
Just one thing to say: Told ya so! 🙂 Soooo glad you finally read it and enjoyed it! This is one of my all time favorite YAs! You need to read Cashore’s Fire next! It was also fabulous!
Keep in mind when you read it it’s just REALLY loosely connected with Graceling it’s not really a prequel/sequel. I think a lot of people go into it expecting some major crossover but I will be interested to see how far into you get before figuring out the crossover character… 🙂
Yaaaaay soooo excited you read it! 🙂 Great review to come back to after my vacay!
toothy,
That’s definitely not the case with this book. It was packed with so much goodness that I’m anxious to read more from this author.
Cass,
I totally hear you on that, eyes, teeth, nails…just sink into this book already! =P
Mollie,
I knew you’d say that, haha. But you’re right. This book was all kinds of good and I’m excited and just a little bit anxious for more. Fire is on my list of books to get soon, I must read it because I’m too nosy not to find out who the recurring character is.
Ooh, how was your vacation?
I really enjoyed Fire too it’s definitely different from Graceling. Didn’t think the romance aspect was as strong but I reallly liked it a lot.
Vaca was soo good! I’ll be posting some pictures and a run down of what all I did….soon (hopefully) trying to get all caught up. That’s the bad thing about being gone a week so much to doooooo!!!
Mollie,
I’m still looking forward to reading it so no worries.
I’m so glad that you had a good time on vacation but really though, I’m more excited that you’re back! =P Hurry and post pics and stories, I want to live vicariously through you! =)
Graceling was absolutely GREAT! TEAM KATSA..Is it me or does it seem like the majority of the YA Books have fantastic Heros and the heroines are just okay! I don’t know but, I totally fall in love with the heros and get in an emotional uproar over them all; good stuff! NOw if I could just reach out and touch them all, even better!