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Graceling



[A quick note: This is the Fairyloot set of Graceling books that are the UK cover. They are all covered in gold foil. They have sprayed edges. They are a matching set, which you CANNOT get as hardcovers. Iā€™m so in love with them. I went out on a limb and bought these before having read the series and I can already tell it was THE BEST decision! I have a couple extra photos of the whole set at the bottom.]


ā€œšˆ'š¦ š§šØš­ š šØš¢š§š  š­šØ š°šžššš« šš š«šžš šš«šžš¬š¬," š¬š”šž š¬ššš¢š.
"šˆš­ š°šØš®š„š š„šØšØš¤ š¬š­š®š§š§š¢š§š , šŒš² š‹šššš²," š¬š”šž šœššš„š„šžš.
š’š”šž š¬š©šØš¤šž š­šØ š­š”šž š›š®š›š›š„šžš¬ š ššš­š”šžš«šžš šØš§ š­š”šž š¬š®š«šŸšššœšž šØšŸ š­š”šž š°ššš­šžš«. "šˆšŸ š­š”šžš«šž'š¬ ššš§š²šØš§šž šˆ š°š¢š¬š” š­šØ š¬š­š®š§ ššš­ šš¢š§š§šžš«, šˆ'š„š„ š”š¢š­ š”š¢š¦ š¢š§ š­š”šž šŸšššœšž.ā€ā€”Kristin Cashore

Katsa has been graced with the ability to kill with her bare hands. As the niece of one of the seven kings, sheā€™s treated as his thug. Used to enforce his laws and do his dirty work. Sheā€™s feared. Sheā€™s alienated. And she has very few friends. Until the beautiful Prince Po comes into her life, and she finds herself falling unexpectedly in love with him. Together they must uncover the secrets of a kidnapping and stop a twisted king before he destroys all seven kingdoms.

I adored this! It felt like the perfect YA fantasy romance. It had all the aspects I enjoy, like magic, cool world building, wonderful characters, and a strong female protagonist. Whatā€™s not to like? It definitely lived up to the hype.

My favorite aspect of this book was the magic. It was WONDERFUL. The idea of ā€œgraces,ā€ abilities people are blessed with, wasnā€™t original, per say. But I appreciated how Cashore handled it. Even the name for the abilities ā€œgracesā€ and the fact that anyone with a grace has two different colored eyes, was really cool!

I liked that Katsaā€™s ability made her a bit of a morally gray character in the beginning. However, we never really saw her doing any of the ā€œbadā€ stuff because her change of heart is what kickstarts the story. So the content was definitely YA. Overall, you donā€™t encounter a lot of female heroes with herā€¦abilities. Yet, it was nice to see her struggle with her anger issues, making her flaw apparent.

ā€œš–š”šžš§ šš š¦šØš§š¬š­šžš« š¬š­šØš©š©šžš š›šžš”šššÆš¢š§š  š„š¢š¤šž šš š¦šØš§š¬š­šžš«, šš¢š š¢š­ š¬š­šØš© š›šžš¢š§š  šš š¦šØš§š¬š­šžš«? šƒš¢š š¢š­ š›šžšœšØš¦šž š¬šØš¦šžš­š”š¢š§š  šžš„š¬šž?ā€ā€”Kristin Cashore

I want to say that there werenā€™t any super ā€œnewā€ or ā€œoriginalā€ ideas hereā€¦but youā€™ve got to think about when this was written. If I would have read it when it came out, it would have been. For a debut fantasy written back in 2008, back before YA fantasy became as diverse as it is today, I was rather impressed with some of the forward thinking ideas.

I related most to Katsaā€™s desire to remain unmarried and refrain from children. While I AM married, I do not want children. Ever. Love them, theyā€™re just not for me. Most people donā€™t ( or canā€™t) understand that. Iā€™ve gotten plenty of ā€œtalksā€ about it. So the fact that Katsa didnā€™t want either impressed me, especially since there are many stories with female heroes who eventually get married, have kids, etc. But never fear, there is still TONS of romance in this book. I loved Katsa and Po. Loved them!

I would say as far as romance goes, this felt about half romance, half fantasy plot driven and I was HERE FOR IT. I love it when romance takes a more centered place in the plot. It was woven pretty seamlessly never took away from the overall story.


I canā€™t believe it took me so long to approach this series! I cannot wait to dive into the next book. The only potentially negative I had was that there was often a bit more ā€œtellingā€ than ā€œshowingā€ but the prose was lovely so that made up for it.

šŒš˜ š‘š€š“šˆšš†: šŸ’.šŸ“/šŸ“ā­ļø






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