Book review: GRACELING by Kristin Cashore

In a world where people born with an exceptional skill, known as a Grace, are both feared and exploited, Katsa caries the burden of a skill even she despises: the Grace of killing.

As a Graced killer who has been able to kill a man with her bare hands from the age of eight, she's forced to work as the king's thug. Feared by the court and shunned by those her own age, the darkness of her Grace casts a heavy shadow over Katsa's life.

Yet Katsa remains defiant, and when the King of Lienid's father is kidnapped she investigates, and stumbles across a mystery. Who would want to kidnap the old man, and why? And who was the extraordinary Graced man whose fighting abilities rivalled her own?

The only thing Katsa is sure of is that she no longer wants to kill. The intrigue surrounding the kidnapping offers her a way out -- and little does she realize, when she takes it, that something insidious and dark lurks behind the mystery, something spreading from the shadowy figure of a one eyed king...

Note: I've included both the US (L) and UK (R) covers above. The cover copy above is from the UK version, which is the one I read.

I really loved this book. It's an excellent adventure, as well as a touching romance. I confess that at one point I made a girly noise and petted the page I was reading, and at another I started to cry at the very idea of something terrible happening--that I already knew didn't happen, because I'd accidentally seen the last page of the book--because I loved the characters so much.

Katsa, Po, and Bitterblue are wonderful characters; simply written but with such heart, such spirit, that you can't help but fall in love with all three of them. The worldbuilding is excellent, the adventure plot well formed and well executed. It's even got some surprises.

Highly recommended. Go! Buy! Love! B&N | Amazon | Indiebound