Graceling (Graceling Realm, #1) in Vampires, Weres and Fae!

May 31, 2020 Tracy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: actual-book, kindle-book, fantasy, read-in-2020, own-it, young-adult, favorites

Katsa is perhaps the strongest female MC I have ever encountered. She is fearless and doesn't need anyone else to defend her. The whole cast of characters were truly wonderful though and it would be impossible not to love Po and Bitterblue. I loved this book and definitely plan to read on in this series. I know in the future this book will be one that I re-read for sure. ...more

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Nov 29, 2014 Vannessa rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle-books, fantasy

I read this book for a group read I was doing on Facebook and as I'm a fan of fantasy books thought I would give it a go and I'm glad I did. I really enjoyed it.

Katsa is our heroine in this book. She is a Graceling, a human Graced with a special power. Gracelings can have powers in everything and anything and initially Katsa's Grace seems to be strength and the ability to kill easily. She is therefore her king's assassin, who happens to be her uncle as well. She doesn't really like being his hi I read this book for a group read I was doing on Facebook and as I'm a fan of fantasy books thought I would give it a go and I'm glad I did. I really enjoyed it.

Katsa is our heroine in this book. She is a Graceling, a human Graced with a special power. Gracelings can have powers in everything and anything and initially Katsa's Grace seems to be strength and the ability to kill easily. She is therefore her king's assassin, who happens to be her uncle as well. She doesn't really like being his hitman, causing unnecessary pain to the people who annoy him, so instead of killing or maiming, she tends to just knock people out.

Katsa also has a secret. She is head of The Council, a secret organisation set on helping those in need of being saved from one of the kings of the Seven Kingdoms. On a rescue mission to save the grandfather of the Leinid kingdom, she meets another Graced human, who is clearly from Leinid as well, but she knocks him out and runs off before he can ask her any questions. Back in her own kingdom, she meets him again and together they become fighting partners and slowly become friends. He is let in on the secret mission and together they decide to go to the kingdom of Monsea to find out if King Leck did really kidnap Po's grandfather.

What they find in Monsea changes things for them both and this story then becomes a book about survival rather than investigation.

Katsa was an ok character. At times she was too aggressive and angered too easily. Po let her get away with far too much and she could not control her temper very well at all. I can see other people's issues with her feminism, or anti-feminism as it were - she didn't like to wear dresses and jewellery and act all girly, preferring to fight and dress in trousers, but in fantasy books, traditionally on heroine characters would have been in long flowing gowns, so I see why Katsa didn't want to do that. She also didn't want to get married or have kids and being Graced I can see why, having being discriminated against as a child, but Katsa didn't really reveal her reasons though. I liked Po, even if he took too much of Katsa's attitude at times, when he should have given her some back!

This series has potential and I hope the next book carries on with it, but having skimmed through some of the reviews, it sounds like it might not be as good a read. Shame! ...more

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