Graced

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Lady Katsa, niece to King Randa of the Middluns, is a Graceling, as shown by her eyes being two different colors. Her grace is an odd one for a girl and a dangerous one for any Graceling to possess. She can kill with the slightest touch of her hand. After years of being used as a deadly tool by her uncle, Katsa forms a council of trusted friends. Together they travel around the seven kingdoms and help those in need.

It is on one such journey that Katsa first meets a mysterious Graceling from Lienid.

Likes
Katsa is a strong role model. Though she sees herself as a lethal animal, she truly has a softer, caring side. This is exhibited by the formation of the Council and by the journey with Bitterblue.

Katsa and Po’s relationship. (SPOILER ALERT) I will admit that there was a part of me that wanted the two to end up happily married and raising a family; however, I'm glad they didn't.  It would have gone against Katsa's nature.

Dislikes
This was a full cast audiobook. One annoyance to me was the lack of accent. This wouldn’t have been much of an issue other than there are a few instances where a character (such as Po) is described as having a particular tone or accent to his speech.

Bitterblue’s name. Really? A child named Bitterblue? Bleh.

Bitterblue doesn’t act or speak much like a child, even when considering her upbringing.

I contemplated changing audiobooks because the story didn’t grab me as deeply as I would have liked. It’s been a couple of weeks since I finished listening to the book, and I am left with an overall negative feeling towards it.

Other
Book two in the trilogy is Fire. However, from what I have read it takes place many years prior to Graceling.

Debut / 2009 Morris Award finalist.