ISBN-13: 9780547258300
Series: Book 1 of the Seven Kingdom’s Trilogy, ‘Fire’ is also a companion novel
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 471
© 2008, Graphia Books
Available wherever books are sold
Rating: 4 stars
Graceling is jam-packed with suspense, drama, humor, and a challenging romance. I loved this book. From the moment I dove in, to the very last page. Katsa is a Graced woman, one of the people in the seven kingdoms that are born with a little extra something in their being. At a very young age, she was found out that he Grace was killing. An unfortunate event at a family gathering gave her up and she was forced to live with her uncle, King Randa. He would have Katsa do his dirty work of bone-breaking and intimidation to the people of his land whom he wanted to control and manipulate. Katsa always thought she was an abomination to the world. This novel is the first of a trilogy and it also has a companion novel to go with it which serves as sort of a prequel. In this first book of the trilogy, I really enjoyed getting to know Katsa and a few of the other main characters. Po is a joy to read about, he is enchanting and captivates Katsa from their very first meeting. This book is real, meaning that even though it is thought of as a fantasy read, I could see some of the dilemas, other than the whole Graced part, happenning in real life.
The plot of this novel focuses on the Committee that Katsa is a part of, a group of citizens that are against the garish deeds that Randa orders Katsa to do. They also do side jobs. In the beginning, one particular side job involves rescuing a captive from a nearby kingdom. It turns out that the man is from the island kingdom of Lienid and his grandson, Po, a prince from Lienid comes to Randa in his quest to find his grandfather. He lets on to Katsa that he is graced with combat skills. His eyes are a striking shade of silver and gold, eyes that take Katsa's complete being and wreck havoc on it every time he looks into her Graced blue and green eyes. Katsa and Po start up a friendship in which they fight each other to work on their skills. Many people come to watch the fights and one day Randa comes to watch. After this, he sends Katsa on a thug job and Po tells Katsa that she should choose what she wants to do on her own and not take orders from Randa. The whole job is a nightmare, from a marriage proposal to news from the kingdom of Monsea. When Katsa returns she no longer wishes to take orders from Randa and leaves the court with Po in search of finding the truth about the rumors coming from Monsea.
The romance in this book is very real and very intense, even though challenging and different. It's almost unlike any love story that I have ever read. The hardships are clearly unlike anything that could happen in most stories or real life stories, though they mirror situations that could possibly come up in real life. That said, an explanation is required. The story is fantasy and the love story deals with fantastical elements, like the characters being Graced, and dealing with a Graced King that is Graced beyond any Grace that has ever existed, a Grace that is dangerous. There is death and murders, and torture. That said, the realistic part is that the characters have to overcome these circumstances to make their love apparent and realize it exists. Sticking together becomes difficult after an injury and in order to save a future leader, they are forced to split up. The fact that they come together after the split shows that a real life obstacle has had to pass. Hahaha, it's hard to really explain that it is realistic given the fact that this is a fantasy novel, but basically the couple has to overcome many obstacles in order to be together, like real life is sometimes.
The characters in this story are very believable in the fact that they are very human. They have strong emotions, they doubt their own worth, they put others before themselves, they love, the care, they protect, and they feel anger. The emotions in this book were very deep and reading the story, I could easily feel the emotions as the characters experienced them. Many of the side characters were believable as well. The only issue with Katsa was that she wasn't very smart about certain things. Because her life was devoted to being a thug and taking orders, she doesn't understand certain concepts. This isn't a big issue because it is who Katsa is, but it makes for a few comical conversations amongst certain characters.
This book is full of dangerous situations that will have the reader on the edge of their seat as they flip through the pages. I particularly loved a part of the book that involves a treacherous trek through a mountain pass, in this certain scene, there is so much danger that you feel as though at some point, something truly awful is going to happen, but the characters endure, barely, and you're shouting hooray as they become safer. I love that it is set in a somewhat medieval time period, it makes the book altogether a much more romantic story, which balances out very nicely with te danger and violence.
If you're into romance, suspence, drama, humor, medieval, fiction, YA, or fantasy, this book is definitely for you. It has a bit of a more adult feel to it which I really enjoyed. Most of the books shelved as YA these days don't go as deep into the romance or contain teens that are stuck on themselves and material things. This book was excellent, it contained all of the elements of a great fantasy read also minus the dragons. I will anxiously be awaiting the second book in this trilogy.
