Graceling
Series: Seven Kingdom, book 1
Pub: 2008, Gollancz
Author: Kristin Cashore
Cat: fantasy
Format: paperback (lar); 340 pp w/ 40
chapters
Age Range: YA
Synopsis
In a world where people born with an
exceptional skill, known as a Grace, are both feared and exploited, Kasta
carries 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 Liend’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 Kasta
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 realise, when she takes
it, that something insidious and dark lurks behind the mystery, something
spreading from the shadowy figure of a one eyes king...
With elegant,
evocative prose and a cast of unforgettable characters, debut author Kristin
Cashore creates a mesmerizing world and a death-defying adventure that will
captivate you and leave you wanting more.