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Graceling | 
| Author: Kristin Cashore
Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books
Category: Book
List Price: $17.00
Buy Used: $9.74
You Save: $7.26 (43%)
Rating:  107 reviews
Sales Rank: 2364
Media: Hardcover
Reading Level: Young Adult
Pages: 480
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.6 x 1.3
ISBN: 015206396X
EAN: 9780152063962
ASIN: 015206396X
Publication Date: October 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
If you had the power to kill with your bare hands, what would you do with it? Graceling takes readers inside the world of Katsa, a warrior-girl in her late teens with one blue eye and one green eye. This gives her haunting beauty, but also marks her as a Graceling. Gracelings are beings with special talents?swimming, storytelling, dancing. Katsa's Grace is considered more useful: her ability to fight (and kill, if she wanted to) is unequaled in the seven kingdoms. Forced to act as a henchman for a manipulative king, Katsa channels her guilt by forming a secret council of like-minded citizens who carry out secret missions to promote justice over cruelty and abuses of power. Combining elements of fantasy and romance, Cashore skillfully portrays the confusion, discovery, and angst that smart, strong-willed girls experience as they creep toward adulthood. Katsa wrestles with questions of freedom, truth, and knowing when to rely on a friend for help. This is no small task for an angry girl who had eschewed friendships (with the exception of one cousin that she trusts) for her more ready skills of self-reliance, hunting, and fighting. Katsa also comes to know the real power of her Grace and the nature of Graces in general: they are not always what they appear to be. Graceling is the first book in a series, and Kristin Cashore’s first work of fiction. It sets up a vivid world with engaging characters that readers will certainly look forward to following beyond the last chapter of this book. (Ages 14 and up) --Heidi Broadhead
Product Description
Katsa has been able to kill a man with her bare hands since she was eight--she's a Graceling, one of the rare people in her land born with an extreme skill. As niece of the king, she should be able to live a life of privilege, but Graced as she is with killing, she is forced to work as the king's thug.When she first meets Prince Po, Graced with combat skills, Katsa has no hint of how her life is about to change. She never expects to become Po's friend. She never expects to learn a new truth about her own Grace--or about a terrible secret that lies hidden far away . . . a secret that could destroy all seven kingdoms with words alone. With elegant, evocative prose and a cast of unforgettable characters, debut author Kristin Cashore creates a mesmerizing world, a death-defying adventure, and a heart-racing romance that will consume you, hold you captive, and leave you wanting more.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 102 more reviews...
 Gripping Seething 4 more January 1, 2009
David Crane
I had gotten this book on Chrismas day, I started reading on the way to our ski vacation and once the lifts close not much is happening I had decided to start it and it wasn't very interesting until the 3rd or 4th chapters but once it too off and almost never slowed down.
The characters seemed realistic, during Po and Katsa's training sessions it actually feels like they are telling you the story themselves. A couple of bits of romance keep it realistic between higher aged teens rather than little kids on an adventure it had added some reality to the whole thing.
once I got started it was hard to put down, I had stayed up late into the night reading and got up early which I payed for the next day (a fair sacrafice)
A must-read I'll definately will recommend to my friends and is currently my favorite book. :D
A New World to Discover... January 1, 2009
Sarah Woodard (Bremerton, WA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Summary: Graceling is about a teenage girl named Katsa. She lives in a world, where people are born with amazing gift. They can climb trees, have super strength, automatic knowledge of weather, and many other graces. Graces are born with two very different eye colors. Katsa is one them. She killed a cousin when she was 8, causing her to become a henchwomen for her uncle, King Randa of Middlun. She also runs The Council with the help of her friends, that tries to put justice and fairness into the 7 nations. She meets a stranger, named Po, who is also graced. He is the first one to challenge her and they embark on an amazing journey.
My Review: I though it was a very well written. I like the characters, they were very in depth. I think it was an excellent first novel. The ending did surprise me, but it was still pretty amazing. I am looking forward to the prequel, Fire and Book 3.
Exceptional December 27, 2008
Andrea (Bowdoin, ME)
Fast paced, engrossing, refreshing, unique. The concept of magic as a Grace is unusual, and creates a "thinker" of an action novel. Along the lines of Tamora Pierce or Mercedes Lackey in the scope of the action, with a Turtledove-like or Stirling-like ability to make you think of the consequences of the characters' talents long after you're done reading. Fantastic, I can't recommend it highly enough. YA fantasy at its best.
One of my favorites December 27, 2008
I. C. Luna (Washington, USA.)
At first I had doubts about this book. Didn't know if it was worth the effort reading it but I bought it anyways and I don't regret it.
Kristin Cashore first book takes us to a time and place where kingdoms rule. All over the seven kingdoms there are people with gifts, or grace, some extraordinary, some not to much. But the ones who are, are taken to the king to serve them. They'll know if they have a grace just by looking in their eyes, if they are different colors then they're graced.
Katsa, the main character, found out by the age of eight her grace was killing. She was the king's niece and was trained to use her grace rightfully and serve the king. However, she did not like doing was she was told to do: killing and hurting. And that's how she and others close to her decided to do things on their own behind the king's back, and save people and do well. It was in one of those missions when she met Po, a graced young prince who was in the middle of the same mission as her, with fighting skills it's hard for her to bring him down, something that usually takes her a second to do with other people. She did not judges him at first, but as time passes, she learns they have more in common than she thought, but finds a truth that makes her sad, angry and dissapointed. As their friendship grows they discover together there's more to her grace than just killing, and can't help falling in love, and fighting for their lives and other people.
I won't give out much. But I recomend it.
This is a book I would gladly read more than once!
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