Graceling by Kristin Cashore

TITLE: GRACELING
AUTHOR: KRISTIN CASHORE
GENRE: YOUNG ADULT FANTASY
RATING: 4 STARS

This is a very interesting young adult fantasy novel. The main character, Katsa, lives in a world where certain people posses extreme skills or talents, called a "grace". These people are called Gracelings, and they are easily recognizable by the fact that their eyes are two different colors. Katsa's grace is the ability to kill, and she's forced to use her grace as the King's enforcer. But what should she do when the King's orders go against everything that she believes and feels?

This was a really good fantasy novel! I enjoyed it quite a bit. Lots of action and a good touch of romance. The only reason that I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 was because of the ending. There was this whole build-up around who the "bad guy" was and evading him and such, and then it ended really abruptly and was very anti-climatic. There was another section of the book after that to wrap up a few loose ends. I kinda liked that section, but at the same time it seemed a bit odd to me. Maybe it's trying to set up another book? Not sure. But overall, I am really glad that I read this.

The only other problem I had was that I listened to the audiobook and I'm not sure if I recommend that. It was a full cast audio, so basically one reader for everything but the dialogue, and then a bunch of readers for the dialogue. And honestly, they were all pretty good. It took me a bit to get used to that kind of setup because I am so used to just one or possibly 2 readers. But I got used to it pretty quick. The problem I had was the music that they kept inserting into it! That drove me crazy! I kept feeling like I was watching some old movie where some says something that's supposed to shock or surprise you, then you hear "Dum, dum, dum" (or whatever the music happens to be). I just felt like laughing every time that they did it! Which is probably not a good thing since they were adding it to the parts that were supposed to be suspenseful! So, I think that I'd recommend reading it, not listening to it.