Book Review: Graceling by Kristen Cashore

Synopsis:

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 Graces 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..

  My Review:

   Okay, so I don't know about you guys but personally, I didn't like this story, not even a bit. I continued to read it but gave up on the last chapters. I mean, it was odd, like seriously odd. I did like the idea of some people being gifted with a Grace, like some sort of a gift, like mind reading, fighting, manipulating people's minds but then everything other than that just sucked. The characters were too weird, especially Katsa - the protagonist - she was the weirdest and the less appealing and not to forget her character and actions were sometimes provocative, although, admittedly she sometimes seemed a bit lost. The romance wasn't the least bit interesting, at first I thought it would be but then it was the complete opposite of a love story, it was like she considered him a friend, truly and then she never intended to get married which means never falling in love and then CLICK! they were all over each other, I guess, it was like she couldn't help but falling in love but still, it didn't touch me. In addition, I didn't know where the world-building came from but it was better. And last but not least, the story was written in a third point of view which happens to be a MAJOR turn off for me.

   Overall, personally I don't really recommend reading this book. It was just not my cup of tea and so figures, I am not planning on continuing the series. I started reading this book with somewhat high expectations because of the good reviews but turns out, I don't share it, I was kinda bummed out really. And I am just stating my opinion of it so hope my review wasn't too harsh, sorry if it was ;)

Title: Graceling
Author: Kristen Cashore
Series: Graceling Realm #1
Published: October 1st 2008 by Harcourt
Source: Owned
Links: Goodreads | Amazon
Rating: 1/5

Happy Reading!
xoxo, Mariam