“When a monster stopped behaving like a monster, did it stop being a monster? Did it become something else?”

All her life, Katsa has been an outsider as she’s a graceling, a rare group of people who are bore in her land with an extreme skill: killing a man with her bare hands. As the niece of the King, you would think she would enjoy having a life of privilege but it’s hard to enjoy it when you’re spending so much time doing the King’s dirty work. But, such is the life that she has until an encounter with Prince Po and finds herself falling for him and the closer they become, the more she discovers that not everything is well within the kingdom as a terrible secret about her race is bound to tear the seven kingdoms apart.

It’s been awhile since I first this series and it was a good reread, fun to go back and see how I feel about the book from when I first read. It’s one of my favorite YA series and a new one is coming out in October so I thought I would start the re-read now so I can be ready for when it comes. I love the different names for the books and each story is it’s own and it’s been fun reading these books again. This first book was never my fave, I really like Fire and the others as I found the main character, Katsa very annoying but I did enjoy the other aspects of the book especially with the world-building as that always helps. Katsa is a graceling which is the ability to kill a person at the slightest touch and being the King’s niece, she has helped torture, murder, and struck horror into the lives of anyone who opposes the king. The older she gets, the more insecure she feels not only with who she is and the skill she possesses and soon begins to start living a double life as a hero. What I loved about this book with not only the world-building, every character was fully fleshed out and even though Katsa annoyed me, I did like aspects of her personality. It’s a very interesting plot and I think it was well written so if it sounds up your alley, then go ahead and check it out!