by Kristin Cashore
Touched by Grace, Katsa finds herself under the control of a tyranical King. When Katsa kills her first man at age eight, her uncle uses her power to maintain control in his kingdom, effectively keeping her emotionally isolated from those who fear her rare and dangerous skill.
Then Katsa falls in love with the ideal of helping rather than hurting and tags along with beautiful Prince Po to an outlying kingdom. Their epic (DD’s word) journey reveals more than the enemy they must face.
With this debut novel, Kristin Cashore takes readers on a journey across kingdoms where love is never easy and words have the power to destroy.
How does this book rank among your favorites? It’s my fourth favorite–behind The Hunger Games, Catching Fire and Fire.
What makes it a good read? It’s just the kind of book I like. It has romance, action and a tad bit of mystery.
Who is your favorite character? Po.
Why? Because he is amazing. (Mom suspects it’s because he’s described as a georgous male who treats the heroine with the utmost respect.)
Does this book have fantastical elements? Yes.
Such as? Powers. I wish I could have powers. Like super-secret eye lasers.
What would your Grace be? Not getting ditched by friends.
How would that help in a novel? Giddeon would not have left Katsa and he would have been there to back her up.
Um, wouldn’t that interfere between Katsa and Po’s relationship? No, he wouldn’t care that she turned him down. He should just be grateful that they were still friends.
So, what you’re saying is your grace would be to have people accept you no matter what you do? Sure, I guess.
I think they call that charm–and true friendship.
What would you have done differently if you were Katsa? I wouldn’t have made it over the mountain.
What did you think of the things Katsa did for her uncle with her Grace? That part was bad.
Did you think any less of her for the things she did? I don’t blame her. Her uncle made her do them.
But they were wrong. Shouldn’t she have said no? She didn’t know she had the power to say no at the time.
Was the ending a surprise? Not really it had to end that way or it wouldn’t be a good book.
What about Po? I hated that part.
Do you plan to read the companion books? Heck yeah. I already read the second.
And? It was even more amazing. See my list of favorite books. It’s number three. I definitely recommend Fire.
Words from the Woods 