Graceling Review

I want to start off today by thanking everyone who continues to return to my blog. Your readership is greatly appreciated! I'm steadfastly working around the clock to revise Desiderium, but I've recently been a little sidetracked. I'm going to be entering Desiderium into an online pitch slam, in which authors use no more than 6 lines to pitch their books to a few select agents. Needless to say I'm having a little trouble cramming everything into 6 lines, but here's what I have so far. I'm not satisfied with it yet, so please let me know what you think.

Desiderium Pitch:

To protect society from the one person who has the power to turn desires into reality, desire is illegal. The government uses chip implants to monitor citizens’ desires in an effort to identify and kill the Desiderium, but the ability is always unknowingly passed onto another as soon as the Desiderium dies. Like everyone else, Rhiley Winters refuses to let herself feel desire until she meets Isaak and time literally slows down around them. Then a six-year-old is killed for bringing dinosaurs back to life and everything changes when the government reveals that the ability of the Desiderium is always passed onto someone under the age of 18, and Rhiley begins to question everything she’s ever been told.

Graceling Review:
Alright, onto Graceling by Kristin Cashore. I checked this book out weeks ago, and just lately got around to reading it. I would highly recommend it to just about anyone who loves to read. In Barnes & Noble it always appears on the "If You Like the Hunger Games" endcaps, and I would agree that if you like the Hunger Games you'll probably like Graceling, but this book his its very own unique premise.

Here's a little blurb about it: 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.

Here's my take on it: I LOVED this book. It started off a little slow, and I don't even think I really got into it until I was 70 pages in, but after that I was completely sucked in. Cashore does an excellent job of creating an awesome world that I fell in love with, and her main character is very likeable--not to mention a strong, independent woman, and I think the literary world needs a few more of those. One thing that irked me a little bit was that the main character, Katsa ends up with Po, and knows that she loves him, but has no problem spending months away from him at a time. In the sequel, eight years later, which focuses on a different character, it's mentioned that Katsa and Po are still together, but haven't seen each other for months (again). Maybe it's just me, but you would think they would want to spend a little more time together if they were really so in love.

One of the reasons why I think it took so long to get into this book, is that the book is written in third person. My personal preference is for first person narrative, but obviously that didn't stop me from reading this amazing book. Cashore's writing is very eloquent, and I can't wait to keep reading the sequel, Bitterblue later tonight if I have any time after I get off work at 11 p.m. and spend some time working on my own book. More reviews to come.