Graceling (Graceling Realm, Book #1) by Kristin Cashore
A New York Times bestseller
ALA Best Book for Young Adults
Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Literature Winner
Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, Booklist, and BCCB Best Book of the Year
Enter the Graceling Realm with the beloved story that started it all, from New York Times best-selling author Kristin Cashore.
Katsa is a Graceling, one of the rare people born with an extreme skill. As niece of the king, she lived a life of privilege until the day her ability to kill a man with her bare hands revealed itself during a royal banquet. Now she acts as her uncle's enforcer, traveling the kingdom and threatening those who dare oppose him.
But everything changes when she meets Po, a foreign prince Graced with combat skills who is searching for the truth about his grandfather's disappearance. When Katsa agrees to help him, she never expects to learn a new truth about her own Grace--or about a terrible secret that could destroy them all.