GRACELING is a novel that middle school and high school Natalie would have loved. As a student half in love with Joan of Arc and Kel from Tamora Pierce's PROTECTOR OF THE SMALL Quartet, I would have snatched Katsa up into my personal mythology of heroines/people I wanted to be. I would have daydreamed about meeting a person like Po and getting gold earrings together and possibly naming our first child Katsa. I would have been that obsessed and that happy to see this book.

As it is, I'm on the more insane end of delighted. I really, really enjoyed all the characters. The book took awhile to get going for me, but the twists at the end are brilliant. Brown people are just as good and evil as the other colors. As a writer, I did notice some clunky sentences and some gaps in the world-building, and these happened enough that I'm not giving it the full five stars.

But HECK YEAH am I checking out the other books. These are super comforting YA reads. Booyah. Sign me up for all the lady knight errants who kick ass, take names, and have kindness and compassion win the day.