Review of Graceling

Title: Graceling
Author: Kristin Cashore
Published: 2008
Pages: 471
My Rating: 3.5/5

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. With elegant, evocative prose and a cast of unforgettable characters, debut author Kristin Cashore creates a mesmerizing world, a death-defying adventure, and a heart-racing romance that will 
consume you, hold you captive, and leave you wanting more.


I had heard so many great things about this book! It seemed to have positive reviews all round. I was really looking forward to reading it and had pretty high standards for it. And I think that that was the problem for me a little. 


I'm struggling to put a rating on how much I liked it. At the beginning of the book, I found it very hard to get into and it was quite slow moving. I also didn't really know where the story was going. I felt like this for a large majority of the book, which is why I never fully got immersed into the story. But this was the only problem I had with it, and that was more to do with the fact that it just isn't my sort of book rather than it being at all bad.


It was beautifully written. It reminded me a lot of the Lord of the Rings. But I did find that this was one of the things that slowed the book down a little. I loved the fact that it was a fantasy set in a Middle Earth-y time, yet with no Dragons or Elves or anything like that. The fantasy in this book were the Graced, or Gracelings. It was a brilliant concept, having people with two different eyes, with one exceptional skill. I really enjoyed reading about that. I also liked the characters a lot. Katsa (I kept reading her name as Katniss) was a very good main character, and I liked how we learned about her Grace with her as the book went along. I also 
really loved Po and Bitterblue, they were very real, strong characters. 


There's something about this book that really sets it apart from anything else, yet I can't place my finger on it. There was a quality in the writing and the exceptionally clever story telling that puts this book to a very high standard. There was also a lovely well-rounded ending that I loved, and it was such a nice change to read a YA book where it's not compulsory to read the next two books to know how it all ended and know that the characters all lived happily ever after (even though, I know there are more books after this).   


Overall, I found that the first half of the book dragged and was hard to get into, but had a very endearing story and nice ending that helped a lot for me. 

Top Ten Tuesday (2)

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish! 

1. Twilight - I haven't read Twilight, purely because it doesn't interest me. I have absolutely nothing agaisnt it though. But I am so sick and tired of what it's done to YA books in bookshops. I have/see so many books that (as far as I know) have little to do with Twilight, with Stephanie Myer quotes and quotes like 'Twilight fans will love it!', 'The next Twilight!' all over them. I really am sick of seeing that on all of my books. In my local book shop, they have two bookshelves for YA books, and one of them is almost ENTIRELY for Twilight and Twilight-related books. I know it's how they market the books, but I just feel like Twilight has completely taken over the marketing of YA books.
2. Books with models on the cover - I don't know why, but I hate it! I just don't like it when they put people on the front cover that are meant to be representing the characters. They will never be like you imagine and I just think that it commercializes it a bit. I also think it takes away the mystery slightly.
3. Good concepts, bad executions - It's usually interesting concepts that draw me into a book the most. And I will most likely pick up a book and read it instantly if I like the concept. But I hate reading a book where the great concept is pushed to the back for the majority of the book when they could be doing so much more with it. 
4. Information overloaded chapters - There's not much to say here. I know you usually get one of these chapters in every book. I just get bored with it if the information isn't that interesting or the chapter is too long.
5. Young Adult Books represented as children's - I know that was bad phrasing, but I don't really know how to put it. It angers me when people consider YA books as children's. My mum has always called the books I read 'kiddies' books, and WOW does that irritate me! I also hate it when I see all the YA books mixed up with the children's books in the shops. I just feel odd when I see The Hunger Games sat on the shelf next to The Hungry Caterpillar! 
6. Books with really long chapters - I just feel more accomplished when the chapters are shorter. I also like it when a story is broken up into shorter chapters. It feels like there is more going on and it's nice to put down a book for the night once you've finished a chapter. But that's hard to do when they're too long!
7. Female lead's image - (bad phrasing again sorry) I feel as though this is something pretty risky to put. But I always find that female leads to a lot of books that I have read are always described as being naturally thin, or small for their age. I know this isn't really a big deal. But I like to think in this day and age with all the body image stuff flying around, that we could have a bit more variety. It's shallow I know, but it's just something I've noticed. 
8. Dismissed characters - When we get introduced to a small character who may stick around for a few chapters or maybe a whole book (if it's a series), and then get completely dismissed and forgotten about so that we never know what happened to them.
9. Too many movies! - I feel like as soon as a YA book becomes a little bit popular, they have to go and make a movie of it. I know that it's how the world works, but there have been some pretty bad ones recently, and I would like to see it handled more carefully. 
10. Normal girl finds out that she or someone she knows is a Vampire/Werewolf/Fairy/(insert other mystical being). - I know that some people really like this sort of story. Which I have no problem with. I would just like to see something more original on the shelves. 

It's Monday What are you Reading? (4)

It's Monday what are you reading? is a weekly meme hosted by One person's journey through books.

Read Last Week:

My Soul to Take by Rachel Vincent

Reading Now:

Graceling  by Kristin Cashore

Up Next: 

Candor by Pam Bachorz

The Replacement  by Brenna Yovanoff 

On my wishlist (2)

On my Wishlist is a weekly event hosted by Book Chick City, where we list the books we would like! I've linked these books to their Shelfari pages if you're interested! 

The Iron King by Julie Kagawa 

Divergent by Veronica Roth

  Wither  by Lauren DeStefano

 

Follow Friday/ Book Blogger Hop (4)

Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee!

This week's question is:

How did you come up with your blog name? 

Well, this is going to be the shortest most boring answer. I love reading fiction. I also read it a lot, and you could say that I live in it. So I became Living in Fiction. 

Book Blogger Hop is hosted by Crazy-for-Books!

This week's question is:

Do you read only one book at a time or do you have several going at once?

Occasionally, I may start reading a book, then find it impossible to wait to the end to start reading another. But usually I like to keep one going at a time as it's quicker. 

Review of My Soul to Take

Title: My Soul to Take
Author: Rachel Vincent
Published: 2009
Pages: 345
My Rating: 3/5


She doesn't see dead people, but…
..She senses when someone near her is about to die.
And when that happens, a force beyond her control compels her to scream bloody murder.
-Literally.
Kaylee just wants to enjoy having caught the attention of the hottest guy in school.
But a normal date is hard to come by when Nash seems to know more about her need to scream than she does.
And when classmates start dropping dead for no apparent reason, only Kaylee knows who'll be next…


My Review
I wasn't really sure if I was going to like this book, and to be honest, I'm still not sure if I really liked it. I had heard good things about it, and the concept really interested me. But when I came to starting it I became very skeptical as I'm not really one for Urban Fantasy. If you are interested in that however, I'm sure you'll love this!


The whole Banshee/ Reaper element was very interesting, and a nice change from Werewolves and Vampires. The issues they tackled concerning death was also a great new take on the Urban Fantasy genre. 


One thing that I noticed when reading this is that most of the book is split with either an exciting death premonition scene or talking scenes where we are a bit overloaded with information. As much as I found the information interesting; interesting wasn't enough to stop me getting bored at times. But on the opposite side, I found the death premonition scenes exciting, and the ending was certainly exciting with a good couple twists.


I liked the characters and some of the exciting twists, but overall, I was a little bit bored and don't think I like it enough to read the next one. If you are a fan of Urban Fantasy, however, I suggest you look into this book, it might be for you!

Waiting on Wednesday (3)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine, where we share the books we are looking forward to coming out!

The Death Cure by James Dashner

The Death Cure is to be the third installment in the Maze Runner trilogy! I'm pretty damn excited for this to be released as I LOVED The Scorch Trails. 

Unfortunately there is no cover or synopsis out yet, but I will definitely make a post about it when it does!