This was such a great YA fantasy novel. This was a little slow to start, but it ended up being so, so good! Katsa was so stubborn and infuriating sometimes, but she also really cares about people and doing the best for them. Katsa and Prince Po made a wonderful team, and it was fun to see them off on an adventure. I loved the magic system - it was so cool how everyone had a different power/grace (and sometimes, you were wrong about what your grace was). There was also a really interesting villain in the last half.

I enjoyed this - but I don't really understand this series. The world is this book is completely different and it doesn't even make sense how this is set in the same universe, yet alone across the mountains from the first book. Still, Fire was an interesting character to follow - strong and yet weak at the same time. I didn't really care for the Archer character, but liked Brigan. There's some interesting stuff about what it means to be a monster and being a woman too. On the other hand, there were just so many pregnancies and secret fathers and sleeping around that it was sort of distracting. This didn't grip me in the same way Graceling did, but I ended up liking it overall.