Graceling by Kristin Cashore

In Katsa's world, some people are born with an extreme skill, called a grace. Some graces are helpful, such as a grace for cooking or archery, others are useless, such as the abilty to talk backwards. Katsa's grace is for killing. All gracelings are easily recognized by their unmatched eyes, and all are feared and misunderstood. Gracelings are at the mercy of their king, and Katsa more than most. Her killing grace is very useful to her uncle, King Randa, and he uses her to do his dirty work throught the kingdom. Katsa is wracked with guilt and anger. She slowly begins to form an alliance with others who share her desire to help those in danger, without the king's knowledge. It is on a mission for this council that she meets Po, another graceling fighter with secrets of his own. Together Katsa and Po learn new things about their own graces, and terrible secrets from other lands that threaten to destroy them all.

Katsa is a strong, but vulnerable, female protagonist, and Po is a very appealing counterpart. They quickly develop a close friendship, then a deeper bond, but don't expect the usual happily-ever-after. This book provides a fresh perspective on the fantasy novel, a definite page-turner. It will appeal to older fantasy readers who want a little more depth to their story. It's a first novel for Cashore, but others in the series are in the works.