If you love female-led YA with deep, intricate world-building, magical powers and complex family dynamics, you will want to read the Graceling Realm series by Kristin Cashore.
Set in a world split into seven kingdoms where a subset of people are 'graced' with heightened abilities, each book in the series focuses on different characters, different areas of the world and different points in time of the Graceling Realm's history. While the books are not published in the chronological order of the events in the story, we still recommend reading the books in the order of publication.
The books do a brilliant job at centering each story around the female experience, exploring themes of trauma, power and women's roles in society. While each storyline is laced with romance, the characters must individually learn to love themselves, grow individually and step into their power so that they can bring necessary change to their realm.
If you enjoy series like Wheel of Time and Throne of Glass, you're likely to enjoy this series too. If you're on the hunt for more books like this, do check out our blog post about the Best Fantasy Books for Teens.
All the Graceling Realm books in order:
Book 1: Graceling (2008)
Book 2: Fire (2009)
Book 3: Bitterblue (2012)
Book 4: Winterkeep (2021)
Book 5: Seasparrow (2022)
I think this is the best book in the series, and though I was really upset at the end, because it finished, I love how all the characters are tied tog...
I read it in one day. Never have I ever been so determined to finish the book. It was done within one day and all I can say is: balanced romance with ...