Yeah, I don't remember all that much about Graceling, especially plot wise, asides that it was generally pleasant and that she did a good job at making love interests look swooning to my eyes. So overall I do think that it was a bit overrated and that Fire is better. I don't remember enough about Katsa to compare her to Fire XD which probably speaks for itself.

You're right, Fire/Archer was also well written in its dysfunctional ways. She did a good job at making Archer's good qualities exist despite the fact that he was mostly an overly possessive asshole.

I didn't think the idea in Graceling was all that striking? It's like, just the notion that some people have some sort of power, which is a very pat setting premise no matter how you dress it, and the execution in this case was neither overly stereotypical nor very original. It was just there.
Fire had a real original concept behind it, though, and it was well executed too. It's not a very broad premise, but it still does the job well enough for my original/well constructed setting loving self!