The highly anticipated next book in the New York Times bestselling, award-winning Graceling Realm series, which has sold 1.7 million copies.For the past five years, Bitterblue has reigned as Queen of Monsea, heroically rebuilding her nation after her father’s horrific rule. After learning about the land of Torla in the east, she sends envoys to the closest nation there: Winterkeep—a place where … Winterkeep—a place where telepathic foxes bond with humans, and people fly across the sky in wondrous airships. But when the envoys never return, having drowned under suspicious circumstances, Bitterblue sets off for Winterkeep herself, along with her spy Hava and her trusted colleague Giddon. On the way, tragedy strikes again—a tragedy with devastating political and personal ramifications.
Meanwhile, in Winterkeep, Lovisa Cavenda waits and watches, a fire inside her that is always hungry. The teenage daughter of two powerful politicians, she is the key to unlocking everything—but only if she’s willing to transcend the person she’s been all her life.
The Graceling Realm books are a companion series, not direct sequels, so they can be enjoyed in any order.
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This took me forever to get through and I have such conflicted feelings on this. I’m really starting to wish authors would leave their popular series be. I’m conflicted because I loved the Bitterblue and Giddon plot points but the stuff around that I didn’t have nearly as much interest in. So while I’m happy the series continued to give me more Bitterblue I’m also bummed cause I didn’t love this as much as previous installments and it didn’t feel very high stakes. And continuing a theme with this series it seems is that the end never really feels like an end and I always feel like I need a bit more. I love this world but this one was not my favorite.
I loved this book so much. The writing was amazing. The characters and plots were fabulous. A bit of romance, a lot of mystery and intrigue. Also: psychic foxes. You don’t have to have read the previous books to enjoy this one, but as with any series the world feels a little richer if you have.
Like so many fans, I became completely immersed in the Graceling world as soon as I began Kristin Cashore’s first book. The characters were three dimensional, the world was vivid and real, and I couldn’t help but fall in love with the protagonists in the first two novels (Graceling and Fire). I devoured them, and have re-read them multiple times since.
But I got a little stuck on the third book, Bitterblue. It’s hard to put my finger on why, but I think I wanted the main character, who we were first introduced to in Graceling, to be a little easier to like. That’s not to say that I didn’t care about her, and what happened to her, but something about her kept me from truly digging in to her plight. I think looking back that I wanted her to grow up.
Put shortly, in Winterkeep, she has. While Cashore introduces us to an entirely new aspect of the world, much like she did in Fire, and brings in Lovisa, another teenage girl with her own with spunk and struggles, she takes the time to bring us back around to Bitterblue, and I was so grateful to have the chance to revisit this character. In that span, BItterblue was given the time to become. I loved being reintroduced to her as a woman in her twenties, still feeling her way through the world but content in her own identity, no longer relying on the powerless (and sometime immature) antics that plagued her in the previous book. She’s given the opportunity to stretch in this novel, which was incredibly rewarding. And she’s given a love interest that feels more like a lasting fit, which is quite nice.
The storyline is fresh and quite appropriate for our age, outlining the struggle between greed and environmental stewardship, so often placed at odds with one another in the current political schemas. I also appreciated the sexual freedom expressed by the women in this novel- imagine women feeling as sexually free as men (what a thought!).
My only issue is a small one- I’d love it if Cashore would write a female character who was tall one of these days. All of these tiny women being folded into the strength of the men around them sometimes feels a bit outdated. But who knows, maybe I’m just saying this because I’m tall- it’s entirely possible.
Four years after Bitterblue left off, a new land has been discovered to the east: Torla; and the closest nation to Monsea is Winterkeep. Winterkeep is a land of miracles, a democratic republic run by people who like each other, where people speak to telepathic sea creatures, adopt telepathic foxes as pets, and fly across the sky in ships attached to balloons.
But when Bitterblue’s envoys to Winterkeep drown under suspicious circumstances, she and Giddon and her half sister, Hava, set off to discover the truth–putting both Bitterblue’s life and Giddon’s heart to the test when Bitterbue is kidnapped. Giddon believes she has drowned, leaving him and Hava to solve the mystery of what’s wrong in Winterkeep.
Lovisa Cavenda is the teenage daughter of a powerful Scholar and Industrialist (the opposing governing parties) with a fire inside her that is always hungry, always just nearly about to make something happen. She is the key to everything, but only if she can figure out what’s going on before anyone else, and only if she’s willing to transcend the person she’s been all her life.
A beautifully written story for young adults and adults to enjoy! I’m new to this series, there were some parts where I was missing information from the other previous books but overall was not confusing or lost. The characters are well developed and the fantasy world is exciting. Thank you to Dial Books, NetGalley, and the author for a gifted copy. This is my honest review.
Cashmore, yet again, raises contemporary questions but sets them in an alternative world.
Women and their ability to be who and what they are, not just what others expect them to be.
Politics and the frequent bottom line of greed.
All this is woven into a detailed and complex story with love, love lost, love found, seemingly well meaning people who are not what they seem, sentient beings who are not human (and often are more likeable than some of the humans).
It’s Cashmore at her best.
She takes us for an exciting and informative ride.
Well this book will either delight fans of this series or sorely disappoint them. I had the opportunity to read a preview and it was fun revisiting Bitterblue now she’s a Queen. Although as this story begins its Giddon the deposed Lord who appears to be the main protagonist and he’s clearly in love with Bitterblue although firmly in the friend corner. Bitterblue gets word the two of her ambassadors didn’t drown naturally and its looking likely that there’s a strong reason for her to travel to Winterkeep to solve not one mystery but two !
It’s hard to rate this as I’m keen to read more but not sure just how the story will progress. I like Giddon though and really want him to be happy. I think there will be much intrigue and political machinations as the book progresses and I do hope that there’s an awful lot less of Bitterblues various exes but only time will tell.
This voluntary take is of a copy I requested from Netgalley and my thoughts and comments are honest and I believe fair