Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore
Release Date: May 1, 2012
Publisher: Dial
Pages: 545
Source: ARC for review
Rating:  
Buy It: Amazon | Book Depository

Eight years after Graceling, Bitterblue is now queen of Monsea. But the influence of her father, a violent psychopath with mind-altering abilities, lives on. Her advisors, who have run things since Leck died, believe in a forward-thinking plan: Pardon all who committed terrible acts under Leck’s reign, and forget anything bad ever happened. But when Bitterblue begins sneaking outside the castle—disguised and alone—to walk the streets of her own city, she starts realizing that the kingdom has been under the thirty-five-year spell of a madman, and the only way to move forward is to revisit the past.

Two thieves, who only steal what has already been stolen, change her life forever. They hold a key to the truth of Leck’s reign. And one of them, with an extreme skill called a Grace that he hasn’t yet identified, holds a key to her heart. – Goodreads

Review:
It has been only a few months since I read Kristin Cashore’s Graceling and Fire, but their individual epicness made the wait for Bitterblue a little more torturous. Set eight years after Graceling, Bitterblue is now the queen of Monsea and things are amiss in her kingdom. To be expected, of course, considering Leck’s reign of horrors, but Bitterblue decides to take action to get to the bottom of it all.

The mystery in Bitterblue is a complicated one: people around her are behaving strangely, things are disappearing from the castle, there are secret messages to decipher… There is a lot to consider and Bitterblue has a difficult time understanding it all. Her confusion was palpable to the point where I sometimes felt that there was too much going on. I have to admit that there were moments when I had to step back from my reading to regroup all the details.

In comparison to Graceling and Fire, I felt that Bitterblue’s pacing was a lot slower. Kristin Cashore focused heavily on the mystery and politics, leaving little to no action in the book. Which is fine — Bitterblue had a different story to tell, after all — but I did have my fingers crossed that there would be more ass kicking along the way.

As the lead in the book, I really enjoyed Bitterblue. She’s very different from both Katsa and Fire and Kristin Cashore did an excellent job displaying that in terms of her vulnerability and emotions. Still, Bitterblue is independent. and she’s determined, making for another strong female character from Kristin Cashore.

The romantic storylines have never been the focus of the books, but come on, I know I definitely grew attached to Po and Brigan. I was looking forward to finding out who held the key to Bitterblue’s heart, as the summary says, but I must say that I wasn’t too into him. If I’m being completely honest, I thought there was another character that I thought Bitterblue had more chemistry with, ha! That said, I did enjoy the honesty in the resolution between Bitterblue and her love interest.

With this being a sequel to Graceling, I think we all looked forward to a reunion with Katsa and Po. I hope it’s enough to say that I don’t think too many people will be disappointed with what Kristin Cashore offers of them. In addition to that, I loved the way she tied together the three books. I won’t say much more except that Fire is my favorite of the series and yes…I was pleased. Ahhh, I am so vague.

While Bitterblue is not my favorite of the three books, it’s still a welcome installment to the series. It was easy to slide back into the Seven Kingdoms, feel the terror of Leck’s reign, and go on another journey with Kristin Cashore’s richly complex characters. I don’t know if she plans to write any additional books in this series, but I do know that I would eagerly read them.

My review for Kristin Cashore’s Bitterblue will be going up tomorrow, but I just realized that I never posted anything about Graceling and Fire. I’m kind of feeling picky about having all the books on the blog, so here are some quick thoughts on each book:

Rating:  
Graceling – What better way to be introduced to the Graceling world than with a character who has been Graced to kill? It would have been so easy to make her a ruthless killing machine, but Kristin Cashore never takes the easy way out with her characters. Katsa, though she follows through on her uncle’s orders, does not thirst for blood on her hands. She loathes being used in her uncle’s games, but it isn’t until Po arrives on the scene that her rebellion begins.

It was the easiest thing ever to fall into the world Kristin Cashore created. I thought the idea of Graces was so interesting — more so when some were so mysterious or when Cashore threw in a surprise or two about them (ahem, Po). Her characters were so complex and this was only confirmed as I read through the rest of the installments in the series. It all ties together and it is so, so great.

Rating:  
Fire – This is definitely my favorite of the three books in the Graceling Realms series. After having loved Graceling, I was a little wary that Fire would revolve around another set of characters, in a completely different time period and location. I was sure that I wouldn’t enjoy it as much. But I was wrong!

I loved Katsa, but there was always a degree of distance from her for me. With Fire, my liking to her was almost immediate. As the last human monster, Fire has the ability to control minds and, in addition to that, those around her find her alluring and fall into want of her. It was fascinating to see Fire navigate through her journey of self-discovery and decide between right and wrong. Her past, as disturbing as it may have been with Cansrel, proved her goodness because she could have easily been swayed in another direction.

Always the sucker for a good romance, I really admired the way Kristin Cashore handled these storylines in both Graceling and Fire. It was never the focus, and it never overwhelmed the books, but in both cases it was a natural progression for the characters involved.

Graceling and Fire both offered a lot in terms of action, mysteries, friendship, and complexity in the characters. Oh, and not to mention getting the serious creeps from Leck, yikes. He is seriously the worst and probably my favorite villain. I absolutely fell in love with this series. Stay tuned for Bitterblue!