Winterkeep (Graceling Realm)

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I know a lot of people were a bit apprehensive at the idea of another book in the Graceling Realm series, and I’ll admit I never really understood that. Bitterblue, I thought, marked the end of the series until Kristin announced the arrival of Winterkeep, along with a whole new re-envisioning of the series covers.

The prose is easy and engaging so you could be forgiven for not realising how many complicated strands are woven in here. in my opinion, yuck, and that's before we get to the absolute clown show that is their climactic sex scene. It is time to explore an entire new land in the Gracing world, one with telepathic sea animals and blue foxes that bond with humans. At one point, he takes in a frazzled Bitterblue into the drawbridge tower, where he learns of Thiel's suicide. He thought about a woman sometimes as he dove, a human woman with dark braids and gray eyes who wore glimmering rings on pale brown fingers.Louvisa's pov is challenging but utterly pitch perfect for someone surviving in the middle of a situation of physical and emotional abuse without really allowing herself to know that's what's going on because there's no room to process it while it's happening. I don’t particularly see this as morally problematic, but it’s kind of an eye roll of an attempt at strident feminism. She meets the young thieves Teddy and Sapphire (Saf), who is also a Graceling, but oddly, does not know what his grace is. In the beginning of this story Bitterblue, Hava and Giddon travel to Winterkeep, after envoys from Monsea drowned under mysterious circumstances. There are five POVs in Winterkeep: Bitterblue, the queen of Monsea; Lovisa, the daughter of two politicians in Winterkeep; Giddon, Bitterblue’s best friend and an exile; Adventure, a fox living in the household of Lovisa’s parents; and a large monster in the sea who may or may not be known as the legendary Keeper.

I love that the decent human characters are all willing to learn about his culture and respect him as an intelligent, autonomous being, even while scratching his ears or feeding him pastries. If you were looking to continue this series and worried that there’s been a lot of change, I can honestly say that I felt like I picked up right where I left off.the quality of the prose drops off a sharp and immediate cliff and remains in a freefall no one caught. I would highly compare Winterkeep to Fire because Cashore is expanding this world to new lengths never before seen. The series means a lot to me because I discovered it right when I started becoming the reader that I am today and the series was something that so perfectly encapsuled all the things that I love in books. The nations closest to Monsea is Winterkeep and it is quite different from what we have seen before.

Far too long, far too many diverse characters who are not developed well and meander through this story looking for something solid to hold onto. That was a combination of my early dislike for Lovisa's character and the way the book was divided between characters I cared a lot about and characters I didn't know yet and felt a disconnect towards.If you want interesting role models in a medieval fantasy realm, with plenty of action and adventure, try The Girl of Fire and Thorns instead. She also functions as Bitterblue's spymaster, in charge of hiring the queen's personal spies and handling their correspondences. i do not understand why this particular rock was lifted, nearly ten years since cashore finished a thoughtful and careful and rich book that was understood to be an ending. While this story can be read alone, reading it in context of the rest of the Graceling Realm books would be more meaningful.

an accomplishment all the more admirable in that Cashore achieves it largely through characterization. With beautiful and deep connections and friendships to help navigate this complicated and thrilling story we also have something blooming and soft that makes it a perfect balance.I loved the whole mystery that propels the plot forward, and all the angst Kristin Cashore put her characters - and her readers!