Book Review: BITTERBLUE

Author: Kristin Cashore
Number of Pages: 563
Publisher: Dial
Release Date: May 1, 2012

Bitterblue is the queen of a kingdom that had previously been ruled by her cruel father, Leck, for thirty five years. Leck was a Graceling, and he had the ability to manipulate minds. He cast a shadow over the kingdom so that no one was out of his reach. He killed many innocent people and mentally scarred even more. Now it is up to Bitterblue to get this kingdom back to the way it was before Leck's horrid reign, before everyone was brainwashed into thinking that nothing was wrong. But even though Leck is gone, the impact of his reign still runs strong throughout the kingdom.

Bitterblue is the sequel to Graceling, and it is also the companion novel to Fire. Honestly, I think you can read these books in any order and still get the full affect of the story. They are interconnected, but they are separate stories, so it's almost like they are all companion novels to one another.

One thing I really like about Kristin Cashore's writing style is that everything is very detailed. The characters all have background stories and so many things are happening at once. However, a consequence of all of this detail is that sometimes the plot moves slowly, because you are just reading about Bitterblue's complex emotions for a few pages, or a new setting is being described. Also, it is easy while reading these books to get caught up in all of the detail and not see the bigger picture of what is actually happening as far as the plot goes.

All in all, this book was very good. The ending was satisfying and I love the cover- it's so pretty, and the keys play an important role in the book. I don't know if Kristin Cashore is going to continue with this series, but I hope she does! This is the type of fantasy that you can really get swept away in. Great read!

My Rating: :0) :0) :0) :0) 4 out of 5 smileys. (Due to the fact that some parts of it were rather slow and dragged on, and sometimes the details are distracting.)

Would I recommend it to a friend?: Yes. And even though this was the sequel to Graceling, I really think that you can read these books in any order.

Yours,
NutFreeNerd