What will bitterblue be about

Eight years have passed since Leck's death and Bitterblue is now the Queen of Monsea, surrounded by her father's former advisers and burdened by paperwork and tasks she doesn't quite understand. She begins sneaking out of the castle and learns that her kingdom is not what she thought it was. In her explorations, she meets two thieves who will change her life forever. Don't read further if you want to be completely unspoiled! Bitterblue is the novel I have been anticipating most this year and for the past three years , so I threw myself a mini parade when I learned I would get to read it early.

It was worth the wait. Bitterblue is not Graced, although the majority of the people in her service are. After being so interested in these special talents, it was interesting for me to consider what it would be like to try to rule a kingdom full of Graced citizens.

Short answer: it's difficult. Bitterblue is confined to the castle for most of the book, which is a change from the previous novels which change location frequently. At times, it is frustrating to wait for the Gracelings to go off on adventures and make the discoveries on Bitterblue's behalf. I wonder if Cashore did this intentionally, to make the reader empathize with the protagonist.

A few of these scenes could have been edited out, without doing any damage to the book, particularly ones that lead to a reveal that anyone who has read FIRE already knows.

Fans of the series will be happy to encounter favorites like Katsa, Po, Giddon, and Fire in this novel. There's never enough Po for me! It also continues the tradition that people who love each other might not necessarily always be together. Cashore's work touches on modern topics like birth control and same-sex relationships and sets them in a fantasy world, perhaps making them easier to talk about for young readers who have questions.

Cashore has said that she has ideas for a fourth book in this series, which comes as a relief to me. This is a world where I want to continue to immerse myself. Hopefully, I won't have to wait three years before I can do it again. Cashore is talented at world-building and writes beautifully. Fans of the series will be excited to see favorite characters appear. Megan Kelly Top 50 Reviewer reviews. Cashore Best Work Yet. March 28, I liked Graceling a lot, but didn't love it.

I loved Fire and thought it was amazing. Neither of these prepared me for the absolutely mindblowing book Kristin Cashore delivered with Bitterblue. This book stole my heart on page one and even after I turned the last page, it didn't let go. Everything Cashore builds in this novel was so intricately done.

I sat there in awe after I finished the book, and it lingered on my mind for many days to come. This is her best book to date.

The writing in Bitterblue is absolutely gorgeous. That has always been one of my favorite things about her books - her beautiful prose and her detailed world. The world that was established in Graceling has been built upon, and I just loved it.

It's a world that I could happily read book after book in, and never tire of it. The concept of it Graces just fascinates me. Bitterblue was a character that I liked in Graceling, and I loved seeing how she'd changed since we last saw her. Bitterblue was strong, had spunk, and an curiosity that couldn't be smothered. I loved the other characters met in Graceling who make appearances in Bitterblue have really grown as well. My biggest issue with Graceling was some characteristics about Katsa, but by this point in the story, she has matured and moved on.

Kristin Cashore always has an amazing boy in her books, and while I don't know if Saf has quite lived up to my love for Brigan and Po, he comes pretty darn close. Saf was such a complex character and he was not going to let anyone tell him what to do. Bitterblue weaves a tale that was so complicated and intense. There was this constant sense of intrigue as I was reading. The plot was ever-building, and the different storylines of the book began to intersect.

I never knew what Kristin Cashore was going to throw at readers next. Yet, there were also so many moments when I had to step back and just admire the little things going on, like the compassion between characters. The relationships between the characters are all so deep and learning all their back was one of the best parts of the book.

The ending was phenomenal - the thought had crossed my mind at several points throughout the book, but I was not sure what Cashore would do about that event. I loved how she tied up the story, it was perfect: full of hope.

I did not want this book to end. Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore was simply a masterpiece, and was everything I had hoped for and more in the years of waiting since Fire. Kristin Cashore is simply a master of fantasy, and I cannot wait to see what she comes up with next. Erica Top 50 Reviewer reviews.

User reviews. Already have an account? Log in now or Create an account. Best Book Ever. January 31, K it is not like i unconditional love the series or anything i totally lied. Let start with Bitterblue. The last time we saw Bitterblue was in Graceling, and she was 10 then. Now in Bitterblue, she is 18 and a Queen. Her uncle, king of Lienid, appointed a team of adviser when she was 10, and they are totally messed up and extremely protected.

The people in her kingdom seem to be a bunch of crackpots, and she wanted to find out what is going by herself, so she snuck out It somehow connected the first two books wonderfully, without confusing the new readers.

The readers got to find out more about Leck too, and the things he did to his people, especially his advisers Rhina Luu Top Reviewer 3 reviews. September 03, A young Queen of eighteen sneaks out of her own castle to discover the truth behind her walls. In search for the truth over the reign of her deranged father, King Leck. Ge Marquez 1 reviews. August 27, Super super adorable cover : My favourite one of the Graceling Realm.

Exquisitely romantic, this companion to the highly praised Graceling has an entirely new cast of characters, save for one person who plays a pivotal role in both books.

You don't need to have read Graceling to love Fire. But if you haven't, you'll be dying to read it next. Read an excerpt Order the Book.

Get the Book. Bitterblue By Kristin Cashore. Sign Up. Sign up to receive reading recommendations in your favorite genres! Trending Interviews. Kate Sweeney. This affecting and personal debut novel makes space for the messiness of grief.

Nonfiction History American History. Brands illuminates the intensely personal convictions of the Patriots and Loyalists during the American Revolution. Freya Marske. That one part, when Bitterblue finally realizes what her father did to gracelings and young girls, I was shocked. Furious at this terrible man and his maniacal, horrendous mind.

Worldbuilding Cashore built a beautiful, incredible world. We see the castle and the city come to life as Bitterblue discovers new things each day, things she was too busy to notice. A world of intrigue, and deceit, and lies, and locked doors and keys leading into shocking truths, and bright spots of realization. We see how a mentally and physically destroyed city, reigned by a tyrant who could, and did, whatsoever he pleased, is struggling to pull itself out of its stupor, and captivity, trying to bring life and lucidness back into the minds of the people.

In the beginning, Bitterblue spends so much time in the castle. But then she starts to venture out into her city. She sneaks out of her castle and starts to roam the streets, and begins to discover secrets about her city that she never would have known about while secluded in her castle.

Wandering the streets, she finds storyrooms. Magical rooms hidden in the city where people tell stories and enchant the listeners. Fantastical stories, stories of Leck and Bitterblue and Katsa.

Love Story I enjoyed the little romance between Saf and Bitterblue. It was slow growing, and was beautiful, but also burdened with lies and secrets. Their romance takes a backseat to the plot. The focus is not on the romance. I love books that do that. I would much rather read a fantastic fantasy story with a stupendous plot, and a little bit of romance, then a novel that has the romance as the center, and tries and usually fails to form a plot around that romance.

The romance in Bitterblue was done very well. I do think, though, that a little more romance would have been nice. I would seriously be overjoyed if Cashore wrote another book about Bitterblue and Saf. Cashore did a brilliant job at connecting Graceling and Fire to Bitterblue. You see how Bitterblue has grown since Graceling , and how what has happened in her life helps her as she strives to save her kingdom.

And Fire even comes to play a part. Which I thought was fantastic. So, Bitterblue met all of my hopes and expectations and they were high, let me tell you.

It could have been worse, I suppose. I guess I can forgive Cashore for giving me so much anxiety. She certainly made up for it. I can truthfully say Kristin Cashore is one of my favorite authors ever, and I will wholeheartedly devour anything she writes. Dare I hope there will be more in the Graceling Realm? View all 34 comments. Oct 10, Crowinator rated it it was amazing Shelves: genre-fantasy , reads , ya , arcs , queer-af , everything-is-turning-out-so-dark , a-good-cry , characters-i-love , favorites-of-all-time , favorites Actual rating: 4.

So be warned. I like how the covers of Graceling , Fire , and now Bitterblue tie in together. Five-Sentence Summary: The last time we saw Bitterblue, she became Queen of Monsea at ten years old with the death of her father, the psychopathic King Leck, who had spent the past 35 years mind-raping everyone in the seven kingdoms with his Grace.

Now 18, Bitterblue is still trying to repair her fragile, unsettled kingdom, despite the fog of uncertainty still clouding her own mind. But lies can be comforting, and truth can shatter, and as Bitterblue uncovers the past, she must confront those who will do anything to keep it hidden. She is prickly and defiant, vulnerable, ashamed, prone to defensive violence and crying, and above all, deeply empathetic.

Her narrative was funny and emotional and self-deprecating, and it might just be me, but it seemed like it had a particular cadence, a properness to the style, that was all her character.

I could stay in her head for more books. They are super intense, all of their emotions heightened, and their love story is still one of those epic tales.

They accept each other for who they are but they do fight and make-up constantly. Po is in this book quite a bit more than Katsa; he becomes more of friend and sounding board for Bitterblue, while Katsa is a beloved but still awe-inspiring figure for Bitterblue. Still, they have great chemistry. Especially Thiel. Pronounced Deeth, Death is the best librarian of all time. That is all. Is it quite slow and tiresome in places? Was I sad when I got to the end and realized there was no more?

This story is all about truth and lies — uncovering secrets, and secrets within secrets; rediscovering lost memories; figuring out who is lying, and why, and who else knows — and trying to find a space in between, where those who need to tell the truth can, and those who cannot bear the truth can wait until they are strong enough.

All these secrets make for an intricate mystery, or series of mysteries, and what I love most about them was how they tie together the personal and the political for each character. Bitterblue, similarly, lies to Saf and his friend Teddy about her identity for good reasons — to learn what they know, in her pursuit of truth — but her shame at abusing their trust has repercussions both for her as a queen and for her as a person and as a woman in the full swing of her first real crush.

Why are the buildings in one section of town in such disrepair? Why does Bitterblue hate spiral staircases? It takes time for them all to come together, what with the sheer volume of them, and I did get impatient with it at times, but overall I thought the connections were often subtle instead of slow.

Just tell us briefly how Bitterblue figures it out and give us the information we need. This story is also all about blame and responsibility. Who should bear the brunt of recompense to his victims? These are all interesting and important questions and the novel does a great job of exploring them, but what I liked most about it was the way Cashore brought in various reactions to self-blame — many who were closest to Leck committed the most monstrous crimes, but even though they had no free will of their own, how do they begin to forgive themselves?

Finally, this is a story about the past, and as such, the ending is not so much an ending as a beginning. This might throw some people who expect a neatly tied-up story view spoiler [, not one that ends with a lot of the characters essentially starting over with new knowledge, or in essentially the same place but with a new outlook, or right on the verge of some huge thing that will take years more to realize. My other favorite romance is Death and his books and his mangy cat.

The ending is hopeful, and there are some bright spots, but too many of the characters are living a tragedy to call this a happy book. There were dark elements in Graceling and Fire , but neither of them took them as seriously as this book. His Grace is to read inhumanely fast and remember every word forever that would be my chosen superpower!

Plus, I just loved how he and Bitterblue start out disapproving of each other and grow to be such comrades as they realized their goals are the same. At one point, she gives him an impossibly hard mental task and he tells her she is the queen every librarian dreams of.

In this analogy, Angelus is Leck, the torturing psychopath, and Drusilla is everybody in Monsea the realm as a whole. Read-alikes Obvs, Cashore's other books.

Also, Tamora Pierce, particularly her Trickster's Choice series of two books. View all 19 comments. Sep 25, Ahmad Sharabiani rated it really liked it Shelves: 21th-century , romance , fiction , young-adult , fantasy. It is preceded by Graceling, and Fire. In a world where people born with an exceptional skill, known as a Grace, are feared and exploited, Katsa carries the burden of a skill even she despises: the Grace of killing.

Eight years have passed since the young Princess Bitterblue and her country were saved from the vicious King Leck. Whatever this book is about I want to read it! Kristin Cashore has won my trust. View all 4 comments. May 24, Carson T added it. For those who don't know. And Bitterblue was 10 or 11 then, so she's date-able age now. I betcha there will be romance. Not really, it was fantastically written. I just wish the author would continue on with Katsa and Po, the fact she's leaving us hanging over a freaking cliff p For those who don't know.

I just wish the author would continue on with Katsa and Po, the fact she's leaving us hanging over a freaking cliff pisses me off.

I've heard of cliffhangers, but at least the author is KIND enough to finish and relieve us. But Cashore continues with another person's point of view, and we probably will end up hearing bits and pieces about Po and Katsa's relationship I haven't read Fire, and plan on not reading anymore of this author's books.

If they are going to leave me this distraught, ready to cry, then I'd rather not. Some may consider it good when a book makes them cry, but I do not. It makes me angry that I could cry over a book, and a tad bit confuzzled.

Just me raging, please don't take offense or get angry with me if this is your favorite book. I'm just telling my opinion. So I understand how awesome it is now, because I see some people mentioned in one book and wish the author does a book from their perspective.

I'm not going to read any more of this series just because I'm not so much into this author anymore, but I just wanted to point out to those who like romance and will get into those sort of novels, that this happens quite a bit.

But, when you see them mentioned from another character's POV, you see a sweet couple and it really does them justice.

Anyways, thanks for those who supported me, it helped me get over the ending which I don't really remember, but I do vaguely recall no marriage.. View all 48 comments. Aug 16, Trina Between Chapters rated it really liked it Shelves: , young-adult , audiobooks , fantasy.

I love this world and Bitterblue was a great main character. The ending was abrupt and there was some pretty disturbing subject matter. But this book shines by pulling in the main characters from the previous companion novels. I'm glad I finally read this series and I'm sad it's over! All 3 books are inclusive of varying skin colors and races, disabilities, and sexualities.

Potential Triggers that I'm aware of : Mentions of torture and rape. Suicide and thoughts or suicide. Dead I love this world and Bitterblue was a great main character.

Dead parents prior to the novel and some grief. Mar 08, Amanda Edwards rated it it was ok. I really wanted to love this book. It started out really good, but half-way through I was ready for this book to start rapping up. When it did finally start rapping up, it just ended with ZERO resolution. There has to be another book coming or this will be a major flop. The only thing I got from it was the extent of Leck's evil doing. We finally see how truly twisted and royally f-ed up he was.

And that was pretty much the story. Bitterblue does do a little self-exploration, but we just barely s I really wanted to love this book.

Bitterblue does do a little self-exploration, but we just barely see the beginning of it and the book abruptly ends. View all 12 comments. Oct 17, Meredith Holley rated it it was amazing Shelves: motherless-daughters , utopia-dystopia , young-adult , monsters , classic-young-adult , reviewed , girls-rule , wise , favorites , slaves.

Oh, Kristin Cashore, I would trust you with my life. This series breaks my heart and patches it all back together again. This book was so different from the first two in pace, but somehow, and I say this almost reluctantly, that made the end more meaningful to me.

I am all about editing in stories, and for the first half of this book, the redundancies seemed unnecessary and boring. It was so much more brutal than I expected, but more meaningful in that way. Are there more of these? Are you going to write more books for me, Kristin Cashore? I love your people, the evil and the good, the sins of our fathers and frailty of our mothers. I love them. This story picks up with little Bitterblue, now the queen of her empire. And now Newt comes into her own with the responsibility for a nation that was totally fucked by her father, by the lies he told and his control and manipulation.

Beautiful, awful choices. And forgiveness! And stories! Oh man, beautiful. Just the idea of figuring out how to repair a nation from violence and lies is beautiful. This book, in contrast to the first two, felt more high-fantasy to me. It uses the conventions of alternate languages, involved descriptions of coded communication, and a lot of walking which, to be fair, the walking is in the other two as well.

Fantasy, man — bring your Nikes. It is not my thing, but the incorporation of those conventions seemed fun to me, not annoying. It kept enough of a super-hero feel that I tracked. I always think, you know, women are raised that a man on a white horse will come, swoop us up, marry us, and that marriage will magically solve all of our problems.

I think men are in basically the same position — if he finds the right girl and marries her, she will decorate his house, and always be there with a smile, a hug, and a plate of cookies, and that will solve the problems.

But, in the end, we are always left with ourselves. I love the way the Twilight saga exaggerates those promises to the point of absolute absurdity, but I love even more the way this series exists entirely outside of those promises. It seems somewhat inaccurate to me, even along the lines of the promise that our problems can be magically solved by some kind of social convention. Well, then, empowerment will magically solve them. The idea of empowerment or disempowerment just sounds to me like somehow you can subscribe to something outside of yourself that will magically take away your problems.

It indicates that the power wasn't there all along, but if you follow the treasure map right, you'll find the magic problem-solving solution. But, along those lines, I love the message in this book, like in The Hunger Games series, that we need to discover our own power - that it was there all along, and that life was never about finding a magic that lets us take the easy way out. In Mockingjay , everyone around Katniss reminds her of her power until she recognizes it.

Here, similarly, this story is a journey of Bitterblue realizing her power. It is beautiful. It is the work that we all face that is bigger than marriage or children or politics or career. This story is full of so much hope and so many dreams. I love it. Jul 15, Nasom rated it it was ok Shelves: fantasy. Although this is the third book of the Graceling Realm series. This book is about Bitterblue now 18 and is Queen. She is trying to find a way to help her kingdom move forward after the manipulation it was under during the reign of a mad king for over 30 years.

Bitterblue is trying to investigate what the truth is and who the people doing the killing are. This book had potentials especially with the mystery but then things got confusing. Two more plots were added and they had nothing to do with the main plot which made the book more complicated. Also, the unsolved mysteries kept growing to a point where it because ridiculous and when the truth came out, it was anti-climatic.

I was hoping the romance would at least be good but that was also disappointing. I did enjoy seeing the characters from graceling such as po my fave , Raffin and Katsa but that was about it. View 2 comments. Nov 02, Isabel marked it as to-read. I cannot wait for this book to come out! Contrary to popular feeling, I am happy Fire and Graceling ended the way they did; it leaves readers with the satisfaction that the romance wasn't for nothing and the character's feelings were real, and a sense of reality, of not know how each ended.

Most of the reviews I've read that have been against Bitterblue being the main character, I have found that almost all of the readers feel this way because they want to know how Po and Katsa ended. Newsflash: I cannot wait for this book to come out! Katsa's whole character was against getting married, because in the world Katsa lives in being married gives your husband all the power, which she definitely does not like.

It was clearly stated in the book that Katsa knew Po would give her what she wanted and all the freedom she wanted, but she still knew it was given to her, not fully her own. If Cashore went on to write that Katsa got married and had babies I would be hugely disappointed and aggravated, for, like I said, that is not Katsa's character at all.

Cashore did a superb job with developing all her characters, and I am glad that is so, even if the romantic in me would have loved Katsa to be more open and lovable, almost like Fire. Again, I cannot stress enough that I love where the new book is heading. If it has Katsa and Po in it, even better. I trust Cashore to do a wonderful job with this book. I'm looking forward to it even more! Jul 14, Scrill rated it it was ok. The resolution of all the problems was really underwhelming and I thought the length of the book was unnecessary for the end result.

The book really could have just been a novel 8 years after the story of Graceling, Bitterblue is queen and things are just not adding up in her kingdom and she is determined to understand would make her a better ruler.

The book really could have just been a novella. The World Building -This was the hardest part about this book. All the lies and uncovering of the lies really made this book really obscure.

As the two worlds of Graceling and Fire were interwoven it made for a really confusing book. Nov 26, Anja H. It's been several years since I read the other books in this trilogy so it took me a while to get back into this whole world. Graceling and Fire were among my favorite books about 5 years ago, but sadly I didn't remember a lot about them when I started this one.

This whole story was so mindbending and unique! At first I didn't know where this story was going at all, the whole thing was pretty strange and twisted, but I ended up liking it anyway! This also involved some Katsa, Po and even a little Fire from the first two books and I loved it! I didn't know how much I missed these characters until I started reading about them again. Full review coming soon!