by Kristin Cashore
published by Dial
Genre: Fantasy, YA,
Summary (Goodreads): 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.
My Thoughts: After waiting for this book for so long I feel like I should have liked it more than I did. It started off very slow for me. I had problems getting into the story and liking Bitterblue. A lot of things she did just didn't seem plausible for someone who is the Queen. I could understand her getting away with sneaking out a couple of times without getting caught. Doing it for weeks with no one catching on and not running into anyone outside the castle that knew who she was, was a stretch.
I did like seeing some old favorites and getting to know new ones. I found myself more interested in Saf and his family and what the old characters were doing on there missions than I was in Bitterblue and her castle mysteries.
The last half of the book did pick up and there were plenty of twists and surprises that kept me reading. The resolution of the killings in the city and the strange things around the castle worked even if it was a little on the predictable side. Finding the land to the East that Leck was trying to recreate was my favorite part. Meeting the people and learning about their ways seemed to be a great set up for a future book(series) that I would be interested in reading.
Rating: 4 (may be closer to 3.5)
I was so excited for this book but it just did not work for me. It was just hard to connect with and the characters didn't really excite me (not even my beloved Katsa and Po).
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