Bren: A teacher and printer in the east city, Tilda's partner, and Saf's sister. She assists in the restoration of the castle library collection. Her debut novel, Graceling, was published in October 2008. [4] The book was nominated for the Andre Norton and William C. Morris awards and earned a place on the Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year for 2008. [5] Her second book, Fire, was released in October 2009, and is described as being a 'prequel-ish companion book' to Graceling. [6] Fire received the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Book Award. [2] I believe my heart broke several millions of times through the last bit of the book when everything came to a head. The Graceling saga is rejoined by Kristin Cashore. What should have been a celebration, is really a disappointment. Although continued in the world started in Graceling and with a few characters from earlier books, this muddle does not deliver. The Graceling realm has been in what I'm guessing the European Middle Ages, and in the...4 years that have taken place between Bitterblue and Winterkeep, the story has gone from being in that region of time to pretty much either just before Industrial Revolution to being sort of, kind of in the middle of it? Even if it was a different continents, it's still the same world/planet. Even if they do have mountain ranges. Please, please don't tell me that the more technologically advanced nation(s) didn't want to go and explore?

It had taken her so long to give up that key, the key to her cage. But it was a cage that no longer existed, because she’d destroyed it, by herself.The fact that there is a pretty significant age gap between them made me, well, uncomfortable. Usually, I can get behind that fact since both characters are adults and all but the fact that one of the parties had known the other since they were children, and they were already basically adults at that point, did give me pause and left me reeling. I had the opportunity to review this book from an e-galley, thanks #NetGalley, #LibraryJournal #SchoolLibraryJournal, #DayofDialogue, #DialBooksforYoungReaders I was downright bawling my eyes out all the last quarter of the book. I was not expecting that, I loved it. Anyway, I really enjoyed Winterkeep. I loved the Graceling series in general although my least favourite was Bitterblue, which just didn't land for me when I read it. Winterkeep moves on around five or six years after Bitterblue. The queen of Monsea has adjusted well to ruling and despite her country's financial troubles, has helped people to move forward and heal after the tyrannical rule of her father. After the discovery of the Dells, explorers have also located other lands including Winterkeep.

Cashore revealed that Nev's POV focusing on her animal medicine studies and her shitty boyfriend was cut in the final draft. It's a shame but understandable. We still got a lot of her story though and I enjoyed every bit of it. It just seemed to drag and though what it was building was important and really relevant, well, I would have liked to speed-read it. P.S. As a little aside, they’re some changes to this story than what happened in Bitterblue. Keep the 5 years in mind because of course nothing is the same as it once was. People growth, mature, etc.

Success!

That being said, I think it did a magnificent job at showing Lovisa's journey and how all of that would, very realistically, be processed. Even if it's not pretty. This review is ALL spoilers, so if you are a fan of the series and plan to read it, go to another review.

I didn't care for many things in this book: telepathic foxes, weird sea creatures, airships, sudden shift in worldbuilding from medieval kingdoms to industrial democratic countries, all simplistic and dull, characters described by how many partners they've slept with - these things maybe turn out to serve some valuable role in the story (although Cashore's "free love" message surely has been hammered well enough the last hundred times I encountered it in her books?). But, goodness, this novel is such an unfocused bore and the characters are annoying, so I'll just leave them to have sex with each other for increasingly bizarre reasons and be on my way.Winterkeep is a nation that is very different from anything we've seen before. Even though Graceling and Bitterblue took place in a different land than Fire, they were still very similar in many aspects, with the biggest difference being the existence of monsters in Fire.

Rubin, Gretchen (2012-05-11). " 'Bitterblue,' by Kristin Cashore". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved 2017-06-04. Though Winterkeep was not without its merits, maybe we didn’t need a fourth Graceling Realms book after all. However, in the beginning, I was not sure how I felt about the new characters we were being introduced to. Especially Lovisa Cavenda who was one of the main characters. I found her annoying and really immature and she got on my nerves quite a bit so it was really satisfying seeing her character growth and the place where we leave her made me incredibly proud, a feeling that I didn't think I could feel towards her. The themes of the Graceling series have always been unflinching and mature but delivered in a very accessible way. Winterkeep builds on this, looking at the pushes and pulls between family, between differing nations, between progress and innovation versus environmental concerns, between loyalty and integrity. One of the strongest themes is truth; concealed truth, edited truth, the truths you are too obtuse to see or try to protect yourself from and the truths that other people deny you. The prose is easy and engaging so you could be forgiven for not realising how many complicated strands are woven in here. This is multi layered and clever, funny and sweet and poignant. Sometimes it is our differences and our willingness to accept them that allow us to find common ground.This is a story of choices and survival. It is one of bullying, gaslighting, abuse, and fear. It is about government, politics, and war. But more than anything, it is about truth, strength, warmth, love, support, and healing. This is a strong addition to the series—perhaps my favorite—and I hope we see more of this expanding world.