Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore

Book:  Bitterblue (Graceling Realm #3) by Kristin Cashore, 2012 by Dial, 563 pages.

Synopsis from Goodreads:
The long-awaited companion to New York Times bestsellers Graceling and Fire

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:
What a great third book in this series!  On the cover it says Sequel to Graceling and Companion to Fire, which is true, but all three of the books has a different, strong heroine, one who is coming to terms with her power and who she is.

In Bitterblue, young queen Bitterblue is trying to rule her kingdom as best she can after 35 years of her father's maniacal rule which left the people wounded and confused.  She wants answers to her questions and the truth about what has and is happening.

I liked Bitterblue, and certainly felt for her.  She is confused and hurt, but is also strong and passionate, though she doesn't always realize this herself.  She grows up and finds herself in this novel.

This book is different in many ways from the other two.  Even though I wouldn't call it slow, it was not as action oriented.  Bitterblue is strong, but in a different way than Katsa and Fire.  She doesn't have any special powers and though she does fight to protect herself, this isn't the focus of the book.  She has to become mentally strong, as well as responsible because she has a kingdom to rule.

It is also nice to meet up with characters from previous books, especially Katsa and Fire.  I enjoyed seeing how they were doing and where their lives had taken them after the last books.


Here's the book trailer for the Graceling Realm series from YouTube:

Book Review: Fire by Kristin Cashmore

Book:  Fire (The Seven Kingdoms #2), by Kristin Cashmore, Dial Books, 2009.  461 pages.  Young Adult fantasy.
Source:  Library

Summary:
Fire is the Companion to Graceling (see my review here), a kind of prequel, but also a stand alone book.  The book takes place in the Dells, a place where monsters live.  They are like regular creatures, but have vibrant colours and are more intuitive and aggressive.  Fire is the last human monster, she is young, irresistibly beautiful, has fiery hair, and can get into the minds of others to influence them or sense what they are thinking. 

The Dells are in a precarious position, with the kingdoms to the North and South both wanting to invade them.  One day Prince Brigan asks her to go to King City to help them.  She knows that they want to use her power for themselves, to give themselves an advantage against their enemies.  Fire, however, is unwilling to use her power, especially against unwilling people. 

In amongst all of this, Fire is learning about herself, what it means to be a monster, her love and friendship for Archer, who she has known since she was a toddler, and her feelings for the attractive Prince Brigan.

My Thoughts:
I had so much fun reading this book!  I love how Kristin Cahmore vividly creates rich worlds and characters, then I love watching how the characters develop, how they grow into themselves.  Fire is different from Graceling - where Katsa of Graceling has physical dominance over everyone and is kind of like a superhero, Fire has mental dominance and is a little more subdued.  This makes these books quite different from one another - I appreciated both the quieter pace of Fire as well as the faster, more explosive pace of Graceling.

Fire is a compelling heroine, who develops and grows a great deal in this book.  She has strengths and weaknesses, and she is not always sure which is which.  She has to come to terms with who she is, who her father was and learn how to be comfortable with herself.  This is where her strength lies, when she can figure this out.  Despite the fact that she is a monster, she is very human in her worries, relationships and concerns.

The other characters and political intrigue of Fire kept me quite interested.  I am finding it hard to say too much about this book without giving the story away. Maybe I just need to say that for me this story was largely about the relationships Fire has with others and how these grow and change, how as we grow up we see others as fallible when we thought they were not and how we can learn from all of this. Palace life and war seemed to be a way to delve into these relationships.

There were times when the story dragged a little, but overall, I loved the book and read it very quickly. I am looking forward to the third in this series, Bitterblue, when it is released. 

By the way, I am always on the lookout for good books with strong female characters.  If you have any suggestions, please feel free to comment.

Here is the YouTube book trailer:

Book Review: Graceling by Kristin Cashore

I was reading through book blogs, looking for a book with a strong female character when I found the recommendation for Graceling by Kristin Cashore.  Katsa, the heroine of Graceling, is certainly one of the strongest heroines I have come across.

Summary:
Katsa lives in a world called The Seven Kingdoms, a place where some people are born with a Grace, and this is signified by having two different coloured eyes.  Katsa is born with the Grace of killing and the king exploits her skill to keep everyone in line, punishing his enemies and instilling fear in those who would disobey him.  Katsa becomes dissatisfied with her role of being the King's bully and questions how the King treats others.  Prince Po, who has the Grace of combat skills, visits looking for his kidnapped grandfather and he spurs on further changes in Katsa, namely whether to disobey the King, regain some of her humanity and accept the consequences of the King's wrath or continue to be a tool for the King and accept the consequences of suppressing her humanity.

My Thoughts:
I really enjoyed reading Graceling and tore through the book.  Even though I am not a fan of violence, I loved that Katsa could fight and win against 20 or so armed soldiers without even considering it to be a challenge.  Katsa is young, strong, and can fend for herself.

Katsa also embodies an interesting dichotomy:  she is so incredibly physical and has complete control over her body, but is quite stunted emotionally.   This is largely because she was found to have the Grace of killing at age eight and has been trained in this and been treated like a killing machine ever since.  She can confidently outfight anyone, but cannot stand up to the King and follows his orders even when she is turned into a senseless killer and a thug.  This is where the story gets interesting, watching Katsa develop and explore her humanity.

I love a strong heroine, and Kristin Cashore certainly succeeded with Katsa.  I enjoyed reading Graceling and watching Katsa grow, develop, realize her inner strengths, and think for herself.  I found myself engrossed with this book and was anxious to see what would happen next.

Kristin Cashore's writing was also great.  The world that she created was vivid and some of her descriptions were fantastic.  

Graceling is the first in the trilogy, the second book being Fire, and the third, Bitterblue, is yet to be released.
 
Here is the book trailer for Graceling from YouTube:

Book:  Graceling by Kristin Cashore, Harcourt Inc., 2008.

By the way, I am always on the look out for books with strong female characters, they don't have to be physically strong, like Katsa.  I would appreciate any recommendations that you have, so please leave a comment.

Blog Hop & Follow Friday

I am trying this Blog Hop for the first time.  It is sponsored by crazy-for-books.

This weeks question is:
"Pick a character from a book you are currently reading or have just finished and tell us about him/her."

I have just finished reading the young adult fantasy Graceling by Kristin Cashore.  The main character is Katsa and she is wonderful.  She lives in a world where some people are born with a Grace, and this is signified by having two different coloured eyes.  Katsa is born with the Grace of killing and the king exploits this to keep everyone in line.  Katsa is young, strong, can fend for herself, and think for herself.  I love a strong heroine, and Kristin Cashore certainly succeeded with Katsa.  I so enjoyed reading Graceling and watching Katsa grow and develop and realize her inner strengths.  I will post a full review of this book very soon.

Follow Friday is sponsored by Parajunkee's View.  Today's question for Follow Friday is:

Q. Do you have anyone that you can discuss books with IRL? Tell us about him/her.

 Unfortunately, I don't have someone I can discuss books with consistently, which is one of the reasons I have started this blog.  This is also why I have enjoyed reading other book blogs.