Hardcover, $19.99. ISBN: 978-0-8037-3473-9.
Book Talk:Bitterblue has been the Queen of her kingdom since she was 9 years old. Now, at the age of 18, she has begun to realize that her kingdom might not be all that she thinks it is. Her father, King Lcek, was an insane madman with the ability to control minds and wills of the people around him. He has been dead for 9 years, but did his legacy die with him?
Slipping out of the castle one night, Bitterblue discovers life outside of her castle. She walks the streets of her city, discovers the Story Rooms, and finds that her kingdom is not all that she imagined it was. Things are not as beautiful, and not as perfect as her advisors have led her to believe.
Determined to find out what is going on within her kingdom, and what her advisors are hiding from her, Bitterblue begins asking very uncomfortable questions.
When a duke attempts to kidnap her during a marriage proposal, Bitterblue begins to understand just how serious things are.
When someone attempts to kill her one night while walking the streets alone, she realizes that she has struck a nerve and is getting closer to the truth.
When she discovers a handsome young man, with laughing purple eyes who steals her heart, Bitterblue begins to realize that finding the answers is not as easy as asking them.
Will Bitterblue ever root out the cause of the evil that is gnawing at the heart of her kingdom? Will she be able to recover the love and affection of the laughing, purple-eyed man?
Even more important, will Bitterblue ever be able to break the spell that King Leck left on his subjects and her most trusted advisors?
Author's Web Site:
http://kristincashore.blogspot.com/
Reviewer's Note:
This book is the sequel to Graceling, the companion book to Fire.
This is a stand-alone novel. You do not need to have read Graceling or Fire to understand the story. The characters of Po, Katsa, and Fire do appear in this novel. However, their earlier stories are tangential stories to the main story line in this book.
I will say this: I was drawn into this book and unable to put it down! I hit the midpoint of the book about midnight last night, and could not stop reading. I am very, very thankful that I am on break for the summer right now, or I would be dragging through school today! I did eventually finish... early, early this morning. As with all of Cashore's novels, this is a danger. She writes spellbinding novels that draw you into her world so completely that you are compelled to finish them.
A word here. It has been a while since I have read Fire and Graceling. I remember some of the plot, but not all. Cashore does a fantastic job of seamlessly reminding her readers of the importance and place of the recurring characters in her overall tale. She very neatly ties up the loose ends and questions from Fire and Graceling during this novel. Too bad for me, because I have a stack of books I wanted to finish this summer, and I thought I was making some serious progress through that stack until early this morning. I've already been on the library website, requesting Grace and Fire. There are questions that I have that I can only answer by going back and re-reading the first two novels.
I believe Kristin Cashore's Grace is storytelling.
Here are my reviews from her earlier novels:
(Here's a bit of trivia - when I began this blog, I began it as a project for class. The Graceling review was written as an assignment. It's interesting to see how this blog has evolved over time!)
Fire:
http://librarynut-booksforteens.blogspot.com/2010/08/fire.html
Graceling:
http://librarynut-booksforteens.blogspot.com/2009/06/graceling-by-kristin-cashore.html
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