Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Bitterblue is the third book in the Graceling Realm trilogy, and probably my favourite of the three. Graceling took place in a land of seven Kingdoms, then the second book, Fire, shifted the narrative’s time and space. It took place many years before the events in Graceling and in a land quite unlike the one created in the first book. Bitterblue returns us to the world we began in, ten years later and in the final chapters weaves the story from Fire in more clearly.

It was nice seeing the characters from Graceling, like Katsa and Po making an appearance once more in this series. It’s been a decade, so you’re curious what has happened to everyone. I enjoyed the main characters in this book and enjoyed the scenes with both familiar and new faces.

The pace of this book wasn’t frenetic or the plot action-packed, but it was engaging nonetheless. There’s not much more that I can discuss without spoilers, other than the fact that I listened to this via audiobook. I quite enjoyed the narrator’s performance and she also performed Fire, although she was not one of the narrators for Graceling.

Overall, I did enjoy this series but it is certainly not in my top ten fantasy series of all time.

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