Cashore does not disappoint in her return to Bitterblue's story. I loved the telepathic foxes and the suspense! I ordered 5 copies of this book for my middle school book club, but after 50 pages in, I realized that this book had too many sexual scenes for my students. This book should be promoted to 9th grade and above. But such a wonderful book it was!

Lots of sex in a teen novel-didn’t bother me but my more conservative patrons will not read it with this content

It starts off slow and kind of dense, but once the action begins, it's hard to resist the story as it drives forward. It reads as a true epic, one that makes you feel the world really has been reshaped as you read it. Would recommend.

Another vibrant stand-alone novel set in the Graceling universe.

Bitterblue and her advisors make a state visit to Winterkeep, a country on another continent that recently came into contact with the Graceling realms. There are unsolved mysteries, trade negotiations, espionage, and teen romance. (And more unpleasant fathers.) Told from many different characters' POV.

I read an excerpt as an ARC from the publisher. The chapter they gave me was not well-chosen - it was from Bitterblue's POV and re-introduced the world. After (re)reading the other books in the series, this excerpt BORED me. It killed my excitement for the book so much that I almost didn't read the novel when it because available from my public library.

I absolutely loved reading this series with my teen girls. I was very excited to learn of this new addition.

I am a huge fan of the original trilogy and cannot wait to read more from this world. This preview was just enough to pique my interest,

I was excited to read this preview. I love this series and am really looking forward to reading this entire book!

Words can’t express just how much I love anything that Kristin Cashore writes. I remember picking up Fire from the local library at fourteen and ten years (!) later I still love it just as much; her writing style is just as compulsively readable as it was the first time I cracked the spine.

So, once I’d finished bingeing books one through three (for research purposes naturally), it was time to turn my attention to her latest book, Winterkeep. Where we first met Bitterblue as a ten-year-old in Graceling and watched her grow into adulthood in Bitterblue, here we’re seeing a new Bitterblue: a queen fully in command of her kingdom and determined to improve her country’s prospects by allying across the sea with the newly discovered Torlan continent. These new countries are far more advanced than Monsea: they have their own proxy Industrial Revolution going on, lending the entire country somewhat of a steampunk feel, and their intentions towards Monsea are less than noble, with ships and ambassadors vanishing mysteriously.

So un-noble, in fact, that Bitterblue disappears within the first few chapters and we spend the majority of the book with Giddon, one-time noble and member of the Council, a revolutionary outfit that’s been going since the start of the series. Giddon is madly in love with Bitterblue, and determines to find out what’s rotten in Winterkeep in honour of her memory.

It goes without saying: Winterkeep is just as good as its predecessors. Cashore has such a gorgeous way with words, effortlessly spinning worlds and creating just as vivid inner worlds for her characters. Whether that’s Giddon, Bitterblue or new character Lovisa, whose parents are insidiously abusive in a way that’s chilling to read. From the start, you care about her protagonists; they feel solid and real. They make mistakes, they’re petty, they’re flawed and a lot of the book is dark and sad and heavy reading. But that makes sense: these characters have matured, and so has the tone of the book as a whole.

There’s a lot of politics and scheming, and a lot of different sub-plots crammed into this book: Giddon’s, Bitterblue’s, Lovisa’s and the telepathic fox who is bonded to Lovisa’s mother (have I mentioned that bit yet?). But Cashore manages to weave them together deftly and the end result is something pretty special. The only, only quibble I’d have is that Giddon is a full ten years older than Bitterblue and knew her as a child; him falling in love with her seems a tad too convenient. But if you’re an author, I imagine the urge to indulge in a few happy endings in one go is pretty strong.

Writing one amazing book is a feat; writing four is a work of bloody genius. The lore of Winterkeep is so complex and rich, building beautifully on everything we’ve learned previously; the characters almost seem to breathe and the plotting is flawless. Honestly, what’s not to love?

Kristin Cashore is one of my favorite authors (and for good reason, too). Building off of her established Graceling realm novels, Cashore introduces readers to a new aspect of the world, including the new land of Winterkeep. In this newest novel, readers follow Bitterblue as she seeks to establish relationships between her people and the ever growing world in which she lives. Along the way, readers are introduced to the residents of Winterkeep, a place that has more than a few parallels to the world in which we live. With her unique blend of fantasy, adventure, and mythological creatures, Cashore invites readers to examine what it means to be loved, whether the motivation behind choices matters, the importance of a support network, and the painful growth that can come from facing difficult circumstances head on..

As a story, Winterkeep feels more mature than Cashore's other pieces. Like Bitterblue, this book is more introspective than action-paced (though by no means is there an absence of action), but it suits it well. The clear "good" side is not always as good as they claim to be, and those who seem dodgy may turn out to be just who is needed. What I particularly liked about this novel was it's inclusion of non-human perspectives and how the difficult choices/situations that these characters face are just as complex and heart-wrenching as those of the human characters. Her approach to the trauma and subsequent healing experienced by the various characters, as always, is thoughtful and sensitive. Cashore will remain an author that I recommend to lovers of fantasy, female-centered stories, and stories of hope.

I am so happy and honored to have read the two-chapter snippet of Winterkeep provided by Netgalley. Just from the two chapters provided, I got a good sense of Cashore's blunt, though evocative writing style as well as the vastness of the world she has built. This is excellent.

Upon receiving this ARC excerpt, I obtained a copy of Winterkeep from my library, and I am excited to dive into it. I will post a full review of the book on my blog and on Goodreads once I complete the novel.

Here is a working portion of my blog review:

[Winterkeep is a stand-alone sequel — the fourth independent book of the Graceling series.

I grew up reading books in a sideways order — like a toddler mismatching their socks. (Or a teenager mismatching their socks, for that matter!) My school library’s wares were limited, and rarely had extra copies of all the best installments. My family rarely purchased books, and I was often too impatient to wait for my holds on novels at the public library to reach me!

So I’d read books non-chronologically — I started the Percy Jackson series with The House of Hades and began Beverley Cleary’s Ramona novels with Ramona Forever. I consumed stories in this disjointed way, treating the first book of a trilogy as the prequel to the series’s final text and letting each narrative stand on its own, informing the plots that came before it.

Full disclosure: unless you’re wearing elementary-school socks and jumpers, this is not at all good way to read a series — especially if you want to approach stories with a critical lens.

I don’t read like this anymore. Being older and (somewhat) wiser, I have more resources by which to retrieve books (thank you, Sora and NetGalley!), and I wouldn’t be doing a narrative the justice it deserves by skipping around in it. Such a method works for the juvenile, and we have certainly graduated, dear traveler.

Besides, it’s impossible to write a fair book review without knowing all the context first! (Many have tried. Many have fallen short.)

But the younger version of me would be beaming if they found Winterkeep on a library shelf. Finally, a novel that gets it! a ten-year-old Sophie might muse to themself. Why isn’t every series written like this?]

I can't wait to see how this story unfolds!

I was a huge fan of Graceling, and it was fun to revisit the world in this new addition to the series. The world of Winterkeep, which features a political world made up of industrialists and scholars, has an eco-consciousness and runs using magnificent airships, is well developed and compelling. The adventure and slight mystery that Bitterblue and her consorts encounter as they visit this new country keep you reading. And the alternating perspectives and new characters add layers of depth to the story. A fun read for those who liked the earlier books.

This book was an unexpected, utter delight. When I first received the ARC, I thought I’d have to catch up on the rest of the series first, but this book can be read on its own, despite being set in the Graceling realm and moving the series plot forward. As someone new to the series, I didn’t have any problems following the plot or keeping track of characters.

Winterkeep begins at the royal court at Monsea, where Queen Bitterblue and her advisors are working to recover and rebuild the infrastructure of the country after her father’s tyrannical rule had plunged it into decades of darkness. When they discover that neighboring countries have been taking advantage of the Queen’s ignorance regarding one of Monsea’s most valuable natural resources, and when they suspect foul play surrounding the disappearance of two of their trusted council members, Bitterblue leads a small delegation to Winterkeep to uncover the truth for herself.

Bitterblue and her trusted companions Harver and Giddon are interesting characters all on their own, and I gather that they are beloved by readers, but their story serves more as the framing narrative for this book; they don’t take center stage here. Instead, the book focuses on Lovisa, the daughter of two prominent politicians in Winterkeep, as on her end, she works to uncover the secrets they’ve kept hidden from her - and from their constituents. When she discovers the lengths her parents will go to to protect their own interests, Lovisa is forced to make an impossible decision, and she finds that Bitterblue’s fate is very much entwined with her own.

Lovisa is a character unlike any I’ve encountered before. She’s crafty, judgmental, and even brutal, but also curious, determined, and loyal. Forced to grow up much too fast, her story is undoubtedly tragic (and holds parallels to Bitterblue’s own), but Lovisa doesn’t waste her energy on resentment, instead laying claim to the forms of agency that she does indeed have, despite her young age. Her determination to protect those she loves leads her to develop a surprisingly true moral compass. And while she initially suffers from a limited perspective on the world, she proves willing to change her mind when faced with new evidence, eventually learning that she must engage more fully with the world around her and seek out new perspectives, should she wish to make responsible use of her political power. This character’s complex development over the course of the novel, as well as the unexpected humility she comes away with, makes her an extremely compelling heroine. In Lovisa, we find the same very human coexistence of darkness and light, gravity and whimsy, that characterizes the world of Cashore’s novel as a whole. In a very moving fashion, Cashore illustrates our human capacity for doing harm despite ourselves being victimized, our responsibility to others even when it feels like we are powerless, and the importance of accepting our interrelatedness with others (which means accepting help at times).

The plot of this book is complex, but engrossing and paced perfectly. The world building is like nothing I’ve read before - bridging the fantastic and the human very skillfully. There are elements that might seem whimsical at first glance, such as telepathic creatures like blue foxes and silver seals, but they blend seamlessly even with the heavy topics at hand. I got the impression that Cashore takes her readers seriously; this is a smart book that ultimately has a lot of timely, important things to say.

This was a very disappointing read, having enjoyed the previous three books I was so excited to dive into this new chapter of the Graceling Realm, especially having heard that it would follow Bitterblue and Giddon. But sadly, I think that that this series should have stayed a trilogy.

I almost DNF'd it multiple times, and only kept reading to the end because I hoped that there would be a redeeming quality that would make me fall madly in love with the realm again, but alas it was not to be. The book was slow moving, and I never quite cared that much for the new characters introduced or the telepathic fox. There is a lot of sex in this book, now I am fine with it if it helps the plot and is written in a way that doesn't cheapen the story, but in general there was just a lot of using other people for power over them, or just because they wanted a distraction, or just to throw it in just because, and it got wearisome. Especially considering that I was about 12 when I read Graceling, this is definitely a more adult themed book with an underlying message of subjective truth, moral grayness, innuendoes, and sex.

I was also disappointed in the way that Giddon and Bitterblue's relationship was done, because for much of the book they are apart, and the relationship leans heavily on memories of the years between this book and Bitterblue, for context into their connection. I felt as well that Giddon was kind of boring and like a shadow of the man we are first introduced to in Graceling.

Overall, this book was jarringly different from what I was expecting, which is sad as Graceling is one of my favorite books from my childhood. It does expand on the universe, but I wish that there had been more that had to do distinctly with the culture and getting to know Winterkeep. I can't honestly recommend it, and it makes me second guess recommending the series in the knowing where it leads.

OMG! I am so excited to read Winterkeep. In fact, right after I finished this sample I went ahead and bought myself a physical copy (to match my collection - though they do not actually match, since there was a cover update)! It was just lovely to immerse myself slowly back into this world, it felt both familiar and completely different. I'm keen to read on! Thank you for giving me the chance to read a glimpse of the novel. :)

Frankly this book has left me a bit speechless. I always feel like Cashore's world building comes from an imagination that is simply more spectacularly developed than the average person. Just as I felt when I started reading FIRE, I honestly don't know how she comes up with these new worlds. For the first half of the book, my brain needed time to expand my own imaginative capacity to process the possibilities of hers. And the depth of her ability and willingness to connect with and process human pain and suffering is second to none—to tell the stories of her most broken characters, and to give those stories dignity. I always feel like with each book, Cashore is challenging herself to invent something totally new. Something we've never read before in YA fantasy. Something that will set the tone for the future of the genre. I am so impressed with this 4th installment to the GRACELING series and so glad that she has more planned.

What a fun return to The Graceling Realm!

Admittedly, it's been nearly ten years since I've had the pleasure of reading this series, so everything was... rusty. On MY end, to be clear. The Sample did a good job of setting up the story, and I think it would likely be a good introduction to The Graceling Realm for a new reader- not too confusing.

I'll likely be picking this up to continue, but the sample was a solid intro. 3/5. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this sample. All opinions are my own.

I couldn't continue reading this book, I got about a third of the way through roughly but the characters all seem to be defined with how many times they've bedded someone and for me, I just didn't find them enjoyable or relatable.

If I can't get invested in the characters then I can I can't get invested in the story (unless that story is magnificent and unfortunately this wasn't)

I absolutely love Kristin Cashore's Fire. It is one of my favorite books of all time. So, I was excited to get a chance to review her latest! It was well done and really made me happy. A good read.

A brief but promising sneak peek into a long-anticipated return to the Graceling series by Kristin Cashore.

I greatly enjoyed the original trilogy as well as Cashore’s semi-recent stand-alone Jane, Unlimited, and I’m excited to return to the Graceling universe once more.

This is a quickie preview (just a few chapters, not much that’s terribly revealing beyond what we know from other preview content for the book), but the familiar tone and rich world building I remember fondly from the trilogy comes through immediately. And of course, it’s lovely to see Bitterblue again. Can’t wait to read the rest of this one!

Excellent addition to the Graceling realm series. Fans of the series will be excited to return to the world of Bitterblue, Graceling and Fire.