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4.02 AVERAGE
4.02 AVERAGE
This is one of the best fantasy novels I've read in quite some time. The story is engaging, gripping, and quietly subversive. The villian is perverse and the main character is both flawed and better than she imagines herself to be. It has all of the elements of an excellent fantasy story. The character development is well done. It is dark without being cynical and some of the scenes are laugh out loud funny. This is a really fantastic novel. The ending was completely satisfying. I believe a sequel is forthcoming. The novel is set up nicely for a sequel, but not at the expense of the perfect ending to THIS story. Lovely!
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
This series is very good. I love the characters and that the ending is not perfect but it is still a good ending.
Over all Series rating - 2.5 or maybe 3 out of 5 stars (series review after Graceling review)
I enjoyed Graceling. Cashore did a good job in developing a fantasy world in which realistic life struggles occur. The play off survival and vulnerability, and resistance and limitations is well done and creates a real-ness in the character development that is often not captured in books.
Series review:
While the Graceling Realm was fun and enjoyable enough read, I think the series could have ended with Fire, and been much, much better for it. Minus Bitterblue, my over all rating would have been a 4, maybe even 4.5-star.
While Graceling & Fire were well written, and I liked them enough to keep going into Bitterblue.
However, while even the first two books were good, there were a number of scenes revolving around the romance portions that were unnecessary, and honestly, detracted from the storyline. And Bitterblue was saturated with useless thought commentaries about men.
This is not a series I would recommend for anyone who's not in highschool, and even then, there are numerous trigger topics, especially in Fire and Bitterblue which may be sensitive to some readers, and it should be noted that there are some scenes, and plot lines that may even border into insensitive for those same readers.
I enjoyed Graceling. Cashore did a good job in developing a fantasy world in which realistic life struggles occur. The play off survival and vulnerability, and resistance and limitations is well done and creates a real-ness in the character development that is often not captured in books.
Series review:
While the Graceling Realm was fun and enjoyable enough read, I think the series could have ended with Fire, and been much, much better for it. Minus Bitterblue, my over all rating would have been a 4, maybe even 4.5-star.
While Graceling & Fire were well written, and I liked them enough to keep going into Bitterblue.
However, while even the first two books were good, there were a number of scenes revolving around the romance portions that were unnecessary, and honestly, detracted from the storyline. And Bitterblue was saturated with useless thought commentaries about men.
This is not a series I would recommend for anyone who's not in highschool, and even then, there are numerous trigger topics, especially in Fire and Bitterblue which may be sensitive to some readers, and it should be noted that there are some scenes, and plot lines that may even border into insensitive for those same readers.
I enjoyed that there was LOTS of adventure, the story a little unique what destroyed it for me was sex...and how the book made marriage to be a bad thing....other than that I like it...
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Pretty good, not my favorite, personally I found it a bit hard to relate to the main character, and it was unusual to read to a book where the woman is physically stronger than the man, and faster and everything. It was refreshing to read a different trope and interesting though, I appreciated the different perspective the author took, and the way she branched out from normal stereotypes, I loved the survival aspect and the lesson of overcoming anger and not letting it consume you as well as accepting others when they have attributes they can't control and being with someone even though it doesn't conform to exactly what society thinks it should be like. Overall really good, the writing style was good, not my favorite, I think I prefer more detailed, more poetic writing, take the Powerless trilogy by Lauren Roberts as an example. But still, this book was good and I loved the lore with the eyes. I am interested to see where Bitterblue's story goes in book three, I don't know if I will read book two.
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
This is so good! The ideal read for people looking for actually good fantasy romance/romantasy! The characters are fleshed out and have meaningful arcs and the story is engaging and very well written.
I absolutely loved everything until the fmc met her goal of the story; I felt like it happened too quickly, making it anticlimactic despite all the anticipation