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A review by brendalovesbooks
Winterkeep by Kristin Cashore
4.0
I received an eARC of this book from the publisher.
When I started this, I had in my memory that I really liked the first two books (Graceling and Fire) in the series, but didn't like Bitterblue very much. After reading this book, I went back and saw that I had rated Bitterblue 4 stars, so I must have liked it a lot more than I remember. It was 8 years ago when I read it, though, so I really can't remember much, if anything, about it at all.
I quite enjoyed Winterkeep. I liked that there were telepathic animals and big sea creatures. That was possibly my favorite part of the book. I liked the different perspectives, and I really liked seeing Lovisa grow throughout the book. She wasn't always likable, and sometimes it's hard to root for her, but she has a good character arc, for the most part.
There are a couple of things that took this book down a notch for me. One is that Kristin Cashore feels very strongly about certain topics. You can tell because she hits you over the head with them over and over. A little bit goes a long way, and it starts to feel unnatural when you talk about things too much. I mean, some of these characters talk about sex so much, I know their every thought and feeling about it ad nauseum.
The other thing that I didn't love is I felt the book was a bit longer than it needed to be. We had the climax of the story, and then it was about 100 pages of aftermath. I got to the point where I just wanted to be done reading, and that shouldn't happen with a story. All the wrap up could have been done in half (or less) the time, and been perfectly satisfactory. All that said, I liked Winterkeep quite a lot; it made me want to go back and re-read the rest of the series.
When I started this, I had in my memory that I really liked the first two books (Graceling and Fire) in the series, but didn't like Bitterblue very much. After reading this book, I went back and saw that I had rated Bitterblue 4 stars, so I must have liked it a lot more than I remember. It was 8 years ago when I read it, though, so I really can't remember much, if anything, about it at all.
I quite enjoyed Winterkeep. I liked that there were telepathic animals and big sea creatures. That was possibly my favorite part of the book. I liked the different perspectives, and I really liked seeing Lovisa grow throughout the book. She wasn't always likable, and sometimes it's hard to root for her, but she has a good character arc, for the most part.
There are a couple of things that took this book down a notch for me. One is that Kristin Cashore feels very strongly about certain topics. You can tell because she hits you over the head with them over and over. A little bit goes a long way, and it starts to feel unnatural when you talk about things too much. I mean, some of these characters talk about sex so much, I know their every thought and feeling about it ad nauseum.
The other thing that I didn't love is I felt the book was a bit longer than it needed to be. We had the climax of the story, and then it was about 100 pages of aftermath. I got to the point where I just wanted to be done reading, and that shouldn't happen with a story. All the wrap up could have been done in half (or less) the time, and been perfectly satisfactory. All that said, I liked Winterkeep quite a lot; it made me want to go back and re-read the rest of the series.