loveat1stwrite 's review for:

Winterkeep by Kristin Cashore

2.0

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After how gorgeous the rest of this series is, I was pretty let down by Winterkeep. Giddon, who was an asshole in Graceling and was redeemed in Bitterblue, seemed to have lost all character progress at the beginning of Winterkeep and a lot of gestures that seemed selfless previously felt more like entitled possessiveness and grooming in this sequel. I almost DNF’d this book around 30% in and while I’m glad I got some closure on this series there were definitely cringe moments further in as well (not all from Giddon, I would like to clarify that this is a more generic problem with the book). There were several oddly unpolished, clunky sections of dialogue that I found shocking, given where Cashore is in her career. While some scenes are diamonds in the rough, but I’m definitely glad I didn’t purchase this book and will not be re-reading it like I do with Graceling, Fire, or Bitterblue.