Bitterblue is a YA romance novel. It is the third installment in the Graceling Realm novel series. Kristin Cashore is an American fantasy writer who is somewhere in the middle of her writing career. She has already won the Mythopoeic Award for Children book and then the Cybils Award for science fiction and YA fantasy. She is only 44 years old and has given us gripping novels such as Winterkeep and Graceling.
Xanthe Elbrick narrated it. She struggled to produce distinct voices for characters and the accent was hard to comprehend at times. She has narrated in a few other novels where she performed much better. But, this time, it was quite a disappointing performance by her.
Bitterblue, after eight years in the queen of Monsea now. Her father, a psychopath with weird mind-changing abilities continues to live on with his influence on her. Her advisors believe leading to a very forward thinking plan. They have been running things for Bitterblue since the death of Leck. The forward-thinking plan demands to forgive all who have been part of some terrible acts under the rule of Leck. Anything bad that has happened should be forgotten now. But, when Bitterblue attempted to check outside the castle in complete disguise, she was not happy. She realized that her kingdom has been ruined under the rule of a madman for 35 long years. One way to move forward from here is to revisit the past.
Bitterblue is an attempt to weave the two worlds of the first and the second installment of the series. It was a good experience with a good story and not much of the overlapping, which was anticipated. The audio performance by Xanthe was a letdown.
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