Blog Tour: Winterkeep by Kristin Cashore

January 26, 2021 Kirsty Hanson

I am so bloody excited to be back in this world. Graceling and Bitterblue are two of my favourite YA fantasy books ever, and even though Fire (the second book), wasn’t my favourite, Winterkeep was still very very high on my TBR list. I was lucky enough to be sent an ARC of Winterkeep, and was asked if I wanted to be part of a blog tour… SO HERE WE ARE!

Disclaimer: 1) this book was sent to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. 2) there may be slight spoilers for the previous three books in this review.

Trigger warnings: kidnapping/containment, slut-shaming, child abuse, death, murder

Four years after Bitterblue left off, a new land has been discovered to the east: Torla; and the closest nation to Monsea is Winterkeep. Winterkeep is a land of miracles, a democratic republic run by people who like each other, where people speak to telepathic sea creatures, adopt telepathic foxes as pets, and fly across the sky in ships attached to balloons.

But when Bitterblue’s envoys to Winterkeep drown under suspicious circumstances, she and Giddon and her half sister, Hava, set off to discover the truth–putting both Bitterblue’s life and Giddon’s heart to the test when Bitterbue is kidnapped. Giddon believes she has drowned, leaving him and Hava to solve the mystery of what’s wrong in Winterkeep.

Lovisa Cavenda is the teenage daughter of a powerful Scholar and Industrialist (the opposing governing parties) with a fire inside her that is always hungry, always just nearly about to make something happen. She is the key to everything, but only if she can figure out what’s going on before anyone else, and only if she’s willing to transcend the person she’s been all her life.

The novel opens up introducing us to under the new city of Winterkeep. In the first two books, we’re given a new species that always makes the readers imagination go wild. In the first book, it was obviously Gracelings, and in Fire it was the monsters. In Winterkeep, we have telepathic fishes/seals(?) – at least that what I imagine the Silbercows being. We also have a big, weird looking sea creature who has 13 tentacles and 23 eyes, and then the telepathic, blue foxes who can bond to humans (sort of like familiars from His Dark Materials). It’s all very strange, but it was the Silbercows and the weird octopus thing that I really had time struggling to wrap my head around. It was just so… out there. But hey, I just got on with the story.

I was so glad to be back with some of my favourite characters like Bitterblue, Giddon, Skye, and Hava. They really are a precious bunch, but what surprised me the most was their ages! To be honest, it shouldn’t have really been a surprise because what do you expect when years go by? For them NOT to age? I’m so stupid. But, it was mentioned that Giddon was 31 (which would make Katsa, and Po a similar age to that as well), and then Bitterblue was 22. It just made me feel very old.

Readers don’t just follow our beloved, familiar characters though. We’re introduced to sixteen-year-old, Lovisa Cavenda and her world in Winterkeep, where she learns about the scheming behind politics, and just how important friendships are. I didn’t really know how to feel about Lovisa though. One minute, she was a nice characters to read about, – especially when she was with her brothers – and she did some heroic things, but then most of the time I just couldn’t like her. Some of the things that she said were just… bitchy. I don’t know another way to describe it. However, she did go through a huge emotional development, which I was thankful for, as it must have been so hard for her to try and forget about her home-life. She was also such a sex positive character, who was confident with it, and it was definitely a breath of fresh air to read about a YA character who is so open about it.

There’s always been a lot of political intrigue in the Graceling series, but I think it just felt so much better in Winterkeep; it was a lot like our own politics: a government, instead of just a monarchy like the previous three books. A husband and wife who are in different political parties who go on a weird criminal rampage by kidnapping, stealing, and killing? I kept thinking: sign me up, this sounds amazing. But then, I got to reading about the parents. Ferla (Lovisa’s mom) is pure evil. I hate everything about her. The way that she treated her children was so upsetting, and by the time I had read about a couple of things that she was done, I was ready to transport myself into the world just so I could kill her myself.

Remember those blue, telepathic foxes that I mentioned? We actually get to read a few chapters from its perspective and I’m not gonna lie, I actually enjoyed it. I loved how we got to see him scheme his way around the Cavenda home, and how he used his bond with Ferla.

Whilst we get surprise POV’s like the fox, we also get surprise romances 😉 and I love every single one of them. They make me so happy, but because of spoilers, that’s all I’m going to say about that topic!

Overall, Winterkeep was such an enjoyable book, and a great addition to the series. I’m so glad to be back in the world. I could read about Bitterblue, Katsa, Po, Giddon, Skye, Hava… ALL OF THEM… forever. I just love them all so much. If you love a novel with a lot of substance: characters who have huge emotional growth, little romance, adventures, sex positivity, and beautiful friendships, then you just have to read this series!