Bitterblue

Book:  Bitterblue
Author:  Kristen Cashore
Like/Don't Like:  Liked.  A pretty fitting end.

This is the last of the Graceling series and it finished pretty well.  Although not as strong as Fire, it fit with the series perfectly.

The last time we saw Bitterblue she was a kid hiding from her murderous father in Graceling.  In the 9 years between then and this book she has been crowned the queen and is trying to come to terms with what that means - a very common theme throughout the series.  Each of the women in the three books have unique positions and powers and are fearful of using them to their full capacity because they are all easily abused.  I loved this idea of emboldening young women to be conscientious of their powers and to use them.  I think that's what the series is so strong. 

But as a finale I thought Bitterblue could have been stronger.  It carried over the theme beautifully and most of my favorite characters were back but the story kind of plodded along at times.  There were a lot of extra characters that you didn't know what they were there for until the very end so they seemed to get in the way.  But the end did clear everything up nicely.  And I love these characters and places a lot.  I think I would love it a second time around.