Whimsical, yet serious. A magical landscape with dark political machinations brewing.

In this next installment of the Graceling Realm we follow some familiar faces Giddon, Hava, and Bitterblue, as well as new ones from the far off lands of Winterkeep. After Bitterblue's envoy disappears in Winterkeep's waters, the original crew go out to investigate. What they find is a fascinating world with malevolent politics at play.

Cashore's world-building continues to be a joy. I really enjoyed the new fantastical elements of this book and now want a pet telepathic fox for myself. I also enjoyed getting to spend more time with Queen Bitterblue as well as Giddon and Hava as they navigate this new dynamic. I won't tell you what happens because I like to keep my reviews as spoiler free as possible but my heart really went out to them and I swear I cried during a number of their scenes.

I also enjoyed learning about the dynamic of Lovisa and her family, as well as the politics of Winterkeep. Like Bitterblue, Winterkeep is also very much a political fantasy, so if that was something you didn't like in the previous books, I don't recommend this installment for you. It wasn't all politics, though. It also addressed similar themes of familial abuse. Cashore in the past has been controversial with the way she includes sex in her novels, however, I think Winterkeep is interesting in the way it approaches it, especially while examining toxic coping mechanisms.

As far as criticisms go, this novel was quite slowly paced. There were times where I felt bored or things felt inconsequential to the plot so I didn't pay as much attention as I should have and had to re-read sections. I also felt like Lovisa should have been better developed in the first half of the book than she was. Most of the work for her character arc is done within the last third of the book, which feels really unsatisfying to me. I do think it was done successfully, but I would have rather gotten attached to her character earlier and understand some of where she was coming from earlier. It took me a while to connect to her character, simply because I didn't have enough context for why she acts the way she does.

All in all, a very solid addition.

Thank you to the publisher and Edelweiss for giving me an e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.