Quick Stats
Overall: 4/5
Characters: 4/5
Plot: 4/5
Setting: 4/5
Writing: 4/5


I’ve got to say, I think Winterkeep is my least favorite Graceling novel so far. I was really excited for this, but it took me a really long time to get into it. It felt a lot more “tell” than “show” for the first 100 pages, and it took as long for the plot to really begin. I didn’t like Giddon’s POV. He was just… so boring. He had no personality. We needed to see the story from that side, but I think Hava would have been a much more interesting narrative to read and we would have gotten the information that we needed, too.
Now, that’s not to say that this isn’t a good book—it’s a bit slow to get into, but once it picked up, I was fully invested. I loved getting to see Lovisa’s point of view. Again, it took me a handful of chapters from her POV to get invested, but once I did, she became my favorite character. There was some set up that makes me really hope that we get a fifth book about Lovisa in the future—or even a novella. I want to see more of her in the future and continue to see her grow as a character. She had an incredible arc in Winterkeep though.
I also really liked seeing from the POV of Adventure Fox, that was very interesting. He’s another favorite character of mine, and again, I’d love to see more of him in future books—if there are any.
The plot itself took a while to develop, but a little over halfway it really picked up and got me invested. There were plenty of twists and turns I didn’t see coming, and it all wrapped up very nicely. I just wish we had gotten to the plot a little sooner, because then it could have been a five star read.
I wish I could give the first half of this book 2.5 stars, and the second half 5 stars.
I do recommend this book—especially for Graceling fans—but definitely be aware that it takes a while to get good.