So far this is my least favorite of the Seven Kingdoms series. It was hard not to compare it to Graceling, mainly because I re-read it before reading Bitterblue since it had been about 4 years since I last read it. Bitterblue seemed sort of all over the place. It felt like it wasn't edited properly. And it was a heavy and sad story to read. Another series, The Lumatere Chronicles by Melina Marchetta, deals with similar themes of loss, grief and an entire nation that needs healing after years and years of trauma, and I've just recently read those so it was hard not to compare. My verdict is that this kind of story is not easy to tell.

It took about 400 pages for things to finally start to make sense to me. And then the truth of everything is so devastating that I would actually warn people against reading it if they have any kind of trigger issues with abuse. There was a bit of a surprise added in toward the end which made me smile but overall I don't feel as much love for this book as I do for Graceling and Fire.

Not enough detail and atmosphere for a historical thriller. DNF.

Love this author but two of the main characters are just super awful and selfish.