Waiting on Wednesday: Bitterblue

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine and spotlights upcoming novels we can't wait to read. This week’s choice is:

Bitterblue

Kristin Cashore

Expected Publication Date: May 1st 2012

The long-awaited companion to New York Times bestsellers Graceling and Fire 

Eight years after Graceling, Bitterblue is now queen of Monsea. But the influence of her father, a violent psychopath with mind-altering abilities, lives on. Her advisors, who have run things since Leck died, believe in a forward-thinking plan: Pardon all who committed terrible acts under Leck's reign, and forget anything bad ever happened. But when Bitterblue begins sneaking outside the castle--disguised and alone--to walk the streets of her own city, she starts realizing that the kingdom has been under the thirty-five-year spell of a madman, and the only way to move forward is to revisit the past.  

Two thieves, who only steal what has already been stolen, change her life forever. They hold a key to the truth of Leck's reign. And one of them, with an extreme skill called a Grace that he hasn't yet identified, holds a key to her heart.

Why
Graceling is a book that happens to have the honor of being one of the books to drag me back into reading as much as I did when I was younger. It is a book I reread over and over and over, and then when I read Fire I ended up doing the same thing. Graceling is already worn down, and if I had Fire in non-ebook format I'm sure it would be the same, so my excitement for Bitterblue is not all that surprising. I already have it put on hold at the library in fact.

What I like is that these books, though taking place in the same world and having somewhat similar characters aren't so direct in sequels I'm betting you can read Bitterblue without reading Graceling and you certainly can without reading Fire. But I highly recommend both of them anyway just because they're so good.