Thursday, August 22, 2013

Review of The Bitter Kingdom by Rae Carson


Title/Author: The Bitter Kingdom (Girl of Fire and Thorns #3) by Rae Carson
Publisher/Date published: Greenwillow Books, August 27th 2013
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley
Buy it at: The Book Depository

Goodreads summary: Elisa is a fugitive in her own country. Her enemies have stolen the man she loves in order to lure her to the gate of darkness. As she and her daring companions take one last quest into unknown enemy territory to save Hector, Elisa will face hardships she's never imagined. And she will discover secrets about herself and her world that could change the course of history. She must rise up as champion - a champion to those who have hated her most. Riveting, surprising, and achingly romantic, Rae Carson has spun a bold and powerful conclusion to her extraordinary trilogy.

***WARNING: SPOILERS POSSIBLE FOR BOOK 1 AND 2 IN THE SERIES***

YOU GUYS! THIS BOOK! THIS BOOK! It broke my heart because the series has now come to an end, but it was just pretty much everything I could have wanted from it and then some!

I squealed and did happy dances and just had this big ol' grin on my face after I saw the egalley appear on Edelweiss and did some more of this when I downloaded it to my e-reader and kinda told my boyfriend I couldn't pay attention to him for a while now because I had to read this book. I've never been so happy to have time off from work as when I received this egalley and I feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to read it early.

But enough about my giddiness.

It cannot be a secret that I love this series and have lost my heart to Elisa and Hector and Mara and Belén and even Storm! And Rae Carson sure knows how to play with my emotions, because in The Girl of Fire and Thorns she made me fall in love with Umberto only to have him killed and rip my heart to pieces and then at the end of The Crown of Embers Hector was taken! HECTOR! The man who made me (er, Elisa) believe in love again and who is just so *sigh*. Seriously, my love for Hector rivals my love for Mr. Darcy and that is saying something.

So in The Bitter Kingdom we are right back in the action. Of course Elisa isn't just someone who will idly sit back while the Inviernos threaten both her, her kingdom and the man she loves. And I love her for that! Elisa isn't just the girl from the prophecy with the godstone, she's far more, she's intelligent, she's strong and I'm still amazed by how far she's come from the girl we met at the beginning of The Girl of Fire and Thorns. I loved that in The Bitter Kingdom she learns more about what she can do with her godstone and uses this power of hers.

I also loved that we get chapters from Hector's point of view because I simply can't get enough from this man and it was just such a treat to see things from his side and get to know him better.

I loved reconnecting with the characters I'd already met in the previous two books and there were some new characters introduced for me to either love or stare in horror at. I especially loved Mula/Red, who is just such an awesome little girl and doesn't know the meaning of discretion.

The stakes are high, the battles epic and I was constantly on the edge of my seat while reading The Bitter Kingdom. I didn't want to put it down and Rae Carson once again had me feeling ALL THE THINGS. And I love it. I love her writing style and the way I keep rooting for Elisa and the others and wanting them to be happy and healthy and I loved that I didn't see all the twists and turns coming and GAH, there are just not enough words to describe how much I love this book!

Without wanting to spoil anything I have to say that while I'm beyond sad the series has ended, The Bitter Kingdom was such a good ending to it and I am fully satisfied, though I would love it if Rae Carson wrote more books about this world just so I'll have a chance to go on more adventures with these characters!
The Bitter Kingdom was amazing and completely blew me away and I just loved it so much (in case you haven't noticed) and I will pick up whatever Rae Carson decides to write next!

My rating: 5+ stars

3 comments:

  1. I'm so looking forward to this book. It's a shame that it's the ending, but I'm happy that the ending is satisfying. I hate it SO MUCH when the author ruins the last book. And yes, Hector <3

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  2. I can't wait to read this book!!! I'm so glad to hear that you liked the way Rae tied everything up. I always get so nervous for the third book in a series, praying that the author doesn't leave any questions unanswered or even worse...leaves the ending up to the readers interpretation like Requiem by Lauren Oliver. I hate that!

    I love Hector and am so excited to read from his POV! Great review! Can't wait to read it myself!

    Rebecca @ The Library Canary

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  3. I loved this finale too-one of my favorite conclusions to a trilogy especially in recent memory. So glad this was a winner for you too!

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