Winterkeep by Kristin Cashore

Something is rotten in the heart of Winterkeep...

Four years after Bitterblue left off, a new land has been discovered to the east: T

orla; and the closest nation to Monsea is Winterkeep. Winterkeep is a land of miracles, a democratic republic run by people who like each other, where people speak to telepathic sea creatures, adopt telepathic foxes as pets, and fly across the sky in ships attached to balloons.

Lovisa Cavenda is the teenage daughter of a powerful Scholar and Industrialist (the opposing governing parties). She is the key to everything, but only if she can figure out what’s going on before anyone else, and only if she’s willing to transcend the person she’s been all her life.

This is such a great conclusion to this epic series. Graceling came out in 2008, then Fire in 2009, and Bitterblue in 2012. Each book of the series takes place in a different land, each with its own magical quirks. Some of those quirks include monsterous animals so beautiful a person willingly puts themselves in harms way, or people born with two colored eyes who have specific magicial powers. 

Kristin Cashore has a whimsically inventive imagination. Her books are full of action, romance, humor, and magic. Check out the rest of the Graceling Realm series and Cashore's other book Jane Unlimited. 

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