You know, I'm not minding so much that I am perpetually late on commenting on these posts, because then I can just steal everyone else's thoughts! *G* Graceling is my favorite (my whole household's favorite, actually) because of the balance between plot and character, as stated above. I was very fond of the ensemble in Fire, but a little meh on the plot.

Repetition! Repetition was one of my two issues with Bitterblue! The other issue was how nauseating I found the claustrophobic, fearful tone of the book--like, actually physically nauseating--which the book can't really help, since exploring trauma and recovery is the whole point of it! The repetitive bits only compounded the nausea, though, and I had had really high expectations thanks to the Internet. :( I liked many characters in the book very much (though you're right, BORING LOVE INTEREST), wasn't so fond of the plot.