Hello everyone!
I am back again with another book review, and I’m confused about this one. I had an amazing time reading Shadow and Bone (you can read my review here) and it had me very excited to read the next novel in this series, unfortunately I was a bit underwhelmed with this one. I’ll get more into detail down below.
Let’s get into it!
Goodreads Rating: 4.08/5
Pages: 435 pages
Published: June 4th, 2013
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, and Fantasy
Plot: (Plot for Book 1 listed below to prevent spoilers)
Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now it’s fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.
Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life – a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched form everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.
Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha… and the secrets of her heart.
⭐ ⭐ ⭐
My Thoughts
Official rating: 3.75/5
This novel was one I was really looking forward to. I thought it was one that I would automatically love and something that would just add to the world of the Grisha that I love.
Unfortunately, I was slightly underwhelmed with this novel.
In terms of plot, I was very interested in what was going on. I found that it started off from right where we left off and I was excited to see what Bardugo would bring us next about the Grisha-verse. I found that the plot progressed in an interesting way and it did ensure that my attention was kept for a very long time.
Additionally, I found that the storyline was something that kept growing in interesting ways and always kept me on my toes.
The problem I have with this novel is in terms of characters. Alina did show some incredible growth this novel, but I found her internal struggle between wanting Mal and wanting to be away from Mal to be slightly frustrating to follow.
Mal was another character that I found to be incredibly annoying this novel. He was one-dimensional and such a hindrance to this story that I didn’t really see why he was such a vital part of the story.
Lastly, in terms of characters, I was pleased to see a new character added on to the story that we didn’t really expect to be such a large part of the plot. This character was an incredible addition and managed to balance off Mal a bit, so I’m hoping we see more of them in the next novel.
All in all, without providing any spoilers, this novel was one that I felt hit all the plot points I wanted it to, but as for characters I was a bit disappointed this time around.
I hope the next novel gives me everything I found lacking in this one.
Alright guys, that concludes my review for Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo.
Thank you so much for reading and don’t forget to follow my blog as well as my other social media sites linked in the side bar.
Until next time,
Rimpy Toor
23 replies on “Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo”
ahhh, this series was so good!
I loved Mal in the first book and by the last I didn’t like him xD
I’m tempted to reread the series this year as I really enjoyed them and I want to reread six of crows too 😛
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Whilst I really liked the book, Mal brought it down a star because I couldn’t get on board with his attitude and he started to sound like a broken record after a while.
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Definitely, that’s also the reason my rating was so low. I feel like character development really suffered this novel and it was really disappointed
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Yeah, you’re right. Now I think about it, the entire trilogy now feels underwhelming. I loved it to begin with but on re-reading it, I did feel a little ‘meh’ and struggled getting through them. That might have just been the reading slump talking but I can’t shake the feeling that I no longer like them as much as I did.
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I heard such amazing things from everyone about this series, but I wonder if they’re all saying these things because they read them so long ago and liked them THEN. I love learning more about the grisha-verse but the writing in this novel feels incredibly juvenile compared to the writing in the Six of Crows duology.
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Yeah I think it does, although I’ll have to re-read the Six of Crows duology to compare them properly.
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Definitely, I read it last year and didn’t find any problems, but a lot can change in a year
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Mal drove me insane! I couldn’t stand him and I had no idea why he was even a character. He almost ruined the series for me.
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Yeah, he’s quite frustrating to read about. That’s exactly why I’m having such a hard time picking up the next book because I know he’s going to be a huge part of it.
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Yeaaaaah. The series could have been top notch if he wasn’t in it. Wait til the ending of the last book. You will be mad, I’m pretty sure.
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oh god, that makes me want to read it even less! I have some ideas about what the ending will contain, but I’m not excited to find out…
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I certainly don’t wanna put you off, but yeah. There is a lot of issues people have with how it ended.
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Yeah, well I’ll eventually read the last novel, but I’m really in no rush after the second one
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Ahh! So much woe surrounding sequels. I’m always so scared to start one when I love the first book.
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It’s such a struggle, especially when the first novel is so good and you don’t want to ruin it!
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My favorite book last year, I still haven’t gotten around to the sequel because I’m too nervous!
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haha, yeah it’s a hit or a miss!
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Great job. I hate that the characters fells short. I feel like Mal fell short for me in book 1 and even though I had given it 5 stars, I have not had an interest in getting in to book 2 yet…
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I am having such a hard time getting into the third book. I just don’t want to pick it up
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I really honestly think I should have read this series before SoC. I may have had more excitement for it. It’s well written, but Shadow and Bone just didn’t stay with me like Kaz’s group did.
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I don’t know if reading it before SoC would have helped me much, its not so much me comparing this novel to SoC that’s bugging me as much as the character development is
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That’s reasonable. I do agree that it didn’t seem like they were developed as much as I would have liked.
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