Title: Ruin and Rising
Series: Shadow and Bone #3 | Grishaverse #3
Previous book in this series: Shadow and Bone (#1) | Siege and Storm (#2)
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Genre: YA, high fantasy
Publication date: June 2014
Published by: Henry Holt and Co.
Source: Borrowed from library
Add it on Goodreads
Buy it: Amazon | B&N | Thrift Books
Synopsis: Soldier. Summoner. Saint. The nation’s fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army.
The Darkling rules from his shadow throne while a weakened Alina Starkov recovers from their battle under the dubious protection of the zealots who worship her as a Saint. Now her hopes lie with the magic of a long-vanished ancient creature and the chance that an outlaw prince still survives.
As her allies and enemies race toward war, only Alina stands between her country and a rising tide of darkness that could destroy the world. To win this fight, she must seize a legend’s power—but claiming the firebird may be her ruin.
It’s been two months since Alina last faced off against the Darkling and she is in rough shape.
Actually, no she is not, Dean. She hasn’t been able to summon light, and even worse, she is basically the Apparat’s prisoner. Like I mentioned in my review of the last book, I just feel like so many things happen to Alina, but she herself doesn’t take action. Not nearly as much as I would like her to, at least. The beginning of the book is one instance where I wanted her to take action and take control of her life again. I was just so annoyed with her being complacent. I understood why, but still. I was glad when we finally got some action because Leigh Bardugo is really good at writing it!
There was even more unexpected action in the middle of the book, and I don’t want to go into it in detail because spoilers, but let’s just say I understand why the King of Scars duology is called what it is.
That entire scene was shocking and stressful! Making me stressed is another thing Leigh Bardugo is good at 😆 And honestly, I’m okay with it. Lol. The action and tension in this series is probably one of my favorite things about it. I was also really happy to see that this book had more action than the last one. I felt like Siege and Storm suffered a bit from Second Book Syndrome, unfortunately.
As for the characters, I can’t say I loved Alina or Mal or their dumb, annoying relationship that much. Alina was power-hungry and picked fights with Mal for no reason. And Mal was... god, I don’t even know. He was just bitter and didn’t try hard to understand what Alina was going through. And the will-they-wont-they of their relationship was SO annoying! In the beginning, of the series, I actually did ship them and was hoping they would end up together, but as the series went on they just seemed to lose the ability to communicate with one another and their relationship became very frustrating. But also I can’t lie, despite being annoyed by them, I still did want them to end up together. Lol.
I did like some of the side characters though. My favorite was definitely Prince Nikolai! He’s such an interesting and charismatic character! I am really looking forward to reading more about him in King of Scars! I feel like he would make a good ruler because he shows compassion and is very resourceful.
This series was no Six of Crows, but I still did enjoy it for the most part. There were some very interesting revelations about Morozova and the third amplifier. I really liked this aspect of the book: the story in general, the mythos, and the magic system. That was great! The action was also pretty good. However, I did find the fight in the climax to not be as exciting as I was hoping, despite what happened. But I did enjoy how the book wrapped up! I thought it was a perfect ending for the characters and it made me happy, despite my previous annoyances. Lol. That being said, I love the Grishaverse! It’s such an interesting world and I am really looking forward to reading King of Scars! But at the same time, I don’t want it to end ðŸ˜
There was even more unexpected action in the middle of the book, and I don’t want to go into it in detail because spoilers, but let’s just say I understand why the King of Scars duology is called what it is.
That entire scene was shocking and stressful! Making me stressed is another thing Leigh Bardugo is good at 😆 And honestly, I’m okay with it. Lol. The action and tension in this series is probably one of my favorite things about it. I was also really happy to see that this book had more action than the last one. I felt like Siege and Storm suffered a bit from Second Book Syndrome, unfortunately.
As for the characters, I can’t say I loved Alina or Mal or their dumb, annoying relationship that much. Alina was power-hungry and picked fights with Mal for no reason. And Mal was... god, I don’t even know. He was just bitter and didn’t try hard to understand what Alina was going through. And the will-they-wont-they of their relationship was SO annoying! In the beginning, of the series, I actually did ship them and was hoping they would end up together, but as the series went on they just seemed to lose the ability to communicate with one another and their relationship became very frustrating. But also I can’t lie, despite being annoyed by them, I still did want them to end up together. Lol.
I did like some of the side characters though. My favorite was definitely Prince Nikolai! He’s such an interesting and charismatic character! I am really looking forward to reading more about him in King of Scars! I feel like he would make a good ruler because he shows compassion and is very resourceful.
This series was no Six of Crows, but I still did enjoy it for the most part. There were some very interesting revelations about Morozova and the third amplifier. I really liked this aspect of the book: the story in general, the mythos, and the magic system. That was great! The action was also pretty good. However, I did find the fight in the climax to not be as exciting as I was hoping, despite what happened. But I did enjoy how the book wrapped up! I thought it was a perfect ending for the characters and it made me happy, despite my previous annoyances. Lol. That being said, I love the Grishaverse! It’s such an interesting world and I am really looking forward to reading King of Scars! But at the same time, I don’t want it to end ðŸ˜
I loved the first book in the series, but have not gone on. I need to do that! Great review, even if it wasn't perfect for you.
ReplyDeleteLisa Loves Literature
It was a solid series overall!
Delete