Title: Siege and Storm
Series: Shadow and Bone #2 | Grishaverse #2
Previous book in this series: Shadow and Bone
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Genre: YA, high fantasy
Publication date: June 2013
Published by: Henry Holt and Co.
Source: Borrowed from library
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Synopsis: Soldier. Summoner. Saint. Alina Starkov’s power has grown, but not without a price. She is the Sun Summoner—hunted across the True Sea, haunted by the lives she took on the Shadow Fold. But she and Mal can’t outrun their enemies for long.
The Darkling is more determined than ever to claim Alina’s magic and use it to take the Ravkan throne. With nowhere else to turn, Alina enlists the help of an infamous privateer and sets out to lead the Grisha army.
But as the truth of Alina's destiny unfolds, she slips deeper into the Darkling’s deadly game of forbidden magic, and further away from her humanity. To save her country, Alina will have to choose between her power and the love she thought would always be her shelter. No victory can come without sacrifice—and only she can face the oncoming storm.
I really enjoyed this first part of the book. The ending of the last book was STRESSFUL with Alina and Mal managing to get away from the Darkling. This book picks up where that book left off, with them in hiding and being super cute together.
But their peace only lasts for like two chapters before they’re thrown into another stressful situation. I was not okay.
Thank you, Cas 🫠But I actually really enjoyed this because it was so action-packed and I just didn’t know how they were going to get out of this bleak situation. During this part, we also meet Sturmhond, who I already knew about from the Six of Crows duology, so everything around him didn’t come as a surprise, BUT I didn’t mind because loved him! He’s so charming and clever and I was glad to see his origin because he definitely piqued my interest in Six of Crows.
But yeah, this part was great! There were pirates, the Darkling may or may have not made a return 👀, hunting of a potential second amplifier for Alina, and just action all around! I loved it! But once they got to court, things kinda got... uninteresting? No, that’s not the right word. Things wound down and I wasn’t as into it as the beginning of the book. There was just a lot of political stuff and war strategy in the middle of the book. It was fine, it was mildly interesting, but honestly, I missed the action. And I was missing the crew from Six of Crows because I was not loving the characters in this series as much.
Mal and Alina’s relationship I liked in the beginning, but once they got to court it got annoying. I hated how Alina kept things from him and I hated how Mal was acting. It was just so annoying! I missed it when they were being cute in the beginning of the book 😠Oh, and you know what? I didn’t appreciate the threat of a love triangle. We all know how I feel about those...
However, we did meet Prince Nikolai in this part and I loved him! And I love how much he cares about his country and how he’s trying to unite Ravka and make it a better place.
I also really enjoyed continuing to learn more about the Darkling and the Fold he created. For some reason, finding this out in the first book shocked me. I don’t know why because when you think about it, it seemed pretty obvious that he was the villain 😂 Anyway, all that stuff and Morozova’s journals, all that was super interesting! I just really love this world and how rich it is with its magic and mythology.
After the slump in the middle, the action picked back up in the third act and I was SO happy! I mean, I was stressed again, but we had action again! Yay! I actually really liked the interesting way Alina used her powers to face off the Darkling. I was not expecting it. And it’s probably not without repercussions, so we’ll see how things turn out for her in the next book. Especially because everything is a mess when this book ends.
Overall, I liked this less than the previous book. It was very slow in the middle with a lot of politics and war strategy, which was interesting for the most part, but I would've preferred action. It's been very cool seeing Alina come into her own and seeing her powers evolve. I'm very curious to see where this goes next because that ending was... ooof.
I have one other complaint that had absolutely nothing to do with the book, per se, more so with a decision by the publishers. I borrowed the ebook from the library and, I kid you not, the actual book ended at like 60%!!!
It was WILD! You’re telling me that a THIRD of this ebook was nothing but excerpts??? NO! This actually really skewed my perception of the book because I was expecting there to be more to the story even after the actual book had ended. I’ve had excerpts at the end of books before, obviously, but the amount this one had was crazy!! Can we maybe NOT do that?? Thanks 🙃
Anyway, I like the book for the most part and I’m looking forward to finishing off the series 😆
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