Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
Published: June 5, 2012
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 its 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 from 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.
I feel like I’ve been on a really good lucky streak with amazing books. I literally devoured this one in about two days and that’s really uncommon for me. I’ve picked up Shadow and Bone before but I didn’t really get into it so I put it down a couple times actually, and this time it actually stuck with me.
The Darkling captivated me as I’m sure he swept away most other readers, and Alina was awesome but I kept begging her to get over Mal. I think that was the one thing that really bothered me was the tug at a love triangle, but at the same time I HATED that Alina was so hung up on Mal. Not sure why, he’s a pretty good character, but I still couldn’t get over it for some reason. Maybe it’s because I got caught up with the Darkling (whoopsie! But I mean seriously…come on).
The overall plot and storyline was super engaging! No true lulls to the story and a constant stream of motion and action. I hope to see more of this Grisha Universe though, I read Six of Crows and I’m liking the more in depth look into the Grisha and who they are and how they work etc. etc. I’m a bit worried as to what will happen in Book 2 since this book finished on a pretty solid note…
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