Siege And Storm

Author: Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Fantasy, Romance, YA
Category: Trilogy [Book 2]
Number of pages: 435

Started: 20/10/2018 – Finished: 18/11/2018
Rating: ****½/5

Description (Goodreads):
Hunted across the True Sea, haunted by the lives she took on the Fold, Alina must try to make a life with Mal in an unfamiliar land. She finds starting new is not easy while keeping her identity as the Sun Summoner a secret. She can’t outrun her past or her destiny for long.

The Darkling has emerged from the Shadow Fold with a terrifying new power and a dangerous plan that will test the very boundaries of the natural world. With the help of a notorious privateer, Alina returns to the country she abandoned, determined to fight the forces gathering against Ravka. But as her power grows, Alina slips deeper into the Darkling’s game of forbidden magic, and farther away from Mal. Somehow, she will have to choose between her country, her power, and the love she always thought would guide her–or risk losing everything to the oncoming storm.

Review:
I just want to say that it took me this long to read it not because I didn’t like it, but because I didn’t have time (😭).
I must admit that no matter how bad the Darkling is, I just can’t help but want him to be with Alina. I really love his character and I’m super excited to find out more about his story in the next book.
Mal on the other hand…remember how I said “I don’t know why Mal gets so much hate” in my last review? Well now I know. Aand I must say I’m not so fond of him anymore. Their relationship felt so pushed in this book and the entire time I was screaming “Just dump him Alina!”.
The new characters that were introduces are all super interesting. Nikolai quickly became a new favorite the moment he made his first appearance. And also he’s a pirate/inventor so even better.
I loved the little steampunk that was added in this book. (Also there’s a sea dragon!……which gets killed but anyway)

There weren’t many new locations, mostly it’s just Os Alta again which means there isn’t much world building.
Overall the book felt kinda slow moving, mostly it’s just Alina being paraded around, and then at the end some more interesting things happen. But it still managed to keep me hooked and wanting to read more. Though I think I liked the first book more.
Leigh Bardugo’s writing style has definitely improved in this book so I imagine the third one to be even better.
I’m quite happy with this series , so I will try to start Ruin and Rising soon!

Favorite quote:
“You know the problem with heroes and saints, Nikolai? They always end up dead.”

Review by:
A Traveler

Book Tag!!📚

Hello there Traveler!
Recently I’ve been so busy with university that I barely have any time to read..so my next review might take a little longer to be released
But!
I found a very interesting blog which listed a bunch of book tags and I thought — Oh that might be a fun thing to do, so that’s what I’m doing today!
I totally recommend you go to Beatrice’s Blog! She has some amazing book reviews and recommendations that are totally worth checking out.

The book tag is called:

Zombie Apocalypse Book Tag

To do the tag you need 5 books! After you grab them open each book to a random page (do this two times for each book) and the first characters name you see gets to be on your zombie survival team. Now that you have all the names, you need to put them in the following 10 situations.
(I chose to add some gifs just like she did because it makes everything even more dramatic 👌)
This tag was super fun to do and I would really enjoy reading your versions of it as well!

Well first off here are the books I picked (some of my favorites):

Nevernight, Empire of Storms, Shadow and Bone, City of Bones, War Storm

And here is the team…
The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones

1. The first person to die: Jace
Well….that’s a horrible waste of a good warrior…sorry Jace

2. The person you trip to get away from the zombies: Valentine
I mean..I’m not even gonna apologize..oops

Throne of Glass

3. The first person to turn into a zombie: Dorian
Nooooooooooo
( I would probably just let him eat me, I ain’t killing him)
giphy (1)

4. The person that trips YOU to get away from the zombies: Rowan
…my feelings are hurt

Red Queen Series: War Storm

5. The idiot of the team: Farley
Literally the last person to be the idiot would be Farley but okay
giphy (2).gif

6. The “brains” of the team: Maven
Oh god..this could go very well or very wrong, there is no in between

tenor (1).gif

Shadow And Bone

7. The team’s medic: Zoya
Well that was unexpected, I would imagine she would prefer to slice someone rather than heal them. Still a very good team member I guess.

8. The weapons expert: Baghra
Interesting…her weapon is darkness so it’s interesting to see how she would protects us from the zombies with that
giphy (3).gif

Nevernight

9. The brawler: Mia
Yeeeees , you go girl. This one might be the most accurate

10. The Team Captain: Spiderkiller
Oooh damn, those zombies gonna die
giphy (4).gif

Weeell that’s an interesting team 😂
Please join in on the fun and do this tag yourself. Make sure to send me the results so we can all have fun together! ❤

Yours:
A Traveler

Shadow And Bone

Shadow-and-bone_hi-res

Author: Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Fantasy, Romance, YA
Category: Trilogy [Book 1]
Number of pages: 358

Started: 13/10/2018 – Finished 15/10/2018
Rating: ****½/5

Description (Goodreads):
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.

Review:
I have seen this book recommended by so many people so I finally decided to read it and I truly enjoyed it.
The story is entertaining and amusing. I got so invested in it that I read it in 2-3 days. And now I can’t wait to read the next one.
The magic, the Russian folklore and mythology, the love create a story that threw me into a journey. While I did have an issue with how the world felt a little unfinished, I very much adored the book.

The main characters ,Alina and Mal, are two orphans who grew up together in a duke’s estate until they had to leave to serve their country. Mal becomes a military tracker while Alina is a cartographer.
When they were kids they were tested by the Grisha – an order of powerful people with magical abilities – to see if they were also gifted. At that time both of them had failed the test so neither believed they would be apart of the Grisha. That is until their regiment has to cross the rift of darkness called the Unsea that separates their country in half. While in said rift they are attacked by horrible creatures that almost eat them. Just before the monsters have reached them Alina manages to , unknowingly, get rid of them with a power she didn’t know she had.
After discovering her powers the Darkling – the leader of the Grisha – orders for her to be trained as one of them in the king’s palace. From that moment on Alina is considered the most important person in the kingdom as the Darkling believes she is the key to destroying the Unsea that has caused the death of many. In her journey she not only has to learn to accept who she really is but to learn who to trust and who to not.

I really liked each characters personality. Alina is a girl thrown into a situation she doesn’t want to be in, away from the only person she considers family. At first it’s hard for her to believe she is something special as she cannot even summon her powers but later on she discovers that there is a reason for that and she deals with it (awesome character development moment btw). I have seen a lot of hate for Mal in the fandom and I do not know why. So far I quite like him but I can’t wait to see the reason he gets so much hate. The Darkling is that typical dark, brooding handsome man that I just couldn’t seem to hate even if he wasn’t the good guy.
Now…..a love triangle. I think I’ve said it enough times that I don’t enjoy them but honestly you can’t really avoid them when reading a book that has romance in it. For this one it wasn’t that big of a deal but I think it becomes something important later on soo i’m just gonna deal with it. At this point I don’t know who to choose honestly I like them both but since I accidentally spoiled myself on Tumblr I know that there is a possible third love interest so let’s see how that goes (now you’re spoiled too).
The world was full of interesting Russian folklore and random words from the language which was quite fun to read through. As for the world building though, I wasn’t too impressed. It felt kind of unfinished but I am expecting it to get better in the next book. Overall it’s not something new for a debut novel.
Something I really enjoy in a book is when it has a map in it. I just really love them. And this one is so cool in my opinion. I love the little artwork on the side.
ShadowandBoneMap

I really enjoyed reading this book and I am so curious about what’s going to happen next. Totally recommend it to fantasy lovers and to anyone looking for something different.

Have you read the book? What do you think?

Favorite quote:
“And there’s nothing wrong with being a lizard either. Unless you were born to be a hawk.”

Review by:
A Traveler