Siege and Storm
author: Leigh Bardugo
genres: High Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance, YA
series: Shadow and Bone / Siege and Storm / Ruin and Rising
shelves: awesome-cover, awesome-heroine, awesome-humor, dem-feels, dumb-love-interest, dumb-romance, not-from-this-world, oh-no-you-didnt, read, squee, surprised-me, too-awesome-for-words
rating: Favorite!!!
The boy and the girl had once dreamed of ships, long ago, before they'd ever seen the true sea.
Darkness never dies.
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.
They were the vessels of stories.
Oh my friggin' alpaca gosh.
The only reason I haven't reviewed Shadow and Bone here (but I do have a German review and one on Goodreads, which, by the way, is my home and my castle. I mean Goodreads, not the review. Long live Goodreads!) is because I was too lazy, so I should probably tell you that I absolutely loved S&B, it stands on the top of the list of the best books ever in the same spot with The Iron Queen, which is 1st. And that means something.
Though Siege and Storm was not as good as its predecessor, mainly because I had nothing to criticize when reviewing S&B and I have 3 minor points that I don't like about S&S (okay, 4, if you count the fact that I can't pronounce 'Siege'), but that doesn't make this book less amazing! My third favorite series ever was the Ruby Red series by Kerstin Gier, but I think the Grisha trilogy just took its place. Sorry, Gwen, but Alina is better than you. =(
The two critic points I have are the lovestory between Alina and Mal, which I just don't feel, Mal himself, who I just don't like, and the fucking release date of Ruin and Rising. June 2014? ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?!
Caaaaalm down, Bloody. Noone's going to kill you. *looks around smiling like a maniac* Yeah. Maybe I should tell you why exactly I didn't feel anything or why I don't like Mal... Well, actually, I didn't like the lovestory because I don't like Mal, so I just have to explain why I don't like Mal. He just bothers me to no end. He behaves like a total idiot, he doesn't understand Alina and treats her like a piece of shit, he basically cheats on her with Zoya and is completely stupid for drinking so much and fighting when he's supposed to be at his best guarding Alina and fighting in the army. Paired with his (for me unreasonable) jealousy, nnope, that doesn't sound too good, does it?
Sounds worse than it is. The Grisha trilogy lives from its story, not the romance, and if it did the latter, I'd probably dislike it. But the plot was just awesome! I love Leigh Bardugo's pacing - much happens, but it never ever feels rushed or something like this, it's just perfect. Reminds me of the pacing of my beloved Julie Kagawa, though she did have some stretched parts in The Immortal Rules, but still, both of them manage to keep me glued to the pages, wondering what happens next.
And there are so many open questions! What exactly does the Apparat want? Is the Darkling really beyond the point of redemption? What's happened to Nikolai, one of the characters I'd like to see with Alina and one of my favourite characters? Will Alina give in to the darkness that's filling her? (Another point I just adore. I have a feeling that this is going dark. And I mean deadlocked-dark. Deadlocked is one of my stories where in the beginning everything is fine and fun and sarcasm everywhere but at the end all the main characters end up torn apart. And since Bardugo seems to push Alina right in this direction, I am REALLY afraid of what might happen to her.) And the most important (that was sarcasm, by the way.): who does Alina end up with? I'm prrrrretty sure it'll be Mal, but I still have hopes for Nikolai and the Darkling. You go, guys! o/
*checks mental checklist* Critique? Check. Plot? Check. Fangirling over Bardugo's and Julie Kagawa's pacing? Check. Questions? Check. Fangirling over the Darkling... Uncheck! Uh. Yes. I didn't fangirl over the Darkling, so... Yeah. I mean, I really shouldn't love him after everything he's done, but I can't help it, he's so fucking interesting and so amazing and so gorgeous and so waaaaaah *-* With his 'visits' I really started to wonder: is he really evil or just lonely? I mean, there were a few hints about that and I so want to know if he can be redeemed or if there is no chance and everyone ends up dead...
Why, yes, I do believe that Leigh Bardugo can make this into a bad ending where everything goes downhill. There are authors who do that. (Cough, cough, deadlocked, cough, cough.) And I have no doubts that Bardugo can make it work, but I'm still afraid. I don't want to lose them all! ;A;
Their crew were white mice who sang songs and scrubbed the decks with their pink tails.
To sum it up in one word: INEEDRUINANDRISINGSOBADLY!! Yeah. That should be it. Oh, and while writing this review I listened to Outer Science. One bad word about the Kagerou Project and you'll end up as dead as I will after finishing Ruin and Rising. (Also, nobody kills my Kano! I will never forgive you for that, Kuroha! T.T)
The Verrhader was not a magic ship.
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