REVIEW: Ruin and Rising (The Grisha #3) by Leigh Bardugo

Ruin and Rising (The Grisha #3) by Leigh Bardugo

Publication Date: June 17, 2014

Publisher: Henry Holt & Co.
Source: Book Purchased by Reviewer

Buy it at: Amazon / Barnes and Noble
Guest Reviewer: Doris C. AKA La Chiquita

My rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

The capital has fallen.

The Darling rules Ravka from his shadow throne.

Now the nation’s fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army.

Deep in an ancient network of tunnels and caverns, a weakened Alina must submit to the dubious protection of the Apparat and the zealots who worship her as a Saint. Yet her plans lie elsewhere, with the hunt for the elusive firebird and the hope that an outlaw prince still survives.

Alina will have to forge new alliances and put aside old rivalries as she and Mal race to find the last of Morozova’s amplifiers. But as she begins to unravel the Darling’s secrets, she reveals a past that will forever alter her understanding of the bond they share and the power she wields. The firebird is the one thing that stands between Ravka and destruction-and claiming it could cost Alina the very future she's fighting for.

She reached for the walls to stable her from the run. She opened her eyes expecting to find rubble at her feet and smell the thick air in the tunnels. Little did she know that she would be safe on her reading knook and only a crick in her neck to tell her of the length of time that has passed. Despair slowly set in as she remembered the chase. The feeling of loss as her heroine swam in and out of consciences and the fear that in the end the villain22 was not destroyed. No one is safe. All she can do is close her eyes shake off her feels and pick up the final chapter. Pouring herself a strong glass of wine and walking off the last bit of anxiety she turns her eyes on the cover of Ruin and Rising and dives into the end with no hopes for a life line but all expectations that she will survive. 

Can I start this off with a I just HATE the Apparat!! WTF can you make someone more slimmy? He’s not even trying and you want to push him down one of the tunnels never to be heard from again. I also was not a fan of the St Alina cult. I get the desperation to believe in something but even Mal takes a sip of the kool aid and at that I just want to scream. I’m with Alina, she is far from saintly but even if she is her place is not in the tunnels hiding but out there repairing the damage she has left behind.

By now you have either read the series or have been hiding under a rock because after reading book 1&2 how could you have waited not to read and digest book 3? I have a few confessions. #1 I don’t want Mal and Alina together. I am rooting for Stormhond! I know this is just in my mind but a girl can dream can I not? #2 I want the darkling to be killed by his mother #3 I want Toyla and Zoya to hook up #4 if I was in the compound I would have killed the king after Genya’s confession.   

The book opens up with Alina saved from the tragic destruction of the chapel and hidden under the city of Os Alta under the thumb of the apparat, with her is her team of Grisha and Mal at the ready. All of them are devoted to get her out of the tunnels and reunited with Stormhond who they assumed survived the attack and is just buying his time to bring down the darkling.

 I find myself wanting Alina to be able to do more with her power than lighting up a room and cutting things. I mean she can yield heavenly fire… shouldn’t she be able to burn things or bring life or take life at will? I feel like Leigh made her out to be one big light bulb. Where as the darkling has no limits. He is just full of surprises. Don’t get me wrong in book 3 we find out that the connection that draws the darkling to Alina can be used by Alina as well and of course the darkling has had more time to practice his limits but Alina should really be given a learning curve.

The love between Alina and Mal takes a turn too. Mal is desperate to keep his distance because he is convinced that Alina is meant to for so much more than he can offer. Where in book 2 we see him resigned to his role as guardian in this one hes just not there. Alina on the other hand has never been more in love with Mal than before. She knows that the choice she has to make is pretty much already made for her and she just has to find peace with it now. With that peace is the knowledge that this drive for power could be the very thing that waltz her back into the capable hands of the darkling.

He is too ready for that to be the case. The story faces a lot of what should be and what actually is. Each character has their own rendition of how this should play out. Alina wants all the amplifiers with hopes that all three of them will give her the advantage she needs to bring the darkling down. Mal wants Alina safe and feels he has to close off his feelings to protect her and serve his purpose of finding the amplifiers for her. The darkling wants Alina to stop playing saint and help him bring Ravka into the new world where he is king and the Grisha are no longer hunted but respected. Can we all just get along? Well in this world the answer is no… no we can’t.

The end to this story is lack luster. I will admit that I didn’t see it coming. I thought it would be bells and whistles and lots and lots of hope for the future but it wasn’t. It has a very simple ending and we find that the end is very much like the beginning. I did not have a book hangover on this trilogy but I appreciated the journey very much. In true form Leigh never let us believe that it would end in other way than it did. For all things in the end cannot be all powerful. Fears are faced, weaknesses strengthened and friendships are reinforced. In my heart Alina will shine as bright as the morning star, Mal will run free as Morosovas stag, the darkling will have his peace with his past, and Stormhond will fly with his wings spread through the world.  

REVIEW: Siege and Storm (The Grisha #2) by Leigh Bardugo

Siege and Storm (The Grisha #2) by Leigh Bardugo

Publication Date: June 4, 2013

Publisher: Henry Holt & Co.
Source: Book Purchased by Reviewer

Buy it at: Amazon / Barnes and Noble
Guest Reviewer: Doris C. AKA La Chiquita

My rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

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 everything to the oncoming storm.

The girl could feel her heart beating again. She knew such books existed that could transport you but she never thought she would find one so soon. She placed her hand on the cover of the new book and closed her eyes to feels the pulse given off from the ink within. The characters called to her from the shores of unexplored lands and begged her to turn the cover and return to them. She knew this was crazy. How can she be so involved with lives that never took in a breath? Share dreams with a heroine that she knew so little of? And hope with all her strength that this tale would come to a happy ending even though she knew that no such thing could possible exist. Even though her brain told her it was just a simple tale, she drew in a deep breath and turned the page to read the tale of Siege and Storm.

Let take this moment to just draw in a deep breath because by the end of this book you would not have breath left. All thanks to the ever twisting plot and adventure that Leigh Bardugo puts us on. In the last book of Shadow and Bone our Alina and Mal are running for their lives and towards sunnier shores to start a new life away from the madness that has ensued in Ravka and the wrath of the Darkling. We start our tale on a boat as Alina and Mal cross the true sea.

Mal of course is being his usual best-at-everything self and just charming his way through crew and passing folly as our poor Alina is still the fly on the wall that would rather buzz on her own than let anyone into her world. I give her this if I was in her place I would be more worried with changing whatever I can about myself and not playing nice with the locals. I don’t want to give too much away but I will tell you NO ONE IS SAFE. Never let yourself fall into the false sense of maybe they will get away with this because the Darkling will have none of it.

In book two we are introduced to some of the most colorful characters that I can’t get over. We have the twins Toyla and Tamar, Stormhound, a fun loving crew of bandits, some of the royal family and not to mention the grisha. As you read you will have your own favorites but know that all characters show more of who they are and where their alliances lean towards. Of course never let yourself fall into the knowledge that you know who is who to whom. Leigh as always loves to play with your feels and you must keep them guarded or you will find yourself at the bottom of the tissue box before you know what hit you.

This book though faster moving than the first one has a lot of the meat of the story that we didn’t really get a chance at in book 1. We see more of the relationship between the two armies and the real extent of the Darkling's reach through out Ravka. Also we see the extent of the relationship between Alina and Mal. Though now it is out and in the open how they feel, they have to make really strong decisions about their feelings and not soley base those decisions on the well being of each other but the well being of Ravka. Mal grows up a lot and comes to a realization that I am still not sure that at the time Alina was ready for. Through thick and thin those two have always had each other and now they are faced with should that even matter or should they hold what is best in the end.

The roller coaster ride just never stops with these books. There are politics, romance, and constant humor that you cant get over and really brings home the emotions of the tale. You start questioning your own perception of the tale and whether how you want it to end really is the way you would want it to end. The whole book is just one decision away from just everything blowing up and you cant  help but want it to blow up just so you can see how it would be written. 

REVIEW: Shadow and Bone (The Grisha #1) by Leigh Bardugo

Shadow and Bone (The Grisha #1) by Leigh Bardugo

Publication Date: June 5, 2012

Publisher: Henry Holt & Co.
Source: Book Purchased by Reviewer

Buy it at: Amazon / Barnes and Noble
Guest Reviewer: Doris C. AKA La Chiquita

My rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Synopsis (from 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.

Once upon a time in a far away place there lived a girl who believed that books contained magic that could solve any worldly woe. She was determined to fill her life with the words found in these books with hopes that she would find the answers to her personal questions. Unfortunately through her journey she discovered that not all books were as magical as she would have liked them to be. There were books that contained emotions powerful enough to make her cry as she read, then there were books that made her read the same sentence four times because it never made sense. Then there was Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo.

Before I get into the complete review let me explain the world you are going to walk into. The book takes place in Russia. This Russia is split into four sections, there is Fjerda to the north, Shu han in the south and our home land of Ravka is split in two by a river of dark sand called the unsea. The unsea is where all the big bad beasties live and no one wants to get caught there alone. Not that you would last long, the unsea is pitchblack and inhabited by creatures called volcra. Think of your worst nightmare and let it have a family reunion where you are the main course instead of burgers.

In this world there are two types of people, people with abilities called the Grisha, and people without abilities called otkazat’sya(nothing). All otkazat’sya are tested at a young age to see if they have Grisha ability. If they do, they are recruited to the second army to hone their skill and become warriors. The Grisha are split into three categories, Corporalki (people that can heal and manipulate blood and organs), Etheralki (people that can manipulate air, fire and water) , and materialki (people who can build/design and chemist). One piece of advice I will give is that you get ready to mash up some words. Most things are very Russian but it gives into the world you are walking through.

Now to the juicy stuff. The story is about a girl name Alina Starkov who is an orphan and is part of the first army to the king with her BFF Malyen Oretsev. He of course is the hottie mc hot-hot of the town and she is in love with him and he has no clue. Mal is a tracker (the best tracker ever) and Alina is an apprentice the cartographer. They are being sent to the unsea to cross and bring back goods from West Ravka. Needless to say the troops are apprehensive about the journey but they are mandated to go so they just have to suck it up and hope for the best.

I looked up to see Mal’s familiar face, a smile in his bright blue eyes as he fell into step beside me. “C’mon,” he said. “One foot in front of the other. You know how it’s done.”

“You’re interfering with my plan”

“Oh really?”

“Yes. Faint, get trampled, grievous injuries all around.”

“That sounds like a brilliant plan.”

“Ah, but if I’m horribly maimed, I won’t be able to cross the fold.”

Mal nodded slowly. “I see. I can shove you under a cart if that would help.”

“I’ll think about it,” I grumbled, but I felt my mood lifting all the same.  Pg.10-11

  The relationship between these two make you want to scream. Even though you don’t really get to see them flourish because Alina is found to have a rare and powerful ability that even she was not aware she had. This ability pulls her away from Mal and into the arms of the leader of the second army called the darklilng. When he finds out about Alina’s power he is immediately all I must protect her at all cost and this means taking her away from the position she held in the first army and taking her to the little palace at the captiol of Ravka called Os Alta.

In Os Alta we watch Alina transform from lost simple orphan to developing Grisha who is still trying to figure out what this new found power means for her and what the darkling really has up his sleeve. Leigh Bardugo is a cruel mind manipulator and I love her for it. You never know when the twist is coming and if you do time it right then you don’t anticipate what the twist will be. I found myself many times re-reading passages to make sure it was her and not me that this was happening it to. This tale is action packed and full of feels. Good feels, ugly feels, and very humorous. I love the conversations of the characters and the development of the plot. No it is not truly one thing or another but what in real life is? You never really know what a characters true intentions are when you feel you do please change your mind. This book flies buy and when you are done and you don’t have book two handy you will be upset with yourself. I don’t give 5 stars often but this story was well worth it.