If you missed the last TGON Reads Morgan G. Cairns review on The Prisoner’s Throne, you can find it here. If you missed my review of book one in the Shadow and Bone trilogy, Shadow and Bone, you can find it here.
Hey everyone! I am back with a new review for book two in the Shadow and Bone trilogy, Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo. This is a trilogy I am reading with my sister-in-law. I love my book club with her. I have read books I hadn’t gotten such as American Gods or Interview With A Vampire or tried new stuff such as this trilogy, but I digress. I had a reading epiphany this week. I get antsy and irritated in a trilogy or a series because I want to know what is gonna happen. How is the big baddie going to get their comeuppance? How wounded is the main character going to be? Because I read romance, are the love interests going to get together? I am there with this trilogy and I will be until the second half of book three, Ruin And Rising.
We left off with Alina and Mal sailing away from Ravka to escape The Darkling. Unfortunately, as far as they ran, they were still found and captured. Once The Darkling captured her, they went after the sea whip. In the middle of the excitement of the endeavor, a fight broke out and once again Alina and Mal escaped the grasp of The Darkling. In all this, they meet Captain Sturmhond and his crew. Tamar and Tolya are twin fighters who make a huge impression on Alina.
The Apparat has disappeared but sings Alina’s praises and is calling her a saint. The people of Ravka believe she can save their land and homes. So much so that two princes ask her to marry them. Not for love, obviously, because she loves Mal, but for power and show. This makes Alina more than a little uncomfortable because she, like anyone else in their right mind, feels she can’t live up to what they have made her out to be. Yes, she is the Sun Summoner but how is she supposed to repair the land, the kingdom, or anything?
The story moves quickly and the whole book is packed full of action and plot. Alina continues to change as her power level raises, new challenges arise, challenges she never dreamed of, and new responsibilities are heaped on her (some by her own doing). Some of those changes are downright scary. As she changes, her relationship with Mal changes as well. I can’t imagine coming into power in my mid-twenties (maybe?) and then being responsible for saving a whole nation. How would I have changed? How would that have changed my relationships with my friends or family? How would it have changed my relationship with my husband?
I read a lot of books with multiple POVs and Leigh writes these solely from Alina’s point of view which is nice. Sometimes in books with more than one POV, the change is jarring or it takes a minute to catch up and know who you are reading. Reading Alina’s story is a nice brain break while enjoying a book. Even reading the single POV is fine because there is so much going on you don’t get bored.
Surprisingly, with all the plot and action, the story isn’t overfull or rushed. It was hard to only read five chapters a week. As I said before, I read this with my SIL and so we have a predetermined amount of chapters to read so I overread a couple of times. Also like I said, I am antsy and irritable with the books because I want to know what is going to happen. I will be starting on the third book, Ruin and Rising, this week so I will have that review in a month or so.
Have you read this trilogy? Have you watched the show? What are your thoughts? I know there are a number of other books in the Grishaverse and I think we are going to work our way through those but not all in a row. That would be too much. I couldn’t read the whole Merry Gentry series one after another through the whole series either without reading something else for a bit. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. Until next time, have fun storming the castle!
