Siege and Storm (Shadow and Bone Trilogy #2) by Leigh Bardugo
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Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo is the second book in The Shadow and Bone trilogy. In this installment, Alina and Mal are both struggling with the weight of Alina’s growing powers. Alina decides to return to Ravka to help stop the Darkling, and though Mal begrudgingly agrees to join her, he’s unsure of his place in her new life. As Alina learns to harness her powers and take on the role of a leader, Mal is left questioning where, or if, he fits into her future. To make matters worse, Alina fears that in order to defeat the Darkling, she may lose herself in the process. I absolutely love this trilogy and can't wait to see how it concludes in the final book. Alina is a fantastic main character. Despite wielding immense power, she remains flawed and insecure, which makes her incredibly relatable. Her internal struggles and the weight of her decisions make her a more authentic hero—nothing comes easy for her, and that’s what I appreciate most. I also enjoyed the introduction of three new characters in this book. They added much-needed dynamics to the story, and I found them more likable than some of the returning Grisha characters. My only complaint is that I wish Alina didn’t love Mal quite as much. While I understand his motivations in this book, I still find him a bit frustrating. I would have liked to see Alina explore other romantic interests more seriously, and for Mal to work harder to win her affection back. This is more of a personal preference, but I feel that Alina, with her growth, deserves to be loved for who she is now, not just for who she was.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Whoo!
I have a lot of feelings about this book. The first few chapters were amazing. The action was amazing and I immediately fell in love with the new characters, **cough** Nikolai. The entire middle of the book was kind of boring, very tedious, and incredibly repetitive. It was, however, very interesting to see Alina's internal struggle with her new powers. She has a back and forth with herself regarding whether she should give herself to her power and let herself be consumed by it or if she should fight against and try to hold onto her old self. The last few chapters were really good, the action was top-tier and I was really engaged in it. Not sure how I feel about the ending, but I am really excited to read the last book in the trilogy.
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Lots of potential, dull characters
I was enjoying this book until I got up to the later half of the story. I will say this though - Nikolai was my favorite part of this book. The new characters introduced in this story were a lot more fun to read about than Mal and Alina. I'm a bit conflicted with how I feel about Alina, but I don't really like Mal's character. He's a bit too petty and I just don't feel the chemistry between him and Alina. This book seemed like it pitched a lot of ideas that will (hopefully) be explored in the third book, but because of that, it fell a bit dull and slow at times. I did, however, feel a lot more comfortable in the Grishaverse during this book. I guess the slow progression of the plot helped me understand the world more.
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Overall a great follow up from the first book!
Overall a great follow up from the first book! Things progress a little slower in this one but I still enjoyed it. Lauren Fortgang does an amazing job with the narration. She’s quickly becoming a favorite. I love the way she embraces each character and breathes life into them.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Not Much Better Than Shadow & Bone
This one wasn't much better than the first book; again, the first couple chapters are exciting, with quite a bit of action, and then not much happens after that. I have no idea how much time passed in this book; the main charaters weren't much better (Alina's narration just feels flat and uninteresting to me) - although I loved Sturmhond. Finally there is a character I can't wait to read about in the next book. This is definitely not my favorite series, and I'm pretty much only reading it to see what happens. I like the overall conflict (defeating the Darkling), but don't care for the other characters that much. I've heard that Six of Crows is a much better series, so I can't wait to get to that one. Again, this isn't a bad series by any means, just not my favorite, and didn't live up to the hype, in my opinion. Though the design of the physical book (covers, chapter headings, page markers, etc) is very nice.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Good Sequel
I love the new characters introduced in this book.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Exciting sequel!
Siege and Storm was an exciting sequel to Shadow and Bone. I liked the plot, the action and the addition of Sturmhond, Tamar and Tolya made things more interesting. I also liked Nikolai and his humor and I'm looking forward to reading more about him. A fascinating read! Can't wait for the next one.
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Has potential
At first when I was reading this book it felt a little boring to me. I could get into this book and read it in one sitting like Shadow and Bone. The only reasons why I finished this book is because I wanted to get to ruin and rising. This book had none of my favorite characters in it, and felt a little stretched. The beginning of this book had a some action at the start which I was not expecting.Towards the end of the book is where it really starts to get interesting. This book didn't have the wholesome moments between Mal and Alina like the first book had, and they had a lot of relationship problems, I don’t feel like they are right for each other. I felt like this is a more advanced introduction into the GrishaVerse. The plot twist in this book is better that Shadow and Bone. I didn't really care for Alina in this book because I felt like she got power hungry like the Darkling. This book still had a love triangle like Shadow and Bone but with different characters. I give this book a 4 out of 5 because of the potential this book has. I didn't really care for this book but I am exited to finish the last book to go onto the last book and then, the Six of Crows duology!
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com