Shadow and Bone review

Shadow and Bone
by Leigh Bardugo
Paperback
372 pages
published: May 7^th 2013
My Rating: 4 stars
Synopsis:

Alina Starkov doesn’t expect much from life. Orphaned by the Border Wars, she is sure of only one thing: her best friend, Mal–and her inconvenient crush on him. Until the day their army regiment enters the Fold, a swath of unnatural darkness crawling with monsters. When their convoy is attacked and Mal is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power not even she knew existed.

Ripped from everything she knows, Alina is taken to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling. With Alina’s extraordinary power in his arsenal, he believes they can finally destroy the Fold. Now Alina must find a way to master her untamed gift and somehow fit into her new life without Mal by her side. But nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. As the threat to the kingdom mounts and her dangerous attraction to the Darkling grows, Alina will uncover a secret that could tear her heart–and her country–in two.

My thoughts:

I need to talk about this first, how gorgeous are these chapter markers?!

They are beautiful! I love the elaborate design, I am just astounded at how much went into the visual aesthetics of these books and I could stare at them all day.

I have been waiting so long to read this, the entire trilogy has been on my shelf since April and I’m just now getting to this series.
It’s about time.
You can’t just rush these things.

I was intrigued about this story from the get-go, as soon I read the description on Amazon I knew I had to have it and read it.

I’m still not sure what I think about this just yet, don’t get me wrong I really liked, just when I try to think critically about it, I’m not sure what I think.  I wish the world building had been constructed a little better I was a little confused about some of the settings, but that did clear up pretty quickly. I also didn’t really understand a lot of the terms used, but I was able to figure them out eventually.

Other than that I liked the world, I really liked all the Russian settings and themes with the clothes and names. I wasn’t really impressed with Alina much, her redeeming qualities saved her in my eyes since I liked her wit and sarcasm and her rebellious streaks that she had, but she is one tough girl, I will give her that after her mountain adventure.

The Darkling, I really don’t know what I think about him just yet, when I had first heard about the book and the story I wasn’t told much about him and for some reason I just thought that he was an essence that had taken over the land. ( Kind of like Orphan Queen and the wraiths that took over the land)

So I was shocked to discover that he was a person. I can’t quite figure out if I like him as a villain or not, I’m pretty picky about villains, and when I like a villain I like them to be outright villainous, no trying to be nice, not trying to be good, or trying to be seen as good. I like villains that embrace their darkness and reveal in it.

From what I’ve read so far, Shadow and Bone and like 80 pages of Siege and Storm, I’m really liking it so I’m excited to continue on with the series.