Back in July, I met a new friend on Instagram who was interested in reading the entire GrishaVerse series at the exact moment I was finding my way into them. We set off together on a reading adventure and flew through the first book. Shadow and Bone and immediately found ourselves into the second book. Siege and Storm. I spent nearly a month working through reading this one. I hadn’t planned to take that long to read it, especially when I got through the first one so quickly. But I also didn’t expect to run into such an emotional falling apart of the characters in this one.

In Book 1 I was captivated by The Darkling and all the ways in which Bardugo laid out the plot and characters. When you’re caught up in that fashion, a book can go by rather quickly. There were so many elements in the beginning that had me hooked and wanting to learn more about the world and every character in int.

But then we get to Siege and Storm and we already know most of the characters such as Alina and Mal, who are on the run from the Darkling and trying to hide. However, we do get to meet a handful of new characters such as the Grisha Tolya and Tamar. Alina and Mal are quickly captured at the start of Siege of Storm and brought back in only to be completely taken by surprise in the turn of events that happen with their own capture and their being handed over to The Darkling.

I really enjoyed the first 25% of this book with its fast paced action and unraveling of the plot. Right when I expected this story to get into a lot of depth and even despair, it felt like the brakes were slammed and the entire story transitioned into a crawling pace where I, the reader, was stuck inside Alina’s emotional turmoil of falling apart from the inside out. While I later determined that it was an important part of her story, it was difficult to get through for me because it just felt like it lacked a lot of action and was a much more emotional read than I was prepared for.

All the main characters seem to have shown their faults and tragic downfalls in this installment, which creates for a beautiful transition into the final piece of the puzzle, but also made for a heavy and , at many time, not-very-exciting read. Like I mentioned earlier, I had been expecting a lot more action going into this one so I kind of set myself up for disappointment. This is why it’s incredbily important to go into every read with open eyes and no expectations.

Regardless of all that, it was an impeccable read that set up things very nicely going into Ruin and Rising which I will be reading for the next few weeks with my buddy. This series as a whole, was exactly what I had hoped for in a new Fantasy read. Seeing as how I don’t venture out of my preferred genre too often, it’s always a nice breath of fresh air when I do find a series in the Fantasy genre that captures my attention and has me wanting for more.

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I would love to hear about your experience with these books! Have you read them? What did you think about them? Are you a fan of Bardugo? Why or why not?

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