Shadow and Bone (series) by Leigh Bardugo
*I thought I had a picture of book one but I don’t. So enjoy this photo of book two instead*
This isn’t a series I talk about very often as I had quite a love hate relationship with it. I adored book one but the second one really wasn’t for me. This was probably because it took me such a long time to get into it. However, I do think this is a really good series. Six of Crows is easily Leigh Bardugo’s best series but Shadow and Bone is still great.
I’m a big fan of elemental magic in books, probably from watching Avatar The Last Airbender a lot as a kid, so the world of the Grisha is so interesting to me. Technically it isn’t magic, but ‘small science’, which is a really cool way of describing it.
I’d originally said I didn’t like Alina very much but after the show adaptation I really like her. The Darkling is still the best character though. That’s not me excusing everything he’s done, I’m not one of those weirdos that can’t see how manipulative and terrible he is just because he’s hot, he’s the worst but he’s also the most interesting character.
Weirdly, I only reviewed the third book in this series for some reason. I don’t think I was blogging when I started Shadow and Bone as I’d left years between books – something I really need to stop doing with series.
Synopsis: 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.
These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong
This book will always be special to me as it was one of the first ARCs I ever received. I’m also a huge fan of imaginative retellings and this is probably one of the best. If a retelling of Romeo and Juliet set in 1920 Shanghai with rival gangs and a mysterious madness running riot in the city doesn’t interest you, I don’t know what to say.
I love the twists on the classic tale and how the author changed Juliet from being a love sick teen that literally kills herself for a boy, to a leader of a gang that really makes Roma work for it. She’s such an interesting character, as are the side characters. People liked the side characters so much that there’s a sequel series about Rosalind.
I’m yet to read the second book, which I know, it’s been out for years now. However, I’m the queen of putting things off and I just can’t bring myself to read it. I know I’ll love it but I’m not ready for the heartbreak that I know is coming.
Synopsis: The year is 1926, and Shanghai hums to the tune of debauchery.
A blood feud between two gangs runs the streets red, leaving the city helpless in the grip of chaos. At the heart of it all is eighteen-year-old Juliette Cai, a former flapper who has returned to assume her role as the proud heir of the Scarlet Gang—a network of criminals far above the law. Their only rivals in power are the White Flowers, who have fought the Scarlets for generations. And behind every move is their heir, Roma Montagov, Juliette’s first love…and first betrayal.
But when gangsters on both sides show signs of instability culminating in clawing their own throats out, the people start to whisper. Of a contagion, a madness. Of a monster in the shadows. As the deaths stack up, Juliette and Roma must set their guns—and grudges—aside and work together, for if they can’t stop this mayhem, then there will be no city left for either to rule.
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