Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Ravka is divided by a creepy place of darkness called the Shadow Fold. The Shadow Fold is crawling with bloodthirsty creatures such as the volcra who eat humans. Plain Jane (and utterly boring) Alina Starkov crosses the Fold with her regiment and is attacked. Several people die but when her best friend is attacked, Alina manages to save him wiith a mysterious power she didn’t even know she had. (Can you tell how skeptical I am about Alina? Because I am really trying to hide it. She’s a sweet girl. Just very boring. And not smart. Anyway…)
Alina is sent to train as a member of the Grisha- a group of people with special powers. However, Alina isn’t just any Grisha. She is one of her kind and incredibly power. And her power could save Ravka.
This is all incredibly cliche but let’s go with it (you’ll see why in a minute). As Alina adjusts to her new life as a Grisha, she discovers that nothing is as it seems in her new home.
This was a great read but I didn’t think that the ending was much of an ending. It just felt kind of incomplete. It was like the story was pausing when I desperately needed more (thankfully I had the next book already). Definitely DO NOT read this unless you have the entire series. I’m currently dragging myself through the second book because I don’t want to finish it without having the last one with me.
This was a well-written book with an intriguing plot. Alina annoyed me with her obsession with Mal and their love story seems forced to me (I support another ship) but I’m hoping she’ll grow out of it with time.