Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

Read Dates: July 12, 2019 – July 20, 2019
Publication date: June 4, 2013
Source: Owned paperback

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Why can a Grisha possess but one amplifier? I will answer this question instead: What is infinite? The universe and the greed of men.

Alina, Mal, and the Darkling are back in the second installment of the Grishaverse. And if you thought there was a lot of traveling in the first book, you’re not ready for book two.
Mal and Alina have escaped the clutches of the Darkling and are living quiet lives in Cofton where they both have jobs and are saving up so they can make their way to somewhere where they feel they may be permanently safe. But they are soon found out and are sent spiraling into a new adventure with new creatures, new obstacles, new allies, and a lot of new information that will change the course of their lives forever.
Will Mal and Alina ever be free to live their lives quietly together without the Darkling’s interference? Will Alina choose duty over her best friend and the only person she’s ever loved? Will she find a way to balance the two? Or will Alina succumb to the temptation of this new found power she wields and lose herself completely?

Look, I know what you’re thinking, “There’s no way Alina and Mal AREN’T going to end up together and there’s no way the good guys AREN’T going to win in the end.” Well, my little pirozhki, buckle up because you just may be all kinds of wrong. (Spoiler free review ahead.)

Bardguo definitely makes for good reading. You think you know where things are going to go or what’s going to happen and you would be wrong. The author is relentless. She understands that in this world, not everyone can survive and some people will have to sacrifice much for the greater good of the rest. This is no fairy tale, ladies and gentlemen. This is a book full of magic, sacrifice, hardships, and pure evil. There’s no way to tell who you can trust and there are a lot of characters to question in this book.

The beginning started off with a bang. It was exciting. I wasn’t bored because I didn’t have time to be. There was so much going on. Ambushes, betrayals, allegiances were severed, daring rescues were made, the impossible (or improbable according to Sturmhond’s character) was achieved… THEY FLEW ON A BOAT LIKE FRIGGIN PETER PAN. IN THE FRIGGIN SKY.

I found the middle and meat of this book to be absolutely exhausting. There were SO MANY characters and it was hard to keep track of who was who and who had what kind of powers or if they were even Grisha at all. I grew a bit bored with the middle of this book as it was mostly Mal and Alina’s weird love story and a bunch of war planning. And also a lot of Alina being a total idiot. But I get that this is what the second book in most series contain. The first book sets up, the second book crashes down, and the third book resolves. (Hopefully.)

The ox feels the yoke, but does the bird feel the weight of its wings?”

Look, it took me a LONG TIME to begin to like the Darkling and that’s SUPER WEIRD and out of character for me. I always LOVE the villain. They are always my favorite character. He was all over the place at first. He wasn’t a straight up villain, he was teetering back and forth.

I like my villains tall, dark, and evil with no redeeming qualities and for a while he was giving himself all these redeeming qualities that I found myself rolling my eyes over. I’m just supposed to believe that he’s outright evil but I want to SEE IT. Let me FEEL the evil. Don’t tell me, “Oh, hey, this guy right here is baaaaad news. He’s evil. Trust me.” I don’t want to trust you. I want to see it and feel it for myself. I haven’t really had that yet.

I will say though, a lot of people had only one complaint about this book: it needed more Darkling. At first I was thinking “ughh, whatever”, now I’m on that same boat. Let me hop on that bandwagon. Because I’m telling you, if there had been more Darkling in this book, it may have gotten 4 stars instead of 3.

When I came to the end of the book I did have a few gasp and aha moments and it was full of action so I definitely wasn’t bored from like chapter 22 to the end. Of course, we were left with a cliffhanger. And of course, like any good second book, NOTHING has been resolved and everything is left to question. I’ll be curious to see where the author takes the story from here. I’m not going to even try and guess anymore at this point. Bardugo keeps throwing surprises my way and I love them.

You know the problem with heroes and saints, Nikolai?… They always end up dead.”