Title: Shadow and bone, The Grisha.
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Publisher: Indigo
Rating: 4.1 stars
Brief summery: 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. 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.
Thoughts in a sentence:
Kathy: (she didn't read it because she is lazy)
Bee: outstanding descriptions, backed up with solid characters and plot.
Review:
In this trilogy, Leigh Bardugo has created such a vast and mesmerising world, it is utterly epic and but totally believable. I thought this world could go down as one of my favourite fantasy worlds. I got a very medieval with Russian buildings vibe through out this whole series. But especially in this first book, the world is created so slowly and meticulously the world become almost vivid and real to you. The only thing that i found a little challenging was all the made up words there were allot of them, and i struggled to remember them all. Maybe an little glossary would have been nice at the back of the book.
At first we meet Alina as a child in an orphanage so we get her background without it being forced on to us to try to make background. Then we meet her again as a new member of the first army. In is book she gets a huge character arch she goes from a crying little girl to a powerful woman attempting to defeat the darkling. The thing that most people talk about when they talk about this series is the love interests. In this first book there is the darkling and her best friend Mal. Mal is a handsome strong man, he is normal and everything she recognises as home. When the darkling turns up a whisks her off the a whole new world. She cant help be drawn to his power, and gracefulness. Its a great love triangle. And everyone has there opinion on who alina should chose.
The plot of this book was very good, although i do draw links between shadow and bone and a throne of glass by Sarah j.mass to me in my head the castles are the same and i feel they have were similar characters. So i feel they are very similar. As far as shadow and bone setting up its new series it was a solid first book that can only progress into a huge new ya fantasy world. The book did come full circle and we got some closure at the end of this book so it wasn't really a cliff hanger but still made me want the sequels. Overall i thought this book was amazing a great introduction to ya fantasy and this series, absolutely one of my favourite books i have read this year.
This is definitely a must read for all, and if you haven't already you need to pick this up and read it.
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May the odds be ever in you favour
Love Bathy
xxx
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