Shadow and Bone

My vibes

It’s always a bit unnerving to start a new book when you are still suffering a bit of a hangover from your last series. Hence, why I was a bit nervous to start shadow and bone right after finishing the A Court of Thorns and Roses series. Additionally, I think by this point we’ve all probably seen the trailers on Netflix about the series they made about it. It was also highly recommended by a friend. With all that being said, this series low key had a lot to live up to. Fortunately, I had absolutely nothing to fear, and this book reached all of my expectations.

So this trilogy written by the magnificent Leigh Bardugo, and it is beautifully done. It is Young Adult, so the writing is a tad young, and there’s nothing really over PG13 in here, which is totally fine by me. In this series, we are in a world (with Russian roots) where there are people considered Grisha if they have the gift of magic, or small science, as it is referred to in the book. We’ve got ourselves a king, a darkling, some princes, a first army, a second army, and a protagonist who goes by Alina.

While I’m doing a terrible job explaining what this book, I’ll let you know that I like Alina. I honestly cannot handle when I hate the protagonist of a story, but I hung with Alina. I felt her pain, her struggles, her happiness, and her character growth. While there were a few “wtf are you doing pls stop” moments, I genuinely liked her and all of the other characters that Leigh Bardugo created.

The Russian culture was so fun and made for such a great setting, and I do love myself an interesting love story. The war aspect was also so good, and between that and the terminology, I felt myself really having to focus and pay attention, which I honestly like having to do….What can I say, I’ve been out of school a hot minute now and sometimes it’s nice to have the old brain working hard in there.

All in all, I would definitely recommend this series. The books go by fast, and I felt myself feeling a bit bummed having to let the characters go. That being said, I know this author has a few more series going that are in this universe, so I guess with that I’ll say “until next time, Ravka”.

PS. please let me know what you think if you’ve read the series! Would love to discuss! Also low key liked that I saw the trailer before reading the books, because I was able to picture the people as I saw them on screen. Does that make sense?

xoxo reb.