Title: Siege and Storm
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Type: Fiction
Genre: Fantasy, YA
Publisher: Square Fish
Date published: June 4, 2013
Format: Paperback
Page Count: 496
Source: Library

Summary: Darkness never dies.

Hunted across the True Sea, haunted by the lives she took on the Fold, Alina must try to make a life with Mal in an unfamiliar land, all while keeping her identity as the Sun Summoner a secret. But she can’t outrun her past or her destiny for long.

The Darkling has emerged from the Shadow Fold with a terrifying new power and a dangerous plan that will test the very boundaries of the natural world. With the help of a notorious privateer, Alina returns to the country she abandoned, determined to fight the forces gathering against Ravka. But as her power grows, Alina slips deeper into the Darkling’s game of forbidden magic, and farther away from Mal. Somehow, she will have to choose between her country, her power, and the love she always thought would guide her–or risk losing everything to the oncoming storm.

The world and magic becomes more complex than in the first book, and the plot also thickens!

Firstly,  I would like to state that I am aware that this is the middle book in a trilogy, and that these books tend to sound a little off, or feel slower, as they set up the final climax before the end of the series. And I also know that suck books must be difficult to write.

And now that that is out of the way, I would like to say that I did enjoy this book overall, although not as much as the first book. One of the reasons for this is, you guessed it, the slow pacing of the first half of the book. There were things happening during the first half of the novel, but I still felt a little bored despite this. I’m not sure why that was, except that I felt like the book wasn’t giving me something that I needed (even though I couldn’t point out what it was that was missing). It could have to do with how the end of the first book, Shadow and Bone, left me kind of needing something to begin with.

One thing this mysterious need of mine could be is more romance. I have been missing that within the books I’ve been reading lately, and this could then have carried over into my readings of Shadow and Bone as well as Siege and Storm.

That aside, however, the other reason why I did not enjoy this book as much as the first one is because of the main character. She was mildly frustrating in the first book, but became increasingly more so within the second. So as not to spoil anything from within Siege and Storm, I’ll just say that some of her decisions, and the way she handled certain things, made me very angry at times.

What I did really like about this book was the overall plot, the introduction of new and interesting characters, and the magic and world overall. I am very very in love with Ravka and its surrounding countries, and I am very happy that I have one more book left from this series, as well as Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom which are still set in this world, because I am not ready to say goodbye yet. I’m really hoping that Bardugo’s next series also takes place in this world!

I like that in this book, I was able to learn more about the overall world, other than Ravka, geographically as well as culturally. The new characters which were introduced are also very interesting and dynamic! And I cannot wait to read more about them, as well as the main cast, in the third book.

I find that the dialogue didn’t bother me as much as it did in the first book, also, which may be because I either got used to it, or this book actually contained less present-time colloquial speech. In addition, I also really liked that I was unable to predict the ending, which is always a bonus for me!

Overall a very fun read, and Bardugo’s imagination continues to impress!

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THANK YOU FOR READING MY REVIEW! HAVE YOU READ SIEGE AND STORM BY LEIGH BARDUGO? WHAT DID YOU THINK? AND IF YOU HAVEN’T READ IT YET, DO YOU WANT TO, OR NOT? HOWCOME?

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