Dear Aly,
I finally finished the Grisha books by Leigh Bardugo just in time for the release of the final book, Ruin and Rising.
In the second installment, Siege and Storm, we find Alina and Mal on the run from the Darkling (again haha). They do have to team up with him to find the second amplifier, the sea whip. This mythical creature lives in a dangerous part of the ocean, only accessable with many Grisha and a lot of luck. They actually do find the sea whip and Alina kills it, but they find an unlikely ally in the privateer the Darkling hired to take them out to sea. Again, Alina and Mal have to go on the run. This particular book focuses a lot on the relationship between Alina and Mal, and how it’s basically falling apart. Alina is Grisha, Mal is not, so that makes loving each other very hard, since Mall will die before Alina. Mal struggles a lot with his feelings and the tension between them gets kind of annoying. We’re gonna call this second-book-syndrome because it just seems like this happens a lot in the second book of a trilogy (ahem Divergent and Shatter Me).
The third and final book, Ruin and Rising comes out today, June 17, 2014!!! I was able to get my hands on the collector’s edition from Barnes & Noble. Ruin and Rising has a lot of action. There’s a lot of great Alina/Darkling interactions, and I really felt happy with the way the Darkling’s character was developed. He’s still a disillusioned, self aggrandizing dude, but we see a more vulnerable side of him as well. Mal and Alina become stronger, although Alina is faced with the hardest decision she’ll ever have to make. I felt the ending was satisfying, it wrapped up the series in a great way, and didn’t leave me wondering about anything. You can check out all my thoughts on this in my Krypton Radio review.
Again, I’m going to mention the amazing world building, because it’s, well… amazing. Leigh Bardugo managed to create a whole new language as well as a world. Her Grisha are well ordered and their ranks are easy to understand. I was really impressed with all the work she did.
Overall, AMAZING series. If you love YA high fantasy, please check out the Grisha Trilogy, you won’t be disappointed!
Happy reading,
Zoe
FromAtoZBooks 