By: Leigh BardugoPlot: Picks up where the first book left off. Alina and Mal are in hiding from the Darkling, but of course that can't last for long.
My thoughts: It had been a really long time (4 years almost) since I read the first book. I could remember bits and pieces of it but I found a pretty good synopsis online that filled in the blanks. I remembered I liked it too, so I'm not sure why it took me so long to keep going with the series. I was really in the mood to just read a young adult book and this hit the spot.
The beginning of the book started off pretty good. It was easy to get engrossed back into the world. I immediately liked "Sturmhold" even though that is the dumbest name. There were a lot of new characters too, which was good because I could hardly remember any old ones. Then in the middle it just slowed wayyy down. I remember thinking that nothing is really happening, but I was still enjoying the book, so that was kind of weird.
I'm so sick of the drama between Alina and Mal. She honestly didn't seem to care about him that much and cared more about leading her army. I really could see that relationship going either way, and I'm not invested enough to care. Also the fact that she kissed two other guys in the book did not bode well. Here's hoping Mal finds someone better for him in the last book.
It did definitely pick up there at the end and I was happy with how it ended. Middle books in a trilogy are usually the worst. The story has already been setup and you know the hero isn't going to be defeating the villain just yet, so they are usually just full of filler. The fact that I still liked the book even though it dragged so much speaks to the writing I think.
Rating: 3.5 Like I said, I enjoyed it, but nothing groundbreaking here. And I love the covers!