Shadow and Bone

The biggest issue with this book is actually NOT the utter fail at correctly incorporating the Russian elements into the story.It's that I'd never be able to pick this book out of a generic YA book lineup.It's like a ninja, perfectly blending into its surroundings, into that painfully generic landscape that plagues YA literature recently, the lackluster background against which few gems truly stand out. And gem this one is not.I think at this point there is a formula that many YA writers view as [...]

I don't think words can properly describe how much I adored SHADOW & BONE. The characters, the world-building completely blew me away. There were moments when I was so stunned by the beauty and the brilliance that I had to stop reading. I never wanted this book to end.This is the best YA fantasy novel I've read since SABRIEL or THE GOLDEN COMPASS.

(3.5) I really enjoyed this and I'm definitely going to be continuing on with this trilogy, but I did have a few issues with it. While I was fascinated by the world, but at the same time, I didn't feel like the world was fleshed out enough. We don't really get much world building, you're just kind of thrown into the world, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but for me there were things that I needed to be explained more for me to be able to fully visualize the setting. I also just wasn't a hug [...]

As seen on The Readventurer2.5 starsIt is alright, if you are into fantasy lite. I, on the other hand, am a little weary of this lightish, breezy and superficial entertainment. Give me something juicier, something more thoughtful, something more sophisticated.Shadow and Bone is a decent book. Bardugo's writing style is easy and engaging. The plot is developed enough to masquerade the fact that the biggest chunk of it is the usual boarding school fare with makeovers, mean girl drama, petty rivalr [...]

Check out the interview with Leigh Bardugo where she saves Kat Kennedy and I from Ninjas. True story. Also, there's a giveaway of a finished copy of Shadow and Bone!If I could wrap up my emotions about how I felt after reading Shadow and Bone and send them to you through my computer screen, I totally would. Instead, I'm afraid you'll have to settle for my words: THIS BOOK WAS AMAZING! I wish I could unread it just so I can go back and re-read it again for the first time.Yes, I loved it that much [...]

Damn you, Leigh Barduga. Damn you for tricking me.Leigh Barduga is like some kind of literary crouching tiger, hidden dragon or something.You would be forgiven, upon commencing this novel, for thinking Shadow and Bone is redundant, cliched piece of tripe book with poor story-telling, average writing and a predictable plot. People who haven't read countless Young Adult novels probably wouldn't notice the trends, but I did. This is what I thought and Leigh led me down the primrose path until BOOM! [...]

So many YA fantasy romances out there these days. You would think it would be hard to put a fresh spin on the concept, but Leigh Bardugo makes it look easy. Her debut Shadow and Bone takes Russian folklore and mythology and creates an alternate tsarist Russia (Ravka) where magic and military might coexist uneasily. Imagine a cross between Cashore's Graceling and Westerfeld's Leviathan . . . and yet Shadow and Bone is unique.Our main characters, Alina and Mal, grow up as orphans at the estate of [...]

4 StarsSo confession:I originally snagged this book after waiting so long to read it, because I was able to snag it on sale for $1.99 on amazon kindle. Halfway through reading it, I realized I was really enjoying it And I knew I would want to read the rest of the seriesAnd then I saw how pretty the covers wereAND they were cheaper than the kindle versions at the time of this review. So, of course, I bought the last two books in the physical. And of course, God forbid I have an unfinished set. Ge [...]

I went into this book with pretty low expectations. Everyone seemed to not love it and I wanted to read it just so I could get to the Six of Crows duology. Well turns out I really liked it!Not a fan of the romance/love triangle ish but the world is interesting and the magic system is awesome!Will definitely continue!

Please note: this is not really a review. In fact, this may be my most useless non-review to date (there have been a few) and is actually better described as a random mish-mash of my thoughts and feelings on this book. "Aren't all your reviews like that, Emily?" I hear you cry, but alas, the random incoherentness is somewhat even more pronounced in this one.You know, I've wondered ever since Shadow and Bone was released last year whether I would fall into the camp of gushing, never-ending love f [...]

Am I going to be crucified if I admit I may love this more than the Six of Crows duology? I think this may be due to the fact that I should have listened to everyone and started with these first. I was so confused initially in SoC that it took a lot longer than it should have for me to get sucked in. So far the grisha trilogy feels darker and more serious than SoC as well. I'm really liking Alina more than I have liked other female leads of recent and was pleased this book didn't end with her be [...]

I loved it from page one. One incredible journey.I’m going to tell you guys something: My first ever read in English was Throne of Glass and that was last September. I thought, with my knowledge of the English language (at that time) that picking a 400 page book up as a first read in English was going to work out well for me. ‘‘Piece of cake,’’ was what I told myself.Well, not exactly…I struggled with that book because of how the writing was, in my opinion, complex and all those new [...]

You're gonna question your moral compass, and you're gonna be happy about it.

People have been throwing 4 and 5 stars at this book left and right, and I wonder what I missed. I was prepared to give this book 2 stars, maybe even 3 if I was feeling generous on the day I wrote the review, but as I pushed myself through the first half of this book, I encountered increasingly more things that irritated me, until the one that pushed me over the edge and convinced me that I’d be okay with not ever finishing SHADOW AND BONE.It started out strong: atmospheric and engrossing. Pas [...]

See this review and more on bookbastion!Leigh Bardugo, you glorious, talented woman, you've done it again!Six of Crows captured my heart when I read it back at the end of January, yet this book took any established expectations I had and blew them out of the water! I know it's kind of a weird opinion, but I ended up enjoying this slightly more than SoC. I do think this is entirely my fault, as I'm now convinced that I should have read this series first! If you're wondering where to start, do you [...]

The Darkling: The Art of Seduction "Fine, make me your villain" @ the Darkling:Plot Rundown:Girl is a special snowflake and she never knew. Accidentally uses her power.Deny, deny, deny. In comes hot stuff, The Darkling and the MC is all:MC crying over childhood crush who wont reply to her letters. "I'm not powerful"*insert unneeded jealous mean girl*More MC brooding."You got it wrong""Why bother"*dramatic "I have no one" moment*And then:*Kissing*MC mooning over guy like:**PLOT TWIST** It's no se [...]

HA! Just kidding. This isn't your fifth-grade English paper, darling.You don’t get points for trying.See, to me, YA is like the BIG LEAGUES when it comes to book genres.In YA… you have to be able to tell a story. And you have to do it really well. Because in this genre, you can’t rely on those really steamy sex scenes or hot business moguls with BDSM skeletons in their closet to carry your series. And you can’t use an infinite amount of those really pretty curse words to get your point a [...]

“I missed you every hour. And you know what the worst part was? It caught me completely by surprise. I'd catch myself just walking around to find you, not for any reason, just out of habit, because I'd seen something that I wanted to tell you about or because I wanted to hear your voice. And then I'd realize that you weren't there anymore, and every time, every single time, it was like having the wind knocked out of me. I've risked my life for you. I've walked half the length of Ravka for you, [...]

Im IMPRESSED, is what i am!!!!!! I've had this book sitting on my book shelf for ages now, and just hadn't had the time to pick it up. after seeing all the fuss over Leigh Bardugo's new book, (which i also have idly sitting on my shelf), i decided i should read shadow and bone, and as mentioned previously, I'm impressed! This is an instant YA attraction. It's a typical fantasy YA with just enough action, the perfect romance, dancing around a fast paced plot and smooth eloquent writing. The chara [...]

There was only one part in the book I didn't care for and took a star off so there you go. The rest of the book was pretty good. I enjoyed the characters and the different story lines. It seemed like it ended too soon or maybe I have been reading too many BIG books lately. Alina and Mal had been orphans together for years until it was time for them to do their own thing. But, there is a secret about Alina and she goes from ordinary to extra-ordinary in the blink of an eye. < -- blink of an ey [...]

4 stars! (Though, let's be honest, Mal alone almost made this a 0.25/5 star rating, because screw Mal.) Let me start off by saying that I enjoyed this book and am really excited to start the next title, especially because many people have told me that Bardugo's books get even better as you get further in. That said, here's why I didn't give it a 5 stars like I initially thought I would: I wasn't crazy about the big "twist" regarding a few characters towards the end of the book, and I will admit [...]

**Update 5/14/16 I feel like my original review just needed to say more about my heart for this book so I'm rewriting this review. If I could give this series 6 stars or 7 or 8. I would. One of my ALL time favorite series. I get so sad when I see people totally skipping this to go to Six of Crows (which I loved, don't get me wrong.) True, it isn't for everyone but my gosh it is a work of art. I love everything about this series. (Ps I'll say it again, but I HIGHLY recommend the audiobooks for en [...]

At some points, this could be a little slow, but there is a point in the story where everything turns on its head and I fell in love! (Also a little in love with the Darkling)

My first finished book of 2017, I am so pleased that I've finally read this. I've wanted to read a book like this for so long, I can't explain it. Where your hands are itching to read it (but I had work so couldn't) any break I had it out and was reading it, just hopelessly wanting to find out what happened next!What I liked most about the book, is that I didn't really find it to have filler scenes. I know there was a lot of scenes in woods and what not, however that was needed for the book.My g [...]

HOLY MOLLY THIS WAS SO SO SO GOOD.The characters. The world-building. The twists. The mess that occurred at the end. All of them gripped my attention and left me wanting more.The story might be a little slow-burn in the beginning, but I honestly didn't have any trouble with it. It could be that I had an advantage because I read SoC before this and all the terms didn't feel like info-dump so I was able to breeze by the pages. But at the same time, I also feel like I would have enjoyed this book a [...]

So, I originally passed this book over for reasons*, but after hearing such great things about Six of Crows, I decided to give this another look. And I'm kinda glad I did.We have Alina, whose Grisha power is something about sunlight.In order to amplify her power, Alina must find a magical stag.And she has to face a villain who controls tendrils of darkness.And there is some action on skiffs.Also, there's this paragraph, which is pretty nice:*Reasons: I'm not a fan of a lot of the words. Most of [...]

Because words won't do, THIS is my review of Shadow and Bone:Hmph, and what has Ms Bardugo to say? LOL. (Your tears only make me stronger.) RT @sazbah: My review of @lbardugo's Shadow and Bone #WhenWordsWontDo twitter/sazbah/status/…— Leigh Bardugo (@LBardugo) February 19, 2013

◇First of all this is somewhere between 3 1/2 and 4 stars. ◇Second of all this is nothing like Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom and I was actually surprised that this book was written by Leigh Bardugo bc it was so different! *I didn't read this before SoC and CK.*◇Third of all The Darkling and I are getting married and you all are invited. Pls try to wear black, my husband and I would love it. I went into this book not knowing what the heck it was about. I didn't even have any high expecta [...]

Ok, I’m going to finally try to explain my UNDYING LOVE FOR THIS AMAZING WORLD… calmly. Yes.This time last year I read a couple books each month, but didn’t really get too into anything. Then I picked this book up and… was done with the trilogy in 2 days. This series made me love YA fantasy & start book blogging, so it will always be a favorite! I did go into this story knowing absolutely nothing, though, so maybe just ignore the hype and have fun. I really like light fantasy books w [...]

O. Mah. Gah.Leigh Bardugo, you fucking liar. You're no human. You're a Grisha with the talent to write like a fucking goddess.It was 4th of July when I really started reading this. I mean, I'd read like 30 pages the days before, and I'd liked it, but it wasn't until Independence Day that I was hooked. I went to this party at my cousin's house with an in-ground pool, sweets, horror movies, Sparklers, and even a fucking pinata. You know what I did at that party?I did not swim.I did not stuff mysel [...]