Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

Series: The Grishaverse #1
# of Pages: 358
Publication: June 5th, 2012
Source: Personal Copy
Genre: Fantasy
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Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee. Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling. Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha . . . and the secrets of her heart.

This book! I’m at a loss for words about the level of awesomeness that I found on every single page of this book. It had been on my TBR for a while; however, it took me until the end of this year to get through it. It was AMAZING! The characters, the plot, everything just flowed perfectly. I thought there would be elements of the book that I did not enjoy; however, everything just worked out perfectly.

Alina Starkov is a great lead character. She has flaws and she makes a great amount of mistakes; however, in making these mistakes she tries her hardest to make sure they are fixed or rectified. I admired how strong she was in every situation that she encountered. I could not imagine being ripped from my only home and the only person I have loved and then being forced to adapt to a completely new environment. I enjoyed being immersed in her thoughts. A character that threw me off was definitely the Darkling. I won’t go into all the details affiliated with his character; however, I will say that I completely enjoyed him in the beginning and hated him by the time I got to the end of the book. He’s a disgusting Grisha. If you’ve read the book then you know exactly what I’m talking about. Mal; however, was a dream. My heart throbbed for him and I can’t wait to see his role in future books.

Another interesting aspect of this book was definitely the magic system associated with the Grisha. I found their capabilities to be interesting, but troubling. It took me a while to understand and realize that their powers essentially threw them into a caste system where characters like Genya were looked down upon. I want to know more about this system and how all of the Grisha work together. It took me a while to keep up with the names of all the different types of Grisha, but now that I have the hang of it I want more. And Bardugo’s writing was perfect. I’ve read some things that she has written in anthologies and I have always thought that her writing was beautiful. This book is no exception.

If you’ve never heard of this series then I definitely recommend you checking it out. It was fast-paced and so fun and entertaining. I can’t wait to dive in the next book in the series.