Reviews

I enjoyed this book alot, I would recommend to anyone whos read the rest of tbe grishaverse and wants to know whats goung on in Ravka but I did think it was slow and times and the slow burn romance got on my nerves

Still a good book though

SPOILERS BELOW

I really enjoyed this book but is also just not as good as i thought it would be so im going to go over what I liked about this book and the series as a whole and what I feel let it down

Nikolai - Despite being a duology named for him I really felt like there just wasnt enough of him. I loved the bits we did get of him but it left me wanting more of his pov

Zoya- I loved her arc it made me actually like her and she showed growth, she became a very strong fmc and im so glad shes now queen, but I with it showed more of her exploring her new powers and her showing the other grisha that they are all things and that they may also be able to harness other grisha powers like Juras suggested all grisha can do if they know how.

Nina- I am happy but I don't get why she had to stay as Mila in a body she didnt like, surely she couldve went back to Nina and married Hanne/Rasmus as a Ravka/Fjerda alliance?
Also how is Hanne going to pull off being Rasmus in the long run? More insight to that wouldve been good

This book was long but also not much happened like there was a few big events but most was politics and plotting which I dont mind but it did feel very slow in parts

The call backs to Six of Crows and shadow and Bone were really fun and I really liked it setting up a possible 3rd SoC book!

Okay onto the bit that really annoyed me
The Darking he was brought back just to flounce about with a bunch of cultists then to martyr himself, it felt like a waste. I can understand the reason he sacrified himself but it just doesnt seem like something he would do, idk his story line just felt very bland and like he wasnt the same darkling from S&B

I did love that we had a Bi/pan main character, a trans secondary character whos story line of trying to find how they fit in their own body and the roles associated with their birth gender and the realisation that they fit better as a boy/man really spoke to me as a gender fluid person. I liked hiw Leigh done it and I resonated with it a lot amd felt very seen.

Zoya and Nina's dealings with grief were very well done I thought, Ninas helping others and changing herself to help her move through it and Zoyas almost complete opposite of building walls and shutting out everyone and lashing out were both good and showed different ways people deal with death.

Though on that I wish we couldve seen more of Genya dealing with the loss of David and just more Genya in general.

In all i enjoyed this book a lot, though I likely wont reread it.

georgialaws's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

drridareads's review against another edition

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2.0

★★

Stuff I liked:
• Okay I was wrong about Zoya and Nikolai and not wanting them to be together because holyshit do I like this.
description

• The cameo of Crows
• Even the cameo of Alina and Mal

Stuff I didn’t like:
• Hanne and Nina’s romance felt rushed
• The way Zoya was essentially a white/ Ravkan passing brown/Suli girl when I swear, I thought we already knew her to be Suli before this?
• The amount of powers Zoya had… where is the balance now?
• The cartoonifying of the Darkling he was a cool villain before this

starfleckedsoul's review against another edition

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5.0

I don't even have words anymore, that was amazing. Bye, I'm going to mope

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