Reviews with content warning for Blood - Siege and Storm

Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

141 reviews

neko_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional slow-paced

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

2.75

2.75
After actually liking shadow and bone I was so disappointed by this book.

First let’s start with the positives: the twins and nickolai. And also parts of Alina and Mals relationship
So we all know, mal is an asshole in this book but it’s actually justified. Alina completely fails to communicate with him, especially when she starts seeing the darkling, and while I understand why she didn’t tell I still hate it lol.

Now speaking of the romance, nickolai. Great character, love him, but I can’t help thinking that I think he would have been better if he was just sturmhond. Still a very interesting character though and hes great. But I don’t like the romance between him and Alina. The love triangle sucks

Still on the subject of romance, the darkling and Alina, absolutely not. The darkling is a super evil mass murderer and manipulates Alina for what he wants. I will say it again but I mean he also called himself the darkling. If that’s not cringe I don’t know what is.

To me mal and Alina is the only romance of the book, there just needs to be more communication because seriously.

Now the twins. AMAZING CHARACTERS. Their loyalty, their power and skill, just everything. Need I say more?

Now moving onto plot, honestly I wasn’t really interested most the time. It’s pretty meh to me.

Overall an ok book

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ularoyal's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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louise_outthere's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

It took me 9 months to get through the first half... It's very long to read, Alina is boring... why is Mal still alive? Thankfully by the page 300 it became interesting. If it wasn't for Nikolai I'd rate the book 2 stars only. Nikolai is by far the only one that kept me reading. Maybe developing a bit more Vasily's character would have been a great idea.
The first book was amazing, I'm kind of disappointed by this one. Still want to read the third one I heard it was way better!

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trintrin's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

NIKOLAI LANTSOV!!!!! How does your back feel after carrying this entire book, sir? I know I cannot legally give any book featuring Nikolai Lantsov less than 5 stars but Mal is starting to annoy me so points taken off :(

I love that Alina is becoming a much stronger character but she still kinda relies on men to feel like she matters and I hope she changes in the next book. It's so refreshing to read about her not-so-moral thoughts ~~like her firebird cravings for example~~. I still have hope for Mal to change but he's really insecure and that gets on my nerves. Tamar, Tolya and Zoya are super cool and David too ig. I wanted to see more of the Darkling and Genya but they barely got any scenes ;-;

Let's talk about Alina's love interests. Okay I admit Darklina is hot but nahhh ain't no way I'm gonna ship them that dude is an ancient fossil and he's evil on top of that. Nikolai seems too good to be true and even though I love him, I don't think him and Alina would make a good pair. There was a part where I thought Leigh was gonna kill Mal off (maybe even hoped that would be the case) but that didn't happen and I'm not sure if I like it or not. Because out of the options Mal would be the best fit and they're most likely gonna end up together but I still wish things were a little different. Maybe if Mal was just a little more likeable or maybe if Alina and Nikolai fit together a little better but oh well.

Some parts of the book felt like it's repeating scenes from the first one. ~~like the sea whip or the Alina v. Darkling at the end and the way she tricked him sort of??~~ The middle part dragged a little but over all I think I like this one more than the first. Leigh's writing is as beautiful as ever and it's a page turner for sure.

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beckyyreadss's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I wanted to read this book due to the Netflix series that is being made. And I am really late to reading these . . . as always. This book disappointed the hell out of me.

This book starts right where it ended. Alina is being hunted across the True Sea, haunted by the lives she took on the Fold. Alina is trying to make a life with Mal in an unfamiliar land. She finds starting new is not easy whilst keeping her identity as the Sun Summoner a secret. She can’t outrun her past, or her destiny for long. The Darkling has emerged from the Shadow Fold with a new power that is terrifying and a dangerous plan that will test the boundaries of the natural world. With the help of a notorious privateer, Alina returns to the country she abandoned, determined to fight these forces gathering against Ravka. But as her power grows, Alina slips into the Darkling’s game if forbidden magic and further away from Mal. Somehow, she will have to choose between her country, her power and the love she always thought would guide her.

This book dragged. It was so disappointing. Mal drove me mental but so did Alina. I think they were just both too self-centre and this book made me understand why everyone obsesses over the Darkling, he made the book so much more interesting. I was so bored trying to wait for the big action or reveal, it was just a lot of Alina’s thoughts which aren’t interesting. I usually hate love triangles, but I felt like this book needed a love triangle, just to give it some complex and drama. I think the bit with Genya was completely rushed and I wanted more of a development with her or a hero arch or something. This book was lacking a lot and could have been chopped by 100 pages and it wouldn’t have missed anything.

If this book was the first one of the series, I probably wouldn’t have carried on with the series, but I must finish the series just to see hopefully more of the tension between Alina and the Darkling.

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nmtthews's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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rose_88's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Didn’t like this one as much as the first. I loved all the new characters and how they felt with the aftermath of the fist book, but I felt that it went way too fast, with very little descriptions of what they were doing, especially near the end, and it was more like ‘they did this and then they did this.’ Like they were rushing to get to the final battle, very repetitive of the first book where they sped through a lot of action and events to get to the final confrontation.

I really liked Mal in the fist book, but I didn’t like how he handles things in this one. I understand that he felt out of place in the Little Palace, but he was very dramatic about it and didn’t even try to talk to Alina till his rage had boiled over.

I really liked everything in the beginning on the True Sea and the ships, I really wish there had been more about Nikolai’s crew. Speaking of the crew, I really liked Tolya and Tamar, their beliefs about Alina being a Saint came out of no where for me, looking back I can see the snippets of it littered thoughout.

I ADORED Nikolai, and I thought he would have been a much better King than his brother, and was super confused as to how he would become king (I don’t know if he actually does but I hope so) and his brother’s death was just horrifying. Basically all the death and destruction from when the Darkling attacked the Palace was horrible and WTF it was mental.

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onefineelephant's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

8/10. Alina and Mal are both annoying and I don't like them but because they are so annoying, they deserve each other because neither one should be subjected onto anyone else. With that being said, I love Nikolai even if he is a little sh*t. I also really enjoy the twins. I liked how this book had more of a plot than the first one did. Also, I feel like this one was more rich and had more depth than the first one. The ending was jarring but not entirely terrible.

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talasterism's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

0.5

what a terribly boring book!! literally he only upside is enniegossip the rest sucks ass. why was there so little plot? why did we have to experince plot happening in the background? the only drama there was was only of the fucking love angles so wide we have its a circle again. fucking hate aline

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saoreads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Even after all that drama, the heroine was back to square one and it seemed like the story was just repeating like a never-ending cycle. Someone must have loved the villain too much, because reading this can become exhausting after a few chapters. Affairs, way too many affairs, yet it was obvious the characters were set, though it wouldn't miss the chance to make it tiresome to read at some point. There's the drag of influence and the point of view of Alina, who simply can't make up her mind, which adds up to make you vex over it. So far, there haven't been any notable characters to recall, which is a bit disappointing. For the nth time, the continuing chapters were simply dragging. Reading the midmost parts felt like a chore, sadly. For the sake of honing the character, it's unbelievable how there's a crowd of love lines just for one person. Though it was a good read overall, it's not something I'd happily consume for a day.

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