Reviews with content warning for Animal death - Siege and Storm

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Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

89 reviews

lavenderbluestories's review against another edition

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adventurous dark fast-paced

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

4.5

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shaylee_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous tense 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? No

2.0

Ratings:

Plot:⭐⭐/5

Writing:⭐⭐⭐/5

Characters:⭐⭐⭐/5

Romance:⭐/5

Diversity:⭐⭐⭐/5

Overall:⭐⭐⭐ /5

Tropes: Friends to lovers

This book took me so long to get through! The reason for that was that this book was so SLOW! I was about 200 pages into this book and I felt like nothing had happened and I felt like I was still in the beginning of the book, not in the middle. I just felt like nothing was happening and this book could have been cut in half.

Another thing I disliked was Mal… just Mal. He got on my nerves so much in this book, to me he was a very manipulative, gaslighting person who made everything about himself and made Alina feel guilty for wanting to help people. He gaslighted Alina so much in this book! He made her feel like everything that was going wrong in their relationship was her fault and that she should change to make him happy and not be herself and it PISSED me off. Don't even get me started on the whole Zoya thing!!

Another thing I'm not feeling Alina and Mal's relationship, it feels so forced and like we are supposed to believe that they are deeply in love but we don't ever see that because they barely spent any time together. Honestly Alina seemed to be so in love with him and wanting to be with him so much but Mal didn't seem to feel the same, he gave me so much F-boy vibes… like he was only pretending to care about her so he could get into her pants. I'm just not convinced in their relationship.

Another thing is that The Darkling is supposed to be this monster but it's now really shown.. we are told that he is this terrible person but nothing he does seems to back it up. I'm not saying that he's not a terrible person because he is, I'm just saying that we are being told that he is this terrible person instead of being shown that he is.

One thing I loved was Nikolai! He was amazing! Carried this book in his back! I'm in love with him and he saved this book.

All together I enjoyed this book but it just wasn't as good as the first book and it was kinda a let down but I'm excited to finish the trilogy.

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mustnotblink's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad tense 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? No

4.0

While the first book of the trilogy set up the universe Siege and Storm upped the anti and took no prisoners. There is a lot of death, shifting alliances, and revealing of untruths between moments of hope.

If the first book was about Alina figuring out who she was then this volume was about her struggle to accept/follow through with her destiny. More players are added to the board and bring with with them their own complications as Alina tries to figure out how to save Ravka.

One of my favorite things is that

despite Nikolai entering in the picture it never falls into the girl caught between two love interest tropes. Alina is very clear with where her regard lies, even if she has to consider other options.

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bootsmom3's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

4.0

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margueritestjust's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

This book is definitely a stronger novel than its prequel. That being said, I really don't remember much of what happened in this book after reading its sequel, which is probably why I should have written this before reading the final book in this trilogy. That being said, let's get into it.

The character work is much stronger and the author makes bolder choices concerning the morality of the main character, which I enjoyed a lot more. I had some issues with the pacing of this book, especially since the middle is one giant yawning blank spot in my memory, but again, overall, a better venture than the first book. The beginning of the book was perhaps the most frustrating part for me - technically I guess it's not really spoilers but also? Idk, I'll tag it anyways.

It seemed like there was no point to Mal and Alina having escaped from the Darkling at the end of the first book. There wasn't any growth to their characters during the maybe one chapter where they were free in Novyi Zem. The Darkling got to them again and then there were in the exact same spot they'd been at the end of the first book. Also, I'm a little mad that the hunt for the second amplifier took literally only 1 week, and it was accomplished before the first third of the book was even over. Like...okay. Glad it was that easy to find the magical grail you needed so that your main character doesn't have to actually work for her magic. As for Stormhond being Nikolai, I already knew due to him being in Crooked Kingdom and having read that first but it didn't bug me too much.

Everyone raves about Nikolai and I am glad to say that they are right. While he does seem a bit too perfect, I like how calculating he is. Nikolai really did carry so much of this book. Plus, the man gives me strong Sir Percy Blakeney vibes, which I'm always going to adore. The love square or whatever Alina has got going on I could without, though. I can't wait for the show viewers who haven't read the books all fall into chaos again when he gets introduced into the show and all the Darklina shippers and Malina shippers get to now have to contend with the Nikolina(???) shippers. Weirdly enough, I think that the Darkling and Alina's ~romantic~ dynamic was the most interesting, which I rarely feel considering that I generally dislike the whole enemies/lovers type thing whenever it crops up in books. I think that Alina's descent into more moral greyness made this a lot more possible as they ended up becoming a foil to each other, and I do hope that that crops up in the show. Who knows, though. Also I really can't stress how much of this book was a love square and even Vasily proposed marriage; that's when I really started to lose it. A shame that so much of the good character work happens when there's a love square going on. Also, Zoya and Alina's continued conflict was so forced.

Everyone also dislikes Mal in this book, and yeah, I can see it. I think Alina annoyed me more, though. It's particularly the whole "I never asked for this responsibility" thing, which was not quite as much of a crime as it has been in other media *cough cough*Clarke Griffin in The 100*cough cough*, but it's one of my very personal pet peeves in fiction.

One of the really good things that I got out of this book was insight into my own writing, so that was nice.

Again, I'd really just say that this book is an improvement, but not a whole lot happens. I should have written this review while I still remembered the contents.

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