A review by marley_james
Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

5.0

This finale to the Shadow and Bone series exceeded all expectations. While I found the religion perspective interesting, I was glad when the beginning of the book didn’t dwell on it long. Bardugo then used her talent to create the band of friends on their mission to save the world, with the perfect combination of sass and crazy who talks to evil cats. (I’m so sorry to all the cat lovers out there) We got to see Nikolai continue to use his resources for good and being a hottie biscotti in the process, and had to see a tragic sacrifice of the character no one wants hurt. Bardugo has done what no author has for me before- leaving me with no clue which love interest to root for. And then, (apologies to the Darklina stans) this book tipped me into being team Malina. The friends to lovers journey took me by surprise by how I fell for it. To top it all off, Bardugo managed to incorporate three absolutely mind blowing plot twists in a row that left me breathless. Her ending was poetically perfect and moved me to tears. Bardugo perfectly wrote loss, love, and how to accept the consequences of a point of no forgiveness.