4.5 stars

This book took me a while to read (thanks to my reading schedule) and so my thoughts are kind of all over the place. Overall I enjoyed it - every sentence that brought me back into the Grishaverse made me insanely giddy because this is a world I never have been able to shake.

I’ll be honest; there wasn’t a lot of fast paced action. This book shows how; even after the war is won and victories are celebrated... a happy ending is not guaranteed. We are shown and dark and twisted time where there are many evils lurking and no easy answers or solutions. Leigh’s words are like poison wrapped in honey; I was easily swept in by the favorite characters, to be shown a dark side that I hadn’t imagined.

When the story started curving back toward the Darkling I have to admit I got very excited. The Darkling is my all time favorite villain and to be honest I would love to see his evil face returned. He was such a complicated character and his depth could really add to this intensely changing time in Ravka. But at the same time, of course I just want peace between the different countries and for Nikolai to succeed as the king.

I knew that I was excited to see Nina again, even though I knew she probably wouldn't be happy and her wounds still raw. I loved learning about her new powers and following her as she risked it all to save Grisha. I was surprised by how much I adored Zoya. She is the strong female warrior we always needed (and there are a lot of amazing women in the Grisha-verse don't get me wrong). But she is independent without being too much of a longer - she needs her king and her friends, but will go out and risk herself when she thinks she needs to. I just love her determination and seeing more of her backstory (and how much she evolves in this novel).

While I do think the characters made some obviously stupid decisions - I can forgive them a bit because it brought about THAT ENDING! That ending got this book an extra .5 star for sure. Man my head was racing at the end and now the wait for the next one will surely kill me.

Over all, though it was a long book and maybe on the surface seemed like not a lot happened - it still felt like an emotional rollercoaster. I feel like these characters each evolved and I cannot wait to see what drama and disasters are coming, because these fights have ingenious ways of tackling them.