3.75 - 4 stars

The problem with hiring a man who sells his honor is that you can always be outbid.

Surprisingly, I liked this one better than SAB.  This installment did a better job of capturing my attention than previous one did. This book literally started with a bang and ended with a capital BANG! It's splendid and everything from writing to pacing of the plot was much, much better compared fo SAB. It was almost perfect. Few characters that I hated in the last book became bearable. However, there were still tons of characters and troupes and scenes that I utterly, extremely felt disgusted by, especially the Romance between Mal and Alina that progressed into a epitome of cringe.

The Darkling was even less impressive here than he was in the first book, partly because he's hardly present in the book, and partly because of what went down when he was present. And I still don't get it how can someone possibly like him, especially after what he did to..... some important poeple. He is irredeemable and pure evil. Even as a villain he isn't that great. I mean Nobody can be as evil as him or as pure as Alina. Those who ship Alina and Darkling need help.

Nikolai is my new favorite character. Reading him made me so very thirsty for King of scars duology. Nikloai is cunning, smart, charming, self-depreciating, and a badass with proclivity for manipulation and deception. I think he's the one who really made this book interesting for me. I wanted more of him. I would have devoured this series, if he was the main lead.

My mother was an oyster. I'm the pearl.

I'll be starting Ruin and Rising right away.