BOOK REVIEW: Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

3/5⭐️

❗️This review may contain some spoilers of what happened in the previous book in the trilogy.

I don't know why, but I found the first 75% of this book extremely slow and dragged out. I found myself avoiding the book and having to force myself to pick it up, though while I was busy reading it, it wasn't too bad. It just didn't draw me in, if that makes sense. The last 25% or so of the book was a lot better and there was a lot more happening - thanks to this it pushed the book up to 3⭐️ for me.

I enjoyed the first book in the trilogy more, because I loved learning about the world, the magic system, etc. While this book just felt like a long continuation of the first book with hardly anything new, besides a few new characters, who I think were the only thing that kept me interested.

It starts off with Alina and Mal where they are living in Cofton on the other side of the True Sea from Ravka and hiding away from The Darkling, his army and anyone who might recognise her as the Sun Summoner, after escaping him at the end of Shadow & Bone. The Darkling needs Alina's power to take over the Ravkan throne and is determined to find her. When he eventually finds Alina and Mal, he has become more powerful than he was before, so escaping him a second time would be very difficult or nearly impossible without any help.

As for the characters, I found Mal to be very annoying in this book – he is so insecure and possessive, while Alina was just as frustrating at times, but loved getting to know new characters such as Nikolai, Tolya and Tamar. Their characters were interesting and unpredictable and they really added a lot to the story - I enjoyed the scenes they were in, especially Nikolai. I can definitely see why readers love him. In the first book, The Darkling was my favourite (don't judge😝), but he doesn't feature in this book as much as I'd hoped.

I am hoping that I'll enjoy Ruin and Rising more. I can't wait for the Netflix series and *may have* watched the trailer a few times already 👀