Published: June 2013
Publisher: Henry Holt & Co.
Pages: 432
Copy: Library
Summary: Goodreads
Hunted across the True Sea, haunted by the lives she took on the Fold, Alina must try to make a life with Mal in an unfamiliar land. She finds starting new is not easy while keeping her identity as the Sun Summoner a secret. She can’t outrun her past or her destiny for long.
The Darkling has emerged from the Shadow Fold with a terrifying new power and a dangerous plan that will test the very boundaries of the natural world. With the help of a notorious privateer, Alina returns to the country she abandoned, determined to fight the forces gathering against Ravka. But as her power grows, Alina slips deeper into the Darkling’s game of forbidden magic, and farther away from Mal. Somehow, she will have to choose between her country, her power, and the love she always thought would guide her--or risk losing everything to the oncoming storm.
I don't know if I am alone in this but I am a very moody reader. By that, I mean that I have to be in the right frame of mind, or mood, to read certain books. This seems to happen especially with books in series. I don't know if it's because I don't want to be disappointed, or because I know what the writing will be like and it's just not what I'm looking for. That said, it took me until now to get to this follow up to Shadow and Bone, which I absolutely loved.
Siege and Storm fell a little bit short for me. It seemed to just coast along, with not too much really happening. We were re-introduced to all the old characters and nothing really special seemed to happen. Yes we also meet some new characters, and I loved Stormhound, but nothing that happened seemed to really pull me in. It was ok, and there are definitely some creepy moments where the Darkling is concerned, but didn't seem to have that breathless quality that Shadow and Bone had....
That is until about 50 pages from the end when all hell breaks loose and I couldn't put the book down. Wow, what an ending. I just loved it. It blew me away in fact - definitely a Storm. It made all the slowness of the rest of the book worthwhile. Now, I can't wait to get my hands on the Ruin and Rising.
I don't know if I'm going to read this one soon are not. I may just wait for it to come out in paperback before I read it, because I didn't really love the first one. But who knows.
ReplyDeleteGreat review and I'm glad you liked it!! And it seems like that's the cause for a lot of sequels. It's slow up until the ending then everything turns to chaos.